Wednesday 6 January 2010

"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home'"
- Twyla Tharp

Saturday 2 January 2010

2009: My year in art

Moments that made 2009 for me, in no particular order

Seeing...
1. Nederlands Dans Theater in Silent Screen by Lightfoot Leon. That endless black dress.
2. Ahn Eun-me Dance Company in Let me Change Your Name? as well as Eun-me herself in workshop, screaming, effervescent, incredibly foul-mouthed and lucid
3. T.H.E. Company in Variance, choreography by Kuik Swee Boon and Zhang Xiao-Xiong. The awed silence that preceded the applause of a hall of those who had long watched, waited, taught, danced with, studied from the company on stage. Elated to see some of our own in a modern dance company reaching for the stars.
4. Q&A by Danny K. Dance as artistic statement for and against the institutions.
5. Cake Theatre in the Comedy of the Tragic Goats. Wrenching physical theatre, in deft local hands.
6. Amrita Arts, recreating the sacred heritage of Cambodian classical dance with great humanity.
7. Sidi Larbi and Maria Pages in Dunas.
8. Simon Beale as King Leontes in The Bridge Project performing a Winter's Tale.
9. Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake (on video)
10.Toccata, a collaboration of John Sharpley and Lim Fei Shen.
11. Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux danced by Ashley Bouder and Simon Ball, and the Bournonville Flower Festival at Genzano danced by Iana Salenko and Marian Walter at an Evening with Paloma Herrera and Friends
12. Lifeblood, the glowing tower of Singapore River-water by Twardzik Ching Chor Leng at the Singapore Art Museum.
13. Rosa Park as Odette/Odile in Singapore Dance Theatre's Swan Lake.
14. Three thousand women shouting passionately for feminism at the AWARE Extraordinary General Meeting
15. Stephen Hough playing Tchaikovsky's second piano concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Class with...

16. Aaron Khek
17. Jamal Jalil
18. Maud Toledano
19. Ricky Sim
20. Wee Beng Chong, calligraphy and seal carving
21. John Sharpley, music in dance
22. Maria Luisa Arias of Compania Nacional de Danza (workshop)
23. Kuik Swee Boon (workshop)

Dancing for...

24. Nirmala Seshadri, This and That
25. Larry Clark, Flight
25. Lee Ren Xin, as a synapse, a maggot, mini dinosaur, pillow and who knows what else!
26. Studying excerpts of the Sugar Plum Fairy pas de deux

Listening to...

27. Arvo Part, Fur Alina
28. Yo La Tengo
29. Battles
30. Animal Collective
31. The Analog Girl
32. Angela Hewitt playing the Goldberg Variations
33. The Concord Sonata by Charles Ives

Reading...
34. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
35. A Dragon Apparent by Norman Lewis
36. Joan Acocella in the New Yorker

37. A meal at Jaan par Andre.

38. Creating a collaboration with the brilliant and modest composer Jenny Rompas.

39. My first visit to India, the glorious cacophony of Delhi and new friends made at the World Dance Alliance conference.