#thoughtsofadancerboo

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

musings on artist intentions

Is an understanding of the artist’s intentions required when viewing and subsequently interpreting a piece of art? Is my interpretation any less legitimate if I don’t know what the artist intended to portray?

If artistic intentions are irrelevant, why do people have interviews with artists and writers, or post-show dialogues with the artist?

If someone consider’s the artist’s intentions in viewing an artwork, it means that this person sees the artwork as a product of the artist. Thus, for him, in order to understand the art, you need to understand the artist; just like to understand a person, you need to understand the environment he grew up in/is in.

For someone who completely disregards the artist’s intention, he seen the object as an artwork only because he himself believes it to be so, as in this case, there is no artist to intend the object to be an artwork. The viewer views the artwork in silo, as something separate from its creator.

Is it still a valid interpretation if the artist himself/herself rejects your interpretation?

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

That Which Cannot Be Divided (无法被整除)

Performed at Esplanade Theatre Studio; Watched on 24 February 2019

Some context to this performance: It was a double bill of works that was commissioned by Esplanade Theatres on The Bay. The topic given to the two choreographers was “That Which Cannot Be Divided”, and invited them to explore the subject.

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The Odd One by Albert Tiong

The dancing for this piece was very, very good. The choreography was reminiscent of the Cloud Gate or T.H.E (The Human Expression) Company style, with obvious Chinese dance characteristics in its circularity, and the largely continuous and flowing energy of the choreography. The choreography itself was obviously extremely taxing, but a big kudos to the dancers, whose dancing never faltered throughout the 40-minute piece.

The main (and only) ideas that I gleaned from this piece was the constriction and oppression of society. How does this factor in the theme of division? I don’t really know, but this was an idea that stood out very obviously for me. The piece starts off with a less-than-humanoid looking figure that appears out of the onstage darkness. It seems to be moving. We realise that it is a girl who wears layers and layers of clothes that she struggles to remove. Looking at her, I felt suffocated by the heaps of clothes on her, especially when she visually struggles to remove them. Similarly, the rest of the dancers appear with a long scarf tied quite tightly around their necks, almost like a noose. I saw the clothing items as symbolic of societal expectations, and the metaphor of the dancers’ oppression and suffocation under it became quite obvious.

Other than that idea though, I felt that the piece, for me, was quite non-comprehensive. The lighting and the use of multi-media didn't shed much light on the piece, and all I really felt was disorientation and confusion, which also doesn't illuminate the theme of “That Which Cannot Be Divided”. Even during the post-show dialogue, the choreographer didn’t really shed much light on the subject that he was exploring. He mentioned prime numbers as well, but that idea didn’t really stand out anywhere in the piece to me, other than the number of dancers in each group. Overall, I really enjoyed watching the dancing and the choreograph was beautiful, but the piece ultimately failed to impart much of a message to me.

0 in 1 (自己的自己) by Bulareyaung Pagarlava

To start, I absolutely loved this piece because it presented the essence of the company in 45-minutes. We see the relationships - real, genuine ones - within the company members, their personalities, their Taiwanese indigenous culture, their experiences as a company, and most importantly, their dedication to preserving who they are as individuals, as a company, and as indigenous people to Taiwan.

Choreographers tend to get their dancers to act, to play a role, or they de-individualize them to a certain extent, in order to portray whatever it is they want to portray. However, we don’t see this in Bula’s piece because this work is about them. The dancers appear as themselves onstage, unfiltered. Bula presents them in such a way so at to show that each of their individual personalities is exactly the thing that they themselves cannot be divided from. This overarching idea relates to their individuality as individuals, as a company and as indigenous people.

During the post-show dialogue, Bula shared his shame at being an indigenous person when he was younger, and his realisation and acceptance of the fact that this was who he was, that “Bulareyaung” was his real name, not his sinified one, and this was something that he can never be divided from.

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Esplanade Da:ns Festival: Netherlands Dance Theatre

Performed at Esplanade Theatre; Watched on 14 October 2018.

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This being my first real-live encounter with NDT (my closest encounter being with NDT2 when they toured to Singapore in 2015), I found that the quadruple all they performed drastically altered my initial perception I had of them when I was 14 years old. Somehow, the only piece I remember from NDT2 was Cacti, and from then on I’ve always had the impression of NDT and NDT2 being this quirky contemporary company, but I’ve never noticed the balletic-ness of many of the choreography they performed.

The 4 pieces that NDT presented were definitely drastically different from each other, but what stayed the same throughout would have to be the dancing qualities. I find that NDT dancers were able to exude this enormous yet controlled amount of energy, and the sheer physicality and boundless energy that possessed really brought out their youthfulness.

Shoot The Moon by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot

This was my favourite piece of the night. For me, Shoot The Moon offers a peek into the relationships (and the problems within these relationships) between the 5 characters emulated by the dancers.

This piece stands out among the rest because of its interesting set-up and its use of film. The stage is set like a merry-go-round of 3 rooms, and the audience can only ever see the entirety of one room, or parts of 2 consecutive rooms as the stage transforms. The rooms are set up like the interior of a house, with doors that lead to the other rooms, windows and wallpapered walls. The effect of this set up is that is seems as if we are looking into a dollhouse, intruding into the private lives of these 5 characters. We get to see the tensions and fractures in their relationships behind closed doors, a secret part of their lives that people outside of the house would not be privy too. However, while the audience does get a peek into their lives, we are also distance from it at the same time. While the choreography in itself is highly emotional, the dancers almost seemed dwarfed by the space. Moreover, the fact that the audience knows that the dancer is just a fifth of the entire merry-go-round set up seems to diminish the emotional impact of the choreography; we know that each dancer isn’t the only ones with problems, there are four others. As the room disappears out of sight, we are reminded that the problems that the character faces are just one of many, in terms of the bigger picture. Ultimately, while individual problems may seem emotionally devastating to the character, the audience does not feel that because we see the issues of others as well.

The set-up also creates an interesting dynamic between what is considered “inside” and “outside”. This is particularly applicable to the couple with the affair. To the couple, the “outside” is whatever that is beyond the room within which they dance. When they look out the door or the window, they look outside. If the room can be seen as a metaphor for their relationship, then seeking those outside of the room shows a desire for something outside of the relationship. However, who the stage rotates to present the adjacent room, the initial room is no longer the “inside”, but is now the “outside”. The man in this room is no longer the third party, and the woman is no longer looking outside, but looking inside. Now, this image presents the woman’s desire to enter into a relationship with this man. I think the shifting of the set offers various perspectives of the relationships and its accompanying problems, rather than just a black and white perspective of the situation.

The use of film in this piece is also particularly prominent. A live feed of the dancers are projected onto screens, and since the live feeds are of dancers that cannot be fully or are only partially seen at that moment in time, the live feed provides the audience a different spatial perspective of the action other than the one which is presented to them onstage. One particularly impactful instance was when the live feed of 2 dancers in 2 separate rooms are projected onto each of the 2 screens. We know from our last look at them before they disappeared that both dancers are standing facing away from each other, but on screen, it seems as if they are staring at one another. It’s this sort of use of film and perspective that surprises me and makes one wonder about the reality or the truthfulness of what we are seeing onstage.

I was also mulling over the significance of the title Shoot The Moon. The setting of the piece certainly seems to be at night, with the moonlight that shines through the doors and windows. Nighttime seems to be the most emotionally vulnerable of times, and perhaps a time where cracks and fractures in a relationship start to surface. The moon illuminates the night, maybe mirroring how the stage, which is coincidentally round like a full moon, brings to light problems in a relationship. The title Shoot The Moon reflects a desire to plunge the world into darkness at night so as to hide away these problems and remain blissfully unaware.

Woke Up Blind by Marco Goecke

Personally, I didn’t really like this piece much. I felt it was largely movement whose connections to the songs that was used as the piece’s soundtrack I could not see. The successive solos and duets were or largely similar dynamics, and it got boring fast. The piece was only interesting to me when there were group sections, which were few and far between.

I also could not sense that the piece was about young love and relationships. The choreography ensured that the dancers were mostly doing their own individual thing, and I can't see how the piece can be about relationships when the dancers are so insular.

The Statement by Crystal Pite

The message of The Statement is clear, touching on ideas of power play by governments and within the government itself. A dynamic and exciting piece to watch, The Statement uses text, lighting and choreography based on body language to draw the audience into the dictional storyline in which the piece takes place.

I believe that the theatricality of the piece is what made it so popular among the audience. The dramatic use of lighting, music, text and the gestural elements of the choreography creates a tension-filled, action-packed scene reminiscent of a movie. The theatricality of the piece is also what caused the audience to laugh at times in the piece. Ironically, the issue that is being presented is no laughing matter. The absurdity of the scene stems from how serious it is despite its theatricality. Our knowledge of the world tells us that these situations are happening in real life, and I find myself asking why is it that such a situation, whose absurdity incites laughter in a theatre, be allowed to occur in real life? The Statement is a condemnation of today’s governments that use tragedies and corruption to benefit themselves.

I find it an interesting turn of events when the investigator, a character in the piece, is the one being investigated by his higher-ups in the end. This turning of the tables underline the sensitivity of words, as well as the morbid reality of always having to find someone else to shoulder the blame.

Dancing-wise, the entire choreography possesses this beautifully continuous flow of movement. A churning sort of energy underlies this fluidity, and show how is able to emphasise each movement and its implications, all while retaining a “dance-y” feeling without being too gestural.

The dancing in The Statement largely took place in relation to a large office meeting tables in the middle of the stage, and it reminded me of The Green Table by Kurt Jooss, which had been created in response to World War II, which had been occurring at the time. The Statement is similar in presenting a response to current issues as well. The common use of the table, which brings to mind images of a table used for meetings, s a reminder that the vicious power struggle and the desire to exert control on others does not take place in the wild or on the streets, but at the office tables and in corporate meeting rooms.

Stop-Motion by Sol Leon & Paul Lightfoot

I don't know why, but I didn't write anything concerning this piece in my book (I’m transferring what I wrote word-for-word from my journal to this account), so I guess I will never remember my thoughts on this piece then lol

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Until The Lions by Akram Khan

Performed at the Esplanade Theatre; Watched on 9 October 2018

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“Until the lions have their own historian, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” - An Ugbo Proverb

Although the piece was meant to be based on Amba’s story from the Mahabarata, the portrayal of the characters and the storyline was universal enough to be understood by someone aka me who was not familiar with the story. 

One interesting aspect about the performance would have to be the stage set up. There was a circular raised platform situated in the middle of the stage. It looked almost like the stump of a tree. For me, it symbolised the deep-rooted beliefs about gender that is deeply-embedded in society. Anyone outside of this platform are those on the fringes of society, who don't conform or benefit from the expectations of gender. The lighting is particularly noteworthy as well, shedding light on different areas of the stage set up and bringing to light these various aspects of society and gender.

Characterisation is also of particular importance in this production. For those who do not know the story of Amba, aka me again, the characterisation of the performers helps to highlight the gender issues being explored in the piece. The male dancer, dancing the character Bheeshma, is a typical masculine character. His movements, which seem to be heavily influenced by Southeast Asian dance forms, are similar to the “masculine” movements that are used in Indian or Javanese dances. He is the typical warrior-character that is depicted in the old epics and the story-dances of Southeast Asia.

Amba, on the other hand, is most definitely female. With her long, straight hair being let down, Ching-Ying Chien is the image of youthful feminine innocence. Her white dress alludes to Amba’s chastity, and the red underskirts also pronounces her virginity, or perhaps some hidden passions which she harbours. There is a section in the piece where she dances to the female vocalist’s singing voice. Her movements are reminiscent of those of the Dai female dances in the Xinjiang province in China (which is near India and Pakistan), or those of classical Indian dances that portray female characters. With small stepping motions, pivoting turns and the sideways curvature of her body in an s-shape, the femininity of Amba is blatantly obvious.

The third dancer, who plays Shikhandi, is an interesting one. While danced by a female dancer, her hair is tied up in a bun and she wears pants, the image she cuts a stark contrast to the blatant femininity of Amba. Shikhandi’s movements are a mixture of the strength of Bheeshma and the fluidity of Amba, with an underlying animalism to it. This third character is strong, lithe, graceful and powerful. For me, she is a representation of the androgynous, perhaps the third sex, which is an idea not foreign to Southeast Asian literature anyway. Despite its roots in tradition, the idea of a third sex is still shunned today - people fear things that are different from them - and this is where the animalistic nature of Shikhandi’s character comes in. She’s almost half-human, half-beast as she runs on all fours, prowls or backtracks. She dances largely outside of the platform, on the fringes of a society made up of the straight up feminine or masculine. She’s almost an animal in society's eyes, as anyone who is not considered “fully human” is relegated to the binary opposing role of “beast”

There were countless aspects of this production that stuck with me, such as the use of long sticks within the choreography, the stage breaking in the middle of the performance etc. Ultimately, my main takeaways from this production are the representation of genders, and the idea that women can take power when the masculine female is allowed to rise.

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

I am still unsure about what dance films are all about. But I think I am starting to see the beauty of it.

I also realised that sometimes, there isn’t really a need to try to deduce a deeper meaning, or the artist’s intended message. While there might be a message hidden in the piece, perhaps it is more important to appreciate what you see in the moment before trying to gain a meaning, for dance is a visual and kinaesthetic art form. Maybe that is what we must observe and take note of first, before considering anything else.

(I don’t know what I’m saying)

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Masterpiece in Motion by Singapore Dance Theatre

Performed at Esplanade Theatre; Watched on ???

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Masterpiece in Motion is home-grown company Singapore Dance Theatre’s annual repertory showcase, featuring both classical and non-classical works. This year, the triple bill includes Schubert Symphony by Goh Choo San, Age of Innocence by Edwaard Liang and the company premiere of Symphony in Three Movements by Nils Christe.

Principal Rosa Park’s pas de deux with another guy (I don’t know who it was) also showed their great partnership and trust with each other, with multiple complicated lifts.

Lastly, the company premiere of Symphony in Three Movements, set to Igor Stravinsky’s creation of the same name about the horrors of World War 2, was similar to the music in the theme of war. The dancers, clad in black, simple costumes, attempt to show the agony of war.

Personally, Christe’s neo-classical/contemporary style was not raw enough to effectively convey the emotions of a society stuck in a war. It was only until the last few moments of the piece, where the male dancers switched lines with their hands over their heads, resembling trench warfare, and where the male dancers leopard crawled out of the wings and started running across the stage, when the emotions came. A scene of men fighting in the war, leading to their probable death. Nothing else can show the fear and horrors of war better than this.

The dancers’ ability to switch between the different dance styles between the three pieces are admirable, and showcases the flexibility of Singapore Dance Theatre. SDT prides itself on encompassing both classical and contemporary repertoires, and it is heart-warming to see a local ballet company having such varied repertoires. The increase in Singaporean dancers within the company in the past few years is also a big step for the local ballet scene in Singapore, and hopefully there will be more Singaporean dancers in the years to come.

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty

Performed at the Esplanade Theatre; Watched twice on ????

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I actually watched Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty TWICE from the same row of seats (super coincidental). I didn’t like it a lot, because I watched his Swan Lake and absolutely LOVED it so my expectations were way up there.

For over a century, Marius Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty has been one of the basics of classical ballet repertoire in companies all over the world, as well as a renowned one for being one of the three ballets composed by Tchaikovsky. Award-winning choreographer Matthew Bourne of New Adventures puts his own unique spin on the century-old ballet, bringing his Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty to Singapore after a highly successful tour of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake in 2014.

The music by Tchaikovsky was still retained throughout Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauy (MBSB), connecting this more contemporary take on Sleeping Beauty to the 1890 version. The story, although vastly different in adding vampires and secret childhood sweethearts to the mix, still keeps the backbone of a hundred-year sleep and true love’s kiss. After Aurora pricks her finger on a rose planted by the late Carrabosse’s son, Cadorac, the whole castle goes on shut down. Count Lilac, the vampiric version of the Lilac Fairy, turns Aurora’s secret sweetheart, the garden boy Leo, into a vampire so that he can wake Aurora up with true love’s kiss after the hundred-year wait. Romantic.

It is 2011 and Vampire Leo enters the castle after a hundred-year intermission (cue laughter from audience), and goes through the Land of the Sleepwalkers. He manages to enter Aurora’s bedroom, in which Cadorac lies in wait. Cadorac brings Leo to a sleeping Aurora, whom Leo kisses. But alas, Cadorac’s minions grab hold of Leo and drag him away, while Cadorac pretends that he was the one who woke her up. With the hundred-year wait, it seems sensible that Cadorac fell in love with an unconscious Aurora as well.

Leo and Count Lilac try to save her by gatecrashing Cadorac’s vampire cult wedding to Aurora. Count Lilac manages to stab Cadorac while Leo grabs Aurora and escapes. Eventually, the two are reunited. Leo and Aurora get into a bed while fairies/vampires hover at the sides, and emerge with Aurora as a vampire and a flying vampire child. And they lived happily ever after.

The dancing was, obviously, remarkable, with an exceptional performance from Count Lilac. The execution of the balances, pirouettes, attitude turns had breathtaking suspension, visible even through the bulky 19th century costumes, and was performed beautifully.

Aurora, a free-spirited soul, happier barefoot than in shoes, is an Isadora Duncan-like figure. Her youth and spunk is a breath of fresh air compared to the dark and stuffy Act I.

Aurora and Leo’s relationship is like that of a first love. They’re happy, giggly, and totally in love (Seriously, they’re RS goals). It’s adorable. The MBSB’s Rose Adagio is an obvious example of their happy relationship: Leo pretends to be angry that Aurora danced with other men at her coming-of-age fancy tea party, and she teasingly cajoles him out of his tantrum. They dance around each other fluidly and it’s a physicalization of their relationship – free and easy.

The sets and costumes for MBSB was beautiful – 19th century dresses and tunics for the vampires in Act 1, and white summer frocks and vests for the men and women in Act 2. The stage is designed with attention given to minute detail – rose hedges, balconies, big windows and a dream-like forest. Nothing was left out and the effect of the set gave the feeling that one was actually in the scene itself.

The timeline of the story was very interestingly placed. Act 1 opens in 1890, which coincidentally is the year in which Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty was first performed, and the vampires come to bestow their wishes onto baby Aurora. The choreography is largely classically based, an acknowledgement of the time period as well as Petipa’s Sleepng Beauty. Act 2 then goes to 1911, and the guests at Aurora’s coming-of-age dance Waltz-inspired social dances. Fast-forward a hundred years, and the vampires at the cult wedding carry out quirky-looking choreography, perhaps a glimpse into the future. The way Bourne played around with the timeline allowed him to explore different historical influences in his choreography, as well as gave Lez Brotherston, in-charge of set and costume design, a lot of room to work with different designs for different time periods.

However, despite having more than enough room to play around with the choreography, MBSB’s choreography was largely unremarkable and unmemorable, especially compared to his Swan Lake, which was performed in Singapore in 2014.

Right from Act 1, Aurora was shown as a girl with lots of spunk and tenacity. I expected the story to be more of a “the girl can save herself” sort of story. However, once she becomes unconscious, the story then follows Leo and his mission to save Aurora from the curse. Even after the curse was lifted, we didn’t get to see any more of Aurora’s personality. The story started out with a “strong, independent woman” vibe, but it went downhill fast, until Aurora just becomes someone in the background compared to Leo.

The ending is also quick and abrupt: Leo saves Aurora, they have sex behind a curtain and emerge with a baby. The end. And they lived happily ever after. Personally, I felt that it was just “lazy writing”, a way to end the story quickly and with a happy ending.

Overall, MBSB is a lovely time travel through a hundred or so years, with multiple references to different time periods through the choreography, the costumes and the sets. However, the storyline doesn’t elicit any strong emotions, nor is the choreography particularly exceptional.

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Life’s A Stage by Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Dance Theatre

Performed at the theatre at the National Library; Watched on ????

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Overall, I felt a bit disappointed. Not in the dancing itself, because it was really good, but in the other artistic elements of the whole 2-hour piece. I felt that as one on the leading Chinese Dance companies in Singapore, the way they pieced together the story as well as the different artistic elements should have been better. I did write a review for it, as usual, and I’ll be uploading it in this post as well, so you can see my qualms, as well as my praises, for Life’s A Stage.

Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Dance Theatre’s orginal dance drama, “Life’s a Stage”, premiered on 15 July 2016 at the Drama Centre Theatre. Weaving elements of story-telling with Chinese dance and Chinese opera as well as other artistic elements, “Life’s a Stage” follows the life story of Chinese opera performers and lovers Sai Yu and Ah Hua.

Sai Yu, one of the star performers in an opera troupe, was convinced by Zhu Hong, a singer at a nightclub, to switch careers and left the troupe. She joins Zhu Hong to work in the nightclub. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worst when a gang leader sets his sights on Sai Yu. Ah Hua and Ah Fu, another member of the opera troupe, rushes to save her but are beaten up by gang members. Sai Yu is drugged and the gang leader takes advantage of her. In his misery, Ah Hua turns to opium smoking. Ah Fu finds him and encourages him to save Sai Yu.

Sai Yu tries to kill herself, but is saved by Ah Hua. Reunited, the couple start an amateur opera troupe “so as to pass down this Chinese traditional culture”. A now-elderly Sai Yu brings her grandsons and young students to visit the troupe. The show ends with an opera performance by Sai Yu and Ah Hua, who “hope to be able to pass down valuable Chinese ethics and virtues, as well as inculcate in the younger generation a need to preserve, promote and pass down this art and culture” through their performances.

Plot-wise, the dance drama was very heavy; the whole story was similar to that of dramatic Chinese soap operas. As is characteristic of drama series, the unluckiness of Sai Yu as well as the despair of Ah Hua was extremely over-dramatized. As Singaporeans would say, everything was so drama. Ah Hua smokes opium instead of trying to save Sai Yu. Sai Yu tries to kill herself. Although it might happen in real life, and maybe even more so in 1950s Singapore, this plot line greatly gravitated away from the supposed essence of the dance drama – Chinese opera.

Additionally, with the exception of the starting and ending scenes, the opera troupe was not mentioned at all. The entire storyline has nothing to do with the need to “preserve, promote and pass down” Chinese opera.

Moreover, the soundscape’s transitions and endings left a sour taste in my mouth. The music was made to fade away abruptly and it didn’t sit well with me.

But on to the good things.

I was particularly impressed with the second scene, which was the opening of the story. It showed the training and rehearsals at the opera troupe, and in the process showcased different forms of classical Chinese dance, such as dances using the Water Sleeves and handkerchiefs, as well as both male and female classical Chinese dance vocabulary. The dancers’ natural acts were spot on, and even when there were accidents during the handkerchief portions, the dancers played it off smoothly, acting like it was part of the choreography.

One dancer in particular stood out to me a lot. Zhang Xiaoqi, who plays Zhu Hong, was the perfect combination of beauty, grace and allure. Dancing in heels is no easy feat, much less dancing Chinese dance, and Zhang Xiaoqi still manages to play her role convincingly and look so, so good doing it. (You go, girl!)

Despite the holes within the plotline, I believe that the original intention was to promote the appreciation and continuation of all traditional Chinese art forms, not necessarily only Chinese dance and Chinese opera. With these art forms slowly dying out, I believe that it is essential to preserve this part of Chinese culture, which also plays a large part in the history of the art scene in Singapore.