tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20403324696549591662024-03-13T20:33:27.830+08:00oddpuppydancing's not for sissiesszehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.comBlogger133125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-76281668027901958062017-12-27T23:06:00.002+08:002017-12-27T23:06:44.210+08:00Sze's dance updates Dec 2017 + Fundraising AppealDear Friends,<br /><br />Happy Holidays! It's been a challenging past
year in my artistic life. I'm grateful to have learned a lot by doing
much with little, about the importance of friends, networks and the
beautiful spirit of mutual support across different fields of the arts
community in Singapore.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" class="ox-24a30c4826-aspect-ratio" height="241" id="fe36904641b248fe9c5ccd8f44853f2c@Open-Xchange" src="https://privateemail.com/appsuite/api/image/mail/picture?folder=default0%2FSent&id=123&uid=fe36904641b248fe9c5ccd8f44853f2c%40Open-Xchange" style="height: 241px; max-width: 100%; width: 362px;" width="362" /><br />
<br /><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Producing - and an appeal for support</span></strong><br />
<br />
My
biggest leap this past year is as producer for my own work and an
international tour. In 2015, I created an interactive performance work
with Chilean dancer Gabriela Serani. "Talk to me and I slap you" was
supported in residency and premiere by a small theatre festival in
Zagreb. It is a high-stakes work where we challenged ourselves to reach
into questions about the dynamics of violence, fear and loneliness in
relationships. Whether it is the relationship of the performer to the
audience, or relationships of love, family or power. We had one packed
performance at midnight in a Zagreb bar. The connection with the
audience was electric. A critic said we could be “a perfect mirror to
the hopeless shortcomings of our present social condition.”<br />
<br />
Since
then, it has been one and a half years of networking and applications
trying to get this work shown in the UK (where we were based together
previously) and Asia. Finally, we have a chance to redevelop this work
for audiences in Singapore and Bangkok in February 2018. I will be
self-producing this work at the Substation on 24-25 February 2018. We
have a little support from the Singapore National Arts Council, but this
and ticket sales will only cover 25% of our production costs. We have
also been invited by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/democrazystudio/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Democrazy Theatre Studio</a>
in Bangkok - but too late to apply for institutional funding for
travel. We are currently $10,000 short of our total tour budget.<br />
Details
of our production and fundraising campaign are at the link below. We'd
be very grateful for any support in cash or in kind (accommodation, air
miles, printing, personnel support etc), or your recommendation of this
production and fundraising campaign to your network. I'd like to
acknowledge the amazing support and advice that I've received so far
from venues, fellow artists and producers in Singapore, Bangkok and
Manila.<br />
<br />
(If you prefer an alternative channel to online credit card donations, please contact me.)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sze-and-gabi-s-southeast-asia-tour-2018-dance/a1c0/3046203" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sze-and-gabi-s-southeast-asia-tour-2018-dance/a1c0/3046203</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><img alt="" class="ox-24a30c4826-aspect-ratio" height="163" id="f10151ff40b8445dbb1256adff6694d2@Open-Xchange" src="https://privateemail.com/appsuite/api/image/mail/picture?folder=default0%2FSent&id=123&uid=f10151ff40b8445dbb1256adff6694d2%40Open-Xchange" style="height: 163px; max-width: 100%; width: 287px;" width="287" /></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></strong>
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dance films</span></strong><br />
<br />
Following
on from my Video Dance residency in the first half of 2017, I've had
the immense privilege to be invited to work with the <a href="http://cinemovement.sg/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Cinemovement</a>
collective, a group of outstanding Singapore filmmakers and
choreographers. Through residencies in Macau and Taiwan this year, I
have two new short films in the oven. One of them features some gorgeous
original music by Melbourne psych-folk band Cold Hands Warm Heart. The
films will appear mid next year, resources willing... a fundraising
story for another time. <wbr></wbr><br />
<br />
In the meantime my 2017
micro-short ode to the kopitiam "Tea Dances" was featured in the
official selections of Danca em Foco (Brazil), the Outlet Dance Project
Film Festival (New Jersey) and Greensboro Dance Film Festival (North
Carolina). It still hasn't found interest in Singapore, but maybe next
year! <br />
<br />
(Photo: Epiphyte. Dancer: Jereh Leong. Photo/Cinematography: Looi Wan Ping)<br />
<br /><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">MARK and SIFA</span></strong><br />
January
through August 2017, I was involved as documentarian and online
publicist in an ambitious site-specific dance project by Daniel Kok and a
cast of nine talented dancers and actors for the Singapore
International Festival of the Arts. It was an intellectually juicy and
creatively satisfying chance to play as a dancer in a photographic and
video documentary capacity. The production photos and video trailers for
the production can be viewed on our Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MARKatSIFA2017/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dance Advocacy</span></strong><br />
My work with the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1620565094862088/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Working Group for Dancers Advocacy</a>
continues. As the year closes we're trying to get more responses for
our surveys on the working conditions of dance educators and
performers/choreographers to finally get some hard stats on the
challenges facing dancers in Singapore. If you are a dancer or know any
professional dancers here, we're very grateful if you can spread the
word! In 2018 we will be running a series of practical workshops for
dancers on essential skills for a sustainable career.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Some writing from this past 6 months</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><a href="https://artsequator.com/platform-chowk-kalaa-utsavam/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">“from: The Platform” by Chowk Productions: A Running Imprint on the Mind</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><a href="https://artsequator.com/review-guilty-landscapes-sifa-2017/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Easy Trigger of “Guilty Landscapes III”</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><br />
Here's to a good 2018 and new adventures. <br />
<br />
Love,<br />
Szeszehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-15656597547074713212017-06-05T23:59:00.003+08:002017-06-05T23:59:42.677+08:00The smallest movement becomes tectonic<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}">
"The smallest movement becomes tectonic."<br />
<br />
I am excited for <a href="http://kirankumar.work/" target="_blank">Kiran Kumar</a>
and <a href="http://rawmoves.net/" target="_blank">Raw Moves</a> for this weekend's Archipelago Archives
installation-performance. Chatting with Kiran about his extended
research project over several years into the junction of moving cultures
between India and Indonesia has been fascinating. Wish I could be there
to see this live.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?e=&u=473fca3c1f7d4afd192b2c2af&id=f01e31560f" target="_blank">Archipelago Archives Exhibit #3: If I could set with the sun</a><br />
9 & 10 June 2017 <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/473fca3c1f7d4afd192b2c2af/images/fe8329eb-dc90-4ca9-ae41-62ecf45ada43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="800" height="226" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/473fca3c1f7d4afd192b2c2af/images/fe8329eb-dc90-4ca9-ae41-62ecf45ada43.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-29409391948186310312017-05-29T22:21:00.000+08:002017-05-29T22:21:53.763+08:00artistic concerns
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I was looking through some old archives tonight. I found my resignation letter from the civil service, and I found this MA programme application that I wrote in 2013. Or rather, re-wrote as an exercise, after my application was rejected. I had some brutal but essential advice back then from Danny K, that I was giving a very poor account of my practice and needed to put more effort into it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what did I think I was doing? What do I think I am doing? To go through this much struggle and sacrifice, I'd better know, hadn't I? I'm sorry Mum, I know you're still frustrated every time someone asks you what your artist daughter does. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These things are actually the hardest thing for me to come up with. Improvise from nothing in front of an audience? Eulogy for my grandmother's funeral? No problem. But synopsis of work, artistic statement.... the task makes me want to stab myself. Please try describing concisely why you exist. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, I had to try. I read this now and I see myself flailing and pretending. It's also still surprisingly accurate. In 2017 I'm still flailing, but maybe with sharper knives. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
_______________________________________________________________________________________________</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2 - In light of your current situation, you could bring up
issues related to your artistic concerns? Have you already identified one or
more objects of research?<br />
(2500 characters maximum)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is the status of the individual in social organization,
and how do we survive the systems and automatisms that we have created? We now
have vast machineries, complicated institutions and modern rituals - urban
living in particular has a quality of hyper-inflated reality where we try and
insulate ourselves from discomfort and imperfection as much as possible. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this frame the human life becomes so
small.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am frustrated and interested in
both the system and the powerlessness that devolves to the individual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The vain search for plastic perfection, how
our systems re-create and process our lives, our modern incantations against
pain and boredom, inequality and obliviousness, the need to remember and to be
distracted and to forget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a safe
space in which we enjoy TV, cinema, downloads, proscenium theatre, even the
life in front of us in the myopia of handphone photographs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Seeking these themes, I feel a great impetus to make work
from and in the cities of Asia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I see
the tensions of societies in development, the ever growing disparities of rich
and poor, urban and rural, all painted in wildly auspicious colours. Singapore
is one such place where comfort is cultivated amongst constant fear, a trope of
madness and artificiality ripe for exploration. I continue to travel across
Asia and Europe, exploring, creating and supporting production of dance and
festivals. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my current phase of creation I am exploring the emotional
and intuitive resonances of these questions through improvisation, structured
scores, spatial relationships, found text and my own writing. I know I am no
longer thinking about creating something new as much as crafting filters with
which to read the situations that I want to address – as well as the spaces and
people that are already around me as collaborators and audience – a context
that changes constantly. Working through the immediacy of physical and
emotional responses, I’d like to confection performances to be so close that
they are in your mouth, delightful yet disturbing. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have done more than half of my work in the last two years with
some degree of collaboration with partners or collectives including dancers,
actors, composers and sound designers from different backgrounds and
nationalities. The processes have been easy as well as difficult, but I
continue to work this way for the impetus that I get from collisions and
leakages from association with other artists, and realizing the differences
between us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This energy feeds back into
my solo work and research.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the same time I am following another track of body
research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having studied a number of
dance forms both “Western” and “Asian”, classical, traditional, contemporary, street,
martial arts and improvisation, I try to approach movement languages and their
interrelations with an appreciation of context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First their meeting points in history, geography, and hierarchy, but
also at an intuitive level their meeting points in the body - an instrument
that has its own systems of integration and which when sensitized, learns to
recognize the borrowings and transfers of physical knowledge that have seeped
across cultures and through time - the body remembers things we don’t even
know.</div>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Of
the two tracks of society and the body, it’s the anger in my understanding of
the former that keeps me wanting to make work right now. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I accept that this is perhaps not the time at
which the two tracks can be forced together, but I expect that they may grow to
a fruitful intersection.<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span>
szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-68207112072547076902017-04-30T16:16:00.004+08:002017-04-30T16:16:35.044+08:00Sze's Dance Updates May 2017Dear friends,<br />
<br />
Hello, hope everyone is well! I've spent the
past few months mainly in artistic research, teaching and advocacy with
the Working Group for Dancers' Advocacy. I'm writing to share some
recent writing on Artsequator.com, and upcoming performances and
workshops.<br />
<br />
<strong>Upcoming: I'm performing </strong><br />
<strong> </strong><br />
<a href="http://www.lasalle.edu.sg/events/signs-of-a-nest-an-installation-by-susan-sentler/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><em>Signs of a Nest</em> by Susan Sentler</a><br />
<span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_4n-j ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_3cht ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-fsl">Thursday 4 May, 12:00 noon – 7:00 pm<br /> Friday 5 May, 12:00 noon – 9:00 pm<br /> Brother Joseph McNally Gallery, LASALLE College of the Arts<br /> Admission free<br /> <br />
This work by Susan Sentler, lecturer in LASALLE’s School of Dance &
Theatre, reflects on signs that are becoming lost in their material
sense, only to be held in virtual images. These images resonate in the
landscape of our bodily memory and recall material traces. 'Signs of a
nest' explores ‘nesting’ as an abstracted, repeated ritual, triggered by
such images.</span><br />
<span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_4n-j ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_3cht ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-fsl">(Valerie
Lim, Yarra Ileto and I are rotating as performers in this installation.
If you'd like to catch me, please contact me closer to the date and
I'll let you know when I'll be there.)</span><br />
<span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_4n-j ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_3cht ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-fsl"><br /></span>
<strong>Upcoming: My Work-in-progress and workshops</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1264399870310097/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Seeing with the Body: Videolab 2</a><span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_4n-j ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_fbReactionComponent__eventDetailsContentTags ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-fsl"></span><span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_4n-j ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_fbReactionComponent__eventDetailsContentTags ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-fsl"><br /> 28 May 2017 (Sunday)<br /> Dance Nucleus Studio, Goodman Arts Centre<span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-text_exposed_show"><br /> 1:00pm to 5:00pm</span></span><br />
<span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_4n-j ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_fbReactionComponent__eventDetailsContentTags ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-fsl"><span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-text_exposed_show">How
does the body understand its meetings with the city? How do those
meetings become visual and tactile? Experience a collection of
in-progress dance films and video installations by Chan Sze-Wei, Susan
Sentler, Faye Lim, Chen Jiexiao and others.<br /> This showing is in the
format of a drop-in open studio. Come by and the artists will introduce
their works and be available for discussion.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1660231734271627/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Seeing with the Body: Collective Making</a><br />
<span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_4n-j ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_3cht ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-fsl">Facilitated by Chan Sze-Wei.<br /> 2 June 2017 (Friday)<span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-text_exposed_show"><br /> Dance Nucleus Studio, Goodman Arts Centre<br /> 10:00 am to 5:00 pm<br /> Fees: Give-what-you-can<br /> Limited to 15 pax, <a href="http://bit.ly/collectivemaking" rel="noopener" target="_blank">register here</a></span></span><span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_4n-j ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_3cht ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-fsl"><span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-text_exposed_show">A
full day workshop where dancers and film-makers will work alongside
each other, starting from moving with the body, to shooting, editing and
commenting on each others' work. Bring and share your knowledge and
diverse experiences. Open to all levels of experience. Where
possible,please bring a video recording device (e.g. video camera,
compact camera, smartphone) and a laptop for video editing (anything
form Final Cut Pro/Adobe Premiere to iMovie). </span></span> <strong><span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_4n-j ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-_3cht ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-fsl"><span class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-text_exposed_show"><br /> </span></span></strong><br />
<strong>Some recent snapshots of my recent work made possible through the ELEMENT residency at the Dance Nucleus Singapore:</strong><br />
<strong> </strong><br />
<strong><em>Curse of the Pontianak: Hags have more fun</em></strong>
at Co:lab, commissioned by the Esplanade Library and the Asian Film
Archive, 18 March 2017. Yes, that's clips from the 1958 classic
Cathay-Keris film <em>Sumpah Pontianak</em>. And a lady flying on my feet.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-aspect-ratio" height="295" id="b5c3890f79ff4b6b80f4c216fc4ef0c1@Open-Xchange" src="https://privateemail.com/appsuite/api/image/mail/picture?folder=default0%2FINBOX&id=81&uid=b5c3890f79ff4b6b80f4c216fc4ef0c1%40Open-Xchange" style="height: 295px; max-width: 100%; width: 427px;" width="427" /><br />
<br />
<em><strong>Talk to me and I slap you</strong> </em>(installation, work in progress). Featuring Gabi Serani.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" class="ox-8e3c506a86-ox-5289277d00-aspect-ratio" height="351" id="5ff56e4d9bc44851a01b8d9e232d8ec0@Open-Xchange" src="https://privateemail.com/appsuite/api/image/mail/picture?folder=default0%2FINBOX&id=81&uid=5ff56e4d9bc44851a01b8d9e232d8ec0%40Open-Xchange" style="height: 351px; height: 351px; max-width: 100%; width: 260px; width: 260px;" width="260" /><br />
<br />
<strong><em>Tea Dances</em></strong>, short film featuring Wee Li-N, hopefully accepted for festivals and showing soon!<br />
<br />
<img alt="" class="ox-8e3c506a86-aspect-ratio" height="246" id="d598c5827bac4f0bb8663a9228982107@Open-Xchange" src="https://privateemail.com/appsuite/api/image/mail/picture?folder=default0%2FINBOX&id=81&uid=d598c5827bac4f0bb8663a9228982107%40Open-Xchange" style="height: 246px; max-width: 100%; width: 437px;" width="437" /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>I began writing for the new Southeast Asian arts blog ArtsEquator last year:</strong><br />
<strong> </strong><br />
<a href="https://artsequator.com/chowk-dance-pallavi-in-time/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">"Pallavi in Time" by CHOWK: Seductive Virtuosity</a> - A review of Singapore-based CHOWK/Raka Maitra's latest production, Apr 2017<br />
<br />
<a href="https://artsequator.com/mattie-horror-film-ballet/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Mattie Do: Horror Film? It's all Ballet</a> - Conversation with Lao horror filmmaker, Dec 2016<br />
<br />szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-7939219968788539252017-04-27T16:20:00.000+08:002017-04-30T16:21:04.261+08:00"Pallavi in Time" by CHOWK: Seductive Virtuosity<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gWDa_u4KJjU/WQWeDjQN2tI/AAAAAAAABkI/l163zS7k6YMAs-RWFht9T4Fua2t277FSgCLcB/s1600/Chowk_PallaviinTime_Esplanade2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gWDa_u4KJjU/WQWeDjQN2tI/AAAAAAAABkI/l163zS7k6YMAs-RWFht9T4Fua2t277FSgCLcB/s400/Chowk_PallaviinTime_Esplanade2.jpg" width="278" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Bernie Ng. Courtesy of Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay</td></tr>
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This was one of those rare occasions where I realise that I’m watching
an important work of art. A discovery, a risk, a breakthrough, that will
influence my aesthetic and many others’ for years to come.<br />
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Read at <a href="http://artsequator.com/">ArtsEquator.com</a> - <a href="https://artsequator.com/chowk-dance-pallavi-in-time/">https://artsequator.com/chowk-dance-pallavi-in-time/</a><br />
<br />szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-23698717968282742342017-04-22T17:18:00.000+08:002017-04-22T17:18:08.552+08:00Safe studios and stagesThis is so important. It makes me think of the times i excitedly
plunged myself into choreographers' request that put me in the position
of strong female who was then raped or violated. And then the work i
directed myself, to have a male collaborator crush and subdue me, and
participatory work where the audience could potentially do anything to
the performers, or when a one to one performer triggered the audience -
leaving a couple of my collaborators shaking and in tears whi<span class="text_exposed_show">le
i was thrilled at the "audience engagement". I didn't think then of
the potentially traumatic effects on myself, on my collaborators, or the
audience. I wanted the job then, so badly. From my privileged position,
I wanted to be the fearless one known to be able to provoke and stir.
My techniques as a past support group facilitator could open up
"vulnerability is strength" in myself and others. </span><br />
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I now see that some of this was quite terrible. I started to look at
the ethical complexity of audience manipulation. I still think subjects
of violence, pain and discrimination are important to talk about. I'm
trying to learn how to direct more compassionately. I'm looking for
better ways to incorporate trigger warnings in workshops, rehearsals and
performance work that reach for intimately personal spaces. I'm looking
for ways to preserve my own emotional and psychological health too. I'm
grateful to my collaborators whom i directed in participatory pieces
over the years and my workshop participants. Thank you... And I'm sorry
where it was too much...and Please, let's keep talking. About how we can
go to meaningful and electrifying places with safety and with humanity.<br />
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<a href="https://www.intimacydirectorsinternational.com/single-post/2017/04/10/Killing-Desdemona-Creating-Safe-Spaces-for-Dangerous-Work" target="_blank">Killing Desdemona: Creating Safe Spaces for Dangerous Work</a><br />
by Alicia Rodis, on Intimacy Directors International <br />
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szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-53386020010036451302017-03-21T12:56:00.001+08:002017-03-21T12:56:40.477+08:00“I spent a great deal of my life being ignored. I was always very happy that way. Being ignored is a great privilege. That is how I think I learnt to see what others do not see and to react to situations differently. I simply looked at the world, not really prepared for anything.”Saul Leiter szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-24604582483214982642016-12-19T16:24:00.000+08:002017-04-30T16:25:30.299+08:00Mattie Do: Horror Film? It's all ballet.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vIo3wsAwdjE/WQWfCHs2dsI/AAAAAAAABkQ/XAmtQHies8kG60g9VR4EORL-kw4WxLqPACLcB/s1600/Chris-Larsen_DearestSisterFilmStill1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vIo3wsAwdjE/WQWfCHs2dsI/AAAAAAAABkQ/XAmtQHies8kG60g9VR4EORL-kw4WxLqPACLcB/s400/Chris-Larsen_DearestSisterFilmStill1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still from Dearest Sister. Photo by Mart Ratassepp</td></tr>
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Many things have been written about Mattie Do, the pioneering female
film director from Laos. She’s put her country’s horror films on the
world festival map. She wears international laurels including the BFI
London Film Festival and is an alumni of the Cannes Film Festival’s Les
Cinemas du Monde with a sassy badass sense of humour and glamorous
heels. But I’m curious about the intersection of Mattie the director
and Mattie the ballerina, whom I met five years ago at a small dance
festival in Vientiane, and in whose living room I practiced tendus and
jetes with a home-made barre.<br />
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Read at <a href="https://artsequator.com/mattie-horror-film-ballet/" target="_blank">ArtsEquator</a> szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-51762550738742741592016-11-21T23:14:00.000+08:002016-11-21T23:15:22.954+08:00Coming HomeFormal training in dance school is a mixed experience for many people. Stepping into the studio and theatre where you have spent every waking hour (or every waking hour commuting to) for three years brings a surge of memories. For me, camaraderie and excitement, but also tears, pain, disappointment, humiliation and a lot of anger.<br />
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There's a new dance alumni performance platform at NAFA opening this weekend. Talking about it with my former schoolmates Pam, Gretel and Viv brought a lot of those memories back. </div>
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I recall that there was always so much to fight for. Fighting to be seen in auditions and exams, fighting injuries and exhaustion, self-doubt when toiling along at the back of the class, frustration as an understudy with no chance of being put on stage. Fighting for my choreographies when they weren't making the passing mark. What I was most grateful for was that instead of the cut-throat jealousy and pettiness that you see on "Centre Stage" or "Step Up", the dancers I went to school with were really a caring bunch. We knew that we were in it together. As our class size shrunk over three years, we cheered each other on and comforted each other when we were struggling with injury or getting a shelling from terrifying teachers (for our own good). We trusted each other to stay in time, to catch us when we jumped, and to know the combination so that if we blanked out we could copy it out of the corner of an eye.</div>
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In a competitive professional setting after graduation, I must say that sometimes it seemed like those deep bonds were one of the few comforting things to hang on to when I felt like an absolute nobody. Today, it is also nice to know that the positive vibes transcended different years. When I meet a more experienced dancer and discover we were both from the same school, it usually occasions a friendly chat, the sense that yes, you too had enough toughness and love for the form to survive! </div>
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So when she was asked to support the new platform, Gretel took time out from other commitments and volunteered to be part of the organising committee alongside Max Chen, Peter Teo, Pamela Leong and Viv Phua. The title 归 ("Gui", loosely translating as "home coming" or "return") was chosen because it carried a strong sense of belonging and physical return. That sense of solidarity was very important for Gretel. "I feel like our local industry has much talent, but we're all seemingly on our own journey. So why not pool resources, ideas, friendships, to contribute to something bigger?" </div>
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I am aware that the camaraderie can translate as clique-ish exclusivity for some of my professional dance colleagues who have not come from a conservatory-style background. It does trouble me sometimes, and I question what it means to declare that I am proud to be an arts school graduate. For sure, this isn't the only way to come to this vocation. It's a very specific mode of training, and <a href="http://oddpuppies.blogspot.sg/2011/08/one-journey-ends-and-another-begins.html" target="_blank">a huge test of commitment</a>. I'd hope that this new platform doesn't perpetuate the same kind of discrimination that some dancers feel they experience while in training.</div>
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Viv recalls that not everybody gets a chance to show their performing or choreographic potential while they're in their formative years. There are only so many solos and competitions to go around. A microcosm of the professional world, the selection for parts is unavoidably subject to highly subjective preferences of the choreographer or director. Sometimes X-factor isn't apparent until the dancer strikes out on their own after graduation. Viv was motivated by the knowledge that the pieces would be created by alumni passionate about their work, and that there was an inclusive spirit in the open call for alumni dancers. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aKhaSp3aBZg/WDMN4Z5AbqI/AAAAAAAABNg/70FE1x7xsMAamUbyohR3_uqd5S2oaYu7ACLcB/s1600/gui.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aKhaSp3aBZg/WDMN4Z5AbqI/AAAAAAAABNg/70FE1x7xsMAamUbyohR3_uqd5S2oaYu7ACLcB/s400/gui.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rehearsal photo by Jeff Low. Dancers Mus Fitri Suhaimi and Natasha Neo.</td></tr>
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The performance comprises five new pieces, choreographed by Elizabeth Lee, Seow Yi Qing, Goh Jiayin, Kenneth Tan and Wiing Liu. Gretel is excited about the ways in which the programme challenges and overturns our notions of dance in different ways. At a recent full rehearsal of the show programme, Pam was moved to tears. "Not because the pieces are sad but rather, I'm so proud of everyone." </div>
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<i>"Gui", 25-26 November 2017 at the NAFA Campus 3 Studio Theatre. Email <a href="mailto:nafadancealumni@gmail.com">nafadancealumni@gmail.com</a> for tickets.</i></div>
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szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-87251488320743585232016-11-19T00:06:00.000+08:002016-11-19T00:09:13.451+08:00Substation Spaces: As if we've been living here foreverSigns of a Nest by Susan Sentler is meditative and sophisticated in its simplicity. When I arrive, the room seems empty with only one dancer and an iPad humming and whooshing with a minimalist pensive track. The other two spectators in the room have also chosen to sit along the walls, respectfully vacating themselves from the space as much as possible. There are little tiles of black and white photographs littering the floor. The photos are tender microscopes of HDB living. Fragments of gates, corridors, laundry, a shirtless tattooed man reclining in a void deck. I don't know why I'm surprised by Susan's sensitivity to the details of heartland life, as if she's been living here forever.<br />
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The dancer Valerie (last name?) has been carrying the iPad and gazing at it intently. She now places the iPad on the floor next to me. Her internal universe suddenly offered visibly amongst strewn photo fragments, another fallen piece of the world. She folds her body to the floor, wrapped around a door frame, and becomes part of the architecture.<br />
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In the colour images scrolling through the iPad, I recognise the Rochor flats slated for demolition. On the wall in negative, there are poster prints that I'm told are from Dakota crescent (pending demolition also) and Marine drive.<br />
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I'm suddenly aware of the empty shelves lining the wall. I know this space well but never have those shelves occurred to me to be HDB corridors like the one where I live. Not until the dancer props the iPad up on one of the shelves, injecting a contained life among the rubble of photo tiles next to it. The door opening the room to the alley is ajar, and the street and construction down the street aptly filter in.<br />
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This work gives us the space, almost without time. Its breath and its dimensions, in the patient time of the body. Earlier this week, I heard Susan talk animatedly about the Deleuzian fold. Look at the space. Look at it shatter, forms and architecture splintering. Look from the outside in, and be sensorially absorbed into this dear little space that I fear will also soon be remodeled.<br />
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Valerie is making attentive decisions and changes of pace and space. Her quiet presence leaves the room, and scatters photo fragments in the hallway outside before she returns to peer through the window. Is she really just a second year undergraduate at Lasalle? Susan is there, happily clicking her tongue and her camera, and for me it's an integral part of the piece. The urgency of the photographic moment leads me to relish my consumption of this space and time. <br />
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The dancer draws a pair of flip flops from a small shelf that I suddenly identify as a shoe rack. She slips out the open door into the street and the night.<br />
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<i>Signs of a Nest</i> with Susan Sentler at the Substation/<a href="http://www.ahomeforthearts.org/" target="_blank">A Home for the Arts</a>, 17 November 2016.</div>
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Post-script: It's a perfect closing for my hour of visual meditation, but on the way out I discover the game room across the hallway. I spend the next ten minutes whooping and batting coloured ping pong balls with a badminton racket at Ang Song Ming's family of drum set and electric guitars. What a wondrous evening.</div>
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szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-56413022817674459202016-08-08T23:29:00.000+08:002016-08-08T23:29:01.812+08:00not dancing for nobody<i>written in response to <a href="http://kirankumar.work/" target="_blank">Kiran Kumar</a>'s "There is no dance", on 6 July 2016</i><br />
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I'm pretty sure that one day soon, we'll be not dancing, for nobody. Dance will have arrived as a disembodied concept and will not even need to be seen, to be experienced. If nobody is watching, is there dance? If nobody or nothing is moving, is there dance? If there is nobody...is there dance?<br />
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I once cancelled a dance workshop because only three participants had signed up. It was our company's pre-arranged supermodel equivalent of "I don't get out of bed for less than $XX000 a day". The cultural centre director in that small town in France called to beg me to change my mind. The three girls who had signed up were a trio of friends, and they would be disappointed... No, I said. They could do their dancing somewhere else, with someone else. (We weren't actually paid for the class anyway beyond the residency stipend for the work we were making, but I did get a couple more hours in bed.)<br />
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A friend of mine, if I understood him then, used to insist that Contact Improvisation performance did not exist. That the improvisation should be as it was, between the improvisers, and if someone happened to be there, they would be witnessing but would not be a performance. I think that adamance was about a product. The expectation of entertainment, the spectacular. For CI, all the jumps and lifts and flying through the air. Performance would turn the participative/active/multidimensional (and hopefully primarily somatic) experience into something else.<br />
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"You come, we'll show you what we do."<br />
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It might be about research first, and entertainment/curiosity of the onlooker, second. But still clearly, us and the. You don't want just anybody walking in to join the dancing, wouldn't that be dangerous? Or might it be about sharing, about community. It might just be about the joy of first flight.<br />
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It's a dance that changed my work profoundly, because it was a dance that was by nature relational. By nature unwritten and creative and challenging in its surrender to the unknown. In its possibility to be everything, really. That dancing is exploration.szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-79423037723279070912016-06-04T16:14:00.001+08:002016-06-04T19:25:52.410+08:00"Compared to improvisation, choreography feels a bit like cheating."Seke Chimutengwendeszehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-78594521852490271432016-01-18T21:51:00.004+08:002016-01-18T21:51:49.715+08:00"perhaps there is something similar about making dances and writing descriptions.""...perhaps there is something similar about making dances and writing descriptions. There are so many words in a writer's vocabulary and many combinations are possible. You weigh words and use one or another, depending on what you are trying to express. And that is the way it is with movement, too: you try to weigh things, to see the importance of this gesture and that one - placed and measured in time, of course. Time - music and silences - makes gesture mean something. It's dancing <i>presented</i> in a certain way. To make every step look different by the way it is presented. A writer chooses a word. I choose a gesture. Economy is the point, learning what we can do without, reducing to essentials."<br />
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"Ballets have short lives. Compared to books, paintings, to plays and pieces of music, they are ephemeral indeed. The ballet audience, like every audience in the theatre, always wants something new. When a ballet is a success, it sometimes remains for three or four years, perhaps ten, seldom more."<br />
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- George Balanchine, Introduction to <i>Balanchine's New Complete Stories of the Great Ballets</i> (Francis Mason ed.)szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-32766891653049409472016-01-06T23:58:00.002+08:002016-01-06T23:59:11.096+08:00"There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction." - Salvador Daliszehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-90403369629527926992015-12-01T05:30:00.002+08:002015-12-01T05:30:30.295+08:00Performance's potency comes from its temporariness, it's 'one time only' life."Performance's potency comes from its temporariness, it's 'one time only' life. The ontology of performance maps a gateway across a different order of production and reproduction. It suggests that matter (and the Real) is created out of nothing - 'the nothing that is not there and the nothing that is' (Wallace Stevens). This reproduction works according to the invisible calculus of the multiple offerings of what one does not have. This then as a coda, a prolegomenon for another book, other words, other eyes. This then in Hope, the hope we fake and perform and the hope we thereby make and have. Hope's power is measured in this faking. Each performance registers how much we want to believe what we know we see is not all we really have, all we really are. That negation reveals the generative possibility of the 'not all' that keeps us hoping. Maybe next time I'll love/be/loved; maybe next time I'll write a better book; maybe next time my I will see" <br />- Peggy Phelan, The ontology of performance: representation without reproductionszehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-14742530728047662962015-11-11T01:01:00.003+08:002015-11-11T01:01:52.274+08:00Please help me make my next production possible!Dear friends,<br />
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We could really use your support for my next creation on 2 Dec with Katarzyna Witek and Chloë Abbott!<br />
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Even £10 (SGD 20) will make a difference. Please help us make this possible!<br />
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We have been doing some great work in the studio, and I'm confident that this is going to be an exciting, fresh and really quite funny experience. You'll see - click on the campaign link to view our video trailer. The website makes contributing easy via paypal and credit card. Do also pass this appeal on to friends!<br />
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Love,<br />
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Sze</div>
szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-60221128180206374362015-10-29T08:48:00.002+08:002015-10-29T08:48:20.544+08:00Sze's dance updates Nov 2015-May 2016Hello Friends!<br /><br />I'm into my final term now at the London Contemporary Dance School. Having finished the coursework-based Postgraduate Diploma section, I'm now working on independent projects that will complete my work for the M.A. Time is suddenly passing quickly. I have become very comfortable and charmed by London and now I am submitting my final assignments in just a few months!<br /><br /><b><span style="color: orange;">Some of my work since the last update:</span></b> While here, I have gotten to make some projects that have been in the works at the back of my head for years.<br /><br /><br /><img height="267" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?ui=2&ik=b68a83d722&view=fimg&th=150b1093ff188044&attid=0.1&disp=emb&realattid=ii_igb83e8i0_150b006034239592&attbid=ANGjdJ9Z3ARIe1tAPsV8gaTl66U62xhswEgLBEPB5H8zTRdG9bUiQpifirlPT9APnAdGHIVu4Aw1e0vIq8AhIIY1dA9H5JAQZd7Wm_Dg41LKZzUOprvNWLJMhnjd9h0&sz=w904-h606&ats=1446079235797&rm=150b1093ff188044&zw&atsh=1" width="400" /><br /><br /><br />Along with six wonderful collaborators, I presented <span style="color: orange;"><b>The Sunshine Empire,</b> </span>an interactive ensemble of one-on-one personal consultations-performances for public spaces that included a theatre cafe, under a railway bridge, a public park and a charity fundraising open mic between June and August 2015. We asked what happiness meant to us and others... and whether it is something that we can buy. Check out our "corporate" website for videos and images -<a href="http://www.sunshinempire.com/">www.sunshinempire.com</a><br /><br /><br /><img height="224" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?ui=2&ik=b68a83d722&view=fimg&th=150b1093ff188044&attid=0.2&disp=emb&realattid=ii_igbbwacs1_150b06774883bad7&attbid=ANGjdJ_P8-vfQ6i4vWW_xKFTEA02nMCY4mqZZWW754B775ZhbO18puTqCInZDz0GY1nnBF4ibj7pay9biCkXaeqoZAHlQvv_nVIR92NnISgS70NEtA0-z6P1ZijcxBI&sz=w904-h508&ats=1446079235797&rm=150b1093ff188044&zw&atsh=1" width="400" /><br /><br /><br />I made my first dance film!<b> '<span style="color: orange;">Indivisible' </span></b>has a group of dancers floating weightlessly down staircases, in iconic locations for dance in London, reflecting on the ecosystems of artists and art institutions. Film trailer at <a href="https://vimeo.com/143942731">https://vimeo.com/143942731</a><br /><br />Over the summer I had some wonderful exchanges at the European Contact Improv Teachers' Exchange in France, and the Radical Contact Summer Gathering 2015 in Sweden, as well as some research time with Kees Lemmens in the Netherlands that has led me in a new direction for my contact practice and teaching about how we share space.<br /><br />With Cie Kham, we danced the final performance of <b><a href="http://kham.fr/index.php/en/trio-spectacle-2" target="_blank"><span style="color: orange;">Focus</span> </a></b>in April at Chateauvallon in France. It's been a wonderful 4 years and over 30 shows in France, Singapore and Laos, that have shaped me profoundly as an artist.<br /><br /><b>Back to the (near) future:</b><br /><br />After a busy summer of contact improvisation, networking with other artists back home in Singapore and the excitement of the General Elections and arts festival, I am settling down to my independent study projects. I am writing a dissertation on "Audience Manipulation" and creating some new work! As usual, do contact me for updates if you're interested in the timing tbc projects. <br /><br /><br /><img height="320" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?ui=2&ik=b68a83d722&view=fimg&th=150b1093ff188044&attid=0.3&disp=emb&realattid=ii_igbhi6jv2_150b0f730d6ac299&attbid=ANGjdJ8YOnZ2Y8uTF01I66Dea2cma389KKmK3kEgErWBZYQPx5UKu5kmziR-JE0cs9dZiHur92H0VWMf91-NUdP305sUAMYLZh4zEJ2KtpBl851G98NVRjp6B5BxKqw&sz=w460-h460&ats=1446079235798&rm=150b1093ff188044&zw&atsh=1" width="320" /><br /><br /><br /><b><span style="color: orange;">WYSIWYG</span></b> (What you see is what you get)<br />A contemporary dance performance with Katarzyna Witek and Chloe Abbott<br /><br />The Place Theatre, London<br />Wednesday 2 December 2015, 4pm and 8pm<br /><br />Do you remember the last time we were here, together? Sitting in the dark, breathing the same air. <br />Trying to understand.<br />If only we could present to you something that you could use, just like one of those software platforms that hide all the complex machinery and just give you the illusions of the simple result. The ability to directly manipulate what you see: the reality of what we see and expect to see in the theatre. Manipulating the space we share between our bodies, our breath, two women, two wigs, and a trumpet. <div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/494926624021766/" target="_blank">Click here for our facebook event page.</a></div>
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<b><span style="color: orange;">Please support our WYSIWYG crowdfunding campaign!</span> </b>This is an unfunded project! Our indiegogo campaign is running for 50 more days. Do help us with a small contribution or a re-sharing of this link - where you can also view our video trailer! <a href="http://igg.me/at/WYSIWYG/x/3046203">http://igg.me/at/WYSIWYG/x/3046203</a>!<br /><br /><br /><b>Migratory Objects</b><br />A durational performance installation with Sylvia Lim and Panos Chountoulidis<br />Ideas in Action, London Contemporary Dance School/The Place, London<br />Wednesday 18 November 2015, Drop in 1-4pm (timing tbc!)<br /><br />I'm really excited to bring on board my music and sound collaborators of the past year to develop a series that I've been working on since 2010. Lost and found physical and sound objects make their way through time, space and boundaries - interacting with our movements, calling to us to transfer them and use them. They move us as we move them, we change their landscape as they change our present and our memory of distance and connection.<br /><br /><br /><b><span style="color: orange;">The Ice Nymph</span></b><br />A dance film in collaboration with Benjamin Boo<br />Live performance May 2016 (dates tbc), Royal College of Music<br /><br />My next dance film was inspired when I was contacted by Benjamin, a Singaporean percussionist in the MA programme at the Royal College of Music. He has the ambition to revive Dr John Sharpley's 1989 composition, created for the Singapore Dance Theatre, in a collaboration choreographed by Mdm Lim Fei Shen, and designed by visual artist Tan Swie Hian. He'd heard that I'd danced this piece of repertory when I too trained at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and studied with Mdm Lim and Dr Sharpley. I'm now thrilled at the chance to interpret this unique material originating from some great Singapore artists who have mentored and influenced me, to create a film that will accompany Benjamin's live performance in May 2016. I also hope to bring this film back to Singapore and elsewhere with Benjamin's recording.<br /><br />And more projects to come!<br /><br />Thanks for all the support so far. I hope to see or hear from all of you soon!<br /><br />Love,<br /><br />Sze</div>
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szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-2821865153794488692015-09-28T16:08:00.003+08:002015-09-28T16:08:51.232+08:00It's a free dance month in Singapore this October!<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/gottomovesg">https://www.facebook.com/gottomovesg</a>szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-28268395789118736012015-09-16T00:07:00.000+08:002015-09-16T00:09:20.281+08:00Maybe I will see a kite looking for its string...I hadn't realised till last Friday how absolutely beautiful the Bengali language is.<br />
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Musical phrases spilled from the lips of a lovestruck youth, wandering in a forest of airy bamboo frames. As the stanzas repeated, four female dancers who had sat listening rose to take the centre of the stage. Their steps wove a decisive counterpoint around his words. His companion, another poet, reclined in the background, making a bed next to a rustic bench and...a yellow hard hat. A reminder that this dreamy poet longs not only for love, but for his home and family in Bangladesh, while he spends lonely days hammering in the hot shipyard.<br />
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"From Another Land" is choreographer Raka Maitra's collaboration with dancers she has trained at the Chowk Academy of Dance, poets Rajib Shil Jibon and Zakir Hossain Khokon, musician Bani Haykal, and set design by Kiran Kumar.<br />
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I've studied and worked with Raka on and off since 2010. Of the many works that I've danced and seen so far, this is by far her finest.<br />
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Over the years Raka has developed her distinctive contemporary dance idiom - a blend of classical Odissi, martial Chhau, and evocative tableaux of restrained movement and fragments of storytelling set to abstract soundscapes. What struck me right away with this new production was the sophisticated layering and interweaving of the various elements. I am quite amazed that the work was so integrated when two of the performers - the poets - had been able to join rehearsals only on their one precious day off every week.<br />
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In terms of visual composition, each tableau had an impressive depth of foreground, background and texture, with the casual lives of the poet-workers backgrounding the vivid dancers, then surfacing again as the poets stepped forward to share their words with animation and sincerity, anchored by subtle chords and drums. A series of contrasting lighting scenes by Josiah Yoong transformed the simple decor from town square to metropolis, to a technicolour vision of Bangladesh.</div>
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Choreographically, I had the sense that Raka had chosen to pare her building blocks even more carefully than previous works - from the simplest of Odissi steps, the dancers patterned from unison into rhythmic canons and counterpoints. They danced solos and movement-chatter as they discovered a new universe (migrants arriving to Singapore? Singaporeans discovering Dhaka?). Raka herself danced a couple of the impeccable solos that she has always done so well - expressive, precise, coloured with modulations of dynamic and gaze. But she also took moments to retreat into the layered background, leaving the stage open to the other dancers' fluid grace and the poets' tender narratives. Karishma Nair stood out from the ensemble with a magnetic focus and clarity of movement. Poet Zakir seized my heart when he rushed forward, laughing, with a child's excitement, recounting his son's letter, to end in a bittersweet embrace from his proxy family - another migrant worker.</div>
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During the performance, it mattered little to me that I don't speak Bengali. It reminded me of how many people say they love to hear French spoken even when they don't understand it - the words take on a musicality and rhythm. Before the show I was already astonished by the translated poems in the programme notes (excellent translations by Subir Nag), and I was able to transfer their poignancy when I heard the words spoken by the poets themselves.<br />
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At no point did I imagine this as a token charitable project to glorify the "underprivileged" stereotype of the Bangladeshi migrant worker. It was apparent that each performer was fully an artistic contributor in their own right. Both Rajib and Zakir are published writers in Bangladesh. The biographies and post-show dialogues were a potent reminder of the richness of the lives and talents of individuals who are often invisible to the more privileged here in Singapore. I appreciate that private donors had made it possible for a significant number of Rajib and Zakir's Bangladeshi colleagues to attend the performance when they might not otherwise have had the means. I sat among a group of them, refreshed by their bafflement and absorption at what seemed to be an unfamiliar form to many of them. I realised that I am from another land, too.<br />
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*The title of this post is an excerpt from "Shades of Light and Dark", Rajib Shil Jibon.<br />
<br />szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-53871712884336492822015-09-11T12:27:00.003+08:002015-09-11T12:33:17.952+08:00The worst performance EVER<div>
With my chum Kasia we saw the WORST performance one evening two months ago in London. I don't think that there's a need to name the place or the group. We agreed wholeheartedly on its badness. In future it will be our reference: "That show was bad but it wasn't as bad as THAT show."</div>
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Then pressed by another friend to explain what we thought was so bad, we floundered for words. I suggested that this was a task we could persist in. What made something bad, SO bad? Took us a little while to get it together between two countries, continuing via comments on each other's text, but here it is now.</div>
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K: To be in a really administrative language: lack of investigation, lack of depth in the movement itself.<br />
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S: My first words were useless, meaningless, obvious, amateurish, literal, cliched! Unfortunately I know that these are really not very concrete.<br />
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K: It was cheesy. <i>I</i> said cliched!<br />
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S: I said it last night too! Double cliche. Double cheeseburger. Yuck. But these words don't actually tell us very much. I'm still very frustrated.<br />
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K: It was embarrassing. Didn't you feel embarassed? Don't you feel that when you watch bad work?<br />
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S: A news review once said that about one of my best friend's work in Singapore. Later she won an award in Prague for that same work.<br />
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K: Really? Well S.N. loved the show last night.<br />
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S: She loved some things about it.<br />
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K: She only disliked some things about it. As opposed to us hating the whole thing. I felt so uncomfortable that I had to go on twitter, online on my phone because I didn't want to watch what was happening.<br />
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S: It was cringeworthy. But the piece before it was cringeworthy in a very intelligent way. (Bravo!) <br />
In contrast, horrible shows like that second piece are pretty much the only times that provoke me to resorting to the vocabulary of traditional dance composition studies. <br />
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K: I know what you mean. Maybe that’s because it seems like they might have made it with a choreographic handbook in hand? (Not Burrows though... ) And it read like a choreographic handbook too.<br />
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S: First, my pet peeve. It was so OBVIOUS. In case they didn't announce the theme into the mic, they danced it, they mimed it, they said it again and again. Without much development or elaboration. Well...what's the rest of the show for?<br />
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K: Has it also struck you that they were almost always facing us (the audience)? Yet they were looking completely past us... One of the things I dislike most in theatre. <br />
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S: The physical vocabulary was predictable. Really packed-with-cliches literal and predictable stuff. A text about the enforcement of prudish social mores: a naked dancer is looked at disapprovingly by clothed companions who grab her, paint her, and clothe her. There are several scenes where the dancers pretend to be embarrassed about being naked and try to cover themselves up. The naked girl returns and there is a fuss about trying to get her to keep her dress on. Next section, a text about futility in capitalist working culture. Dancers make repetitive working gestures and conform, thanks to surveillance by boss.<br />
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It was 30 minutes of a sort of lousy pantomime without going deeper to examine the illustrative cliches, comment on them or contrast them.<br />
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K: Question is: how do you dig? What is your way for digging deeper Sze? Do you let things take their own course as you improvise around the subject and see what unfolds? Do you transfer questions onto different aspects of life? I just don’t know...<br />
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S: Digging! I mean reflection, development, tension.... The music use too, was really cliched, it was a bit of a silent film where the orchestration mickey moused the action or vice versa.</div>
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K: Well put...<br />
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S: And it was incoherent. The scenettes were just two of something like seven or eight "stories". Generally on the theme of anti-neoliberal frustration. They were rarely linked, but they weren't very juxtaposed either. Or do I mean too coherent.</div>
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Gratituous spectacle. I am generally all for running around naked. I am all for body paint and powder and wrecking the stage. But wield these sacred tools judiciously and wisely! They easily lose their impact. Or maybe they are the medium and the language of the universe that you are creating, they might mean something. They might influence the texture of the movement...<br />
["Nudity is no more neutral than a large hat" - Jonathan Burrows. ] <br />
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I wanted to leave so many times but I kept trying to find something redeeming. Something surprising or at least mildly interesting.<br />
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K: I do admire you for that. I must admit I stopped trying pretty early on... <br />
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S: It didn't have any of the following - of which I'd like to think that I am a proponent of not thinking that any of these are necessary to a performance when there is a strong idea or aesthetic.<br />
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1. Pretty dancing - I am really not a pretty dancing person. I am the first one to jump at working with pedestrian movement and performers who haven't been poisoned in a conservatoire (unlike me). But I can watch that in the absence of anything else. In this case... absent! It was ugly...and it wasn't even authentic! It was so overdone!<br />
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K: Do you think that what this performance was, was due to the fact that they were in fact non dancers (which could have been honest and beautiful) desperately trying to create a piece which could be read as dance. That it was desperate in their attempt to fall into a category of “physical theatre” - gosh i really don’t know. It’s mind boggling...<br />
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S: 2. Pattern. Even the most unspectacular elements would make for me a genius composition if thoughtfully patterned. Repeated, alternated, varied, progressed... which brings me to<br />
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3. Arc or trajectory. Whether in narrative, energetic quality, or visual richness, Rhythm of the show?<br />
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4. Tension/Irony (as I said earlier about not digging or reflecting deeper).<br />
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S: If you can't do any of these... at least 4. some surprise? Please? Even if it's the surprise that you stick to your guns and never change a pattern that nobody dreamed that they'd be able to watch for 60 mins? (Maguy Marin. Xavier le Roy. Yes.)<br />
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K: At least the performers were completely committed and spent the whole time really trying to make it work. Bless them.<br />
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S: Bless these guys at the Edinburgh Fringe. Really.</div>
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K: A last word: to be brave and perform a piece of work of your own, to take it on stage where work is mostly harshly criticised and have guts to be feisty and proud about it - I RESPECT THAT! More than I ever do. <br />
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szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-91977581320753176582015-09-06T02:08:00.002+08:002015-09-06T02:08:28.925+08:00Archive boxI only realised when I came home that I'd worn the perfect t-shirt for the arts fest "Archive Box" event this evening!<br />
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Archives and archival have been quite in fashion in certain circles in contemporary dance - I'm thinking of Xavier le Roy's Retrospective, Jerome Bel's Veronique Doisneau, Siobhan Davies' Table of Contents, reconstruction of Judson Church pieces.... it's a terrifically rich subject because archiving dance is really paradoxical and complicated. Videos and labanotation scores only capture the physical/spatial/visual aspect of performance and partially at that. Those can't come close to representing the experience of the live work, the temperature in the room, the emotional content and background to the piece, needless to say the process of creation.<br />
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What becomes particularly tricky in dance archival as opposed to many other live performance forms is when the archive is used as a tool for re-creation and replication. There is no gold standard for notation, no score sheets or script book. The priority in replication rarely specified - we know it's not the sound (as in music) or the text (as in theatre) - in my experience as a dancer with old-fashioned repertory, there's a kind of unrealistic expectation that <i>everything</i> must be re-created. That's the steps, the timing, the dynamics (quality/energy), the spacing, the theatricality, the facial expression, the costume, the makeup, the lighting, the set... as far as humanly possible.<br />
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Video is often regarded as a secondary source, or just a starting point. The generally recognised best source is the dancer and their body: when a major work of (Western contemporary dance) is restaged, the choreographer or an anointed assistant is preferably flown in to give corrections and clarifications to the movement, convey key points about intention and aesthetic, make decisions on casting and staging. Learning a repertory work in Bharatanatyam or Odissi (as I have experienced it anyway) can only be done via a teacher or a guru.<br />
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In my experience of conventional conservatory-style training (I mean western here but I'm guessing this is true for many other dance cultures), faithfulness to the source is a priority for reconstruction or re-staging of repertory, but also a sacred tenet of dance training and in working with choreographers who transmit material by demonstration. My collaborators in other disciplines are often surprised to find out that one of the main components that I was graded on in dance technique training was "Replication". One of the most offensive things that a dancer in conservatory-style training can do in front of a choreographer or a teacher is "change" (in my case, forget) the choreography. I am in great awe of dancers who meet these standards as perfect repertory machines.<br />
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On the flip side of the conventional coin, when you're a choreographer, or when as a dancer you put your choreographer hat on, you inherit license and obligation to be original/individual/in control/wilful/responsible/unpredictable and to have your own ego and demand that things should be a certain way because that's your vision.<br />
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Some companies still operate that way, but thank goodness for times a changin'. For post-modern dance. For improv. But I think the baggage still hangs around. I think of the story of how Yvonne Rainer went from saying Trio A was a piece that anyone could dance... till she saw a Trio A she didn't recognise. She now requires that it be learned, from her or one of a handful of certified "transmitters" who will coach you in the very fine details. Certainly not from the 1978 video, as even she made mistakes in that one.<br />
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For the arts festival Archive Box project, artists who presented their own works at the festival's Dance Marathon (unfortunate reference, see <u><a href="https://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBwQFjAAahUKEwi7xoWjs-DHAhVPCI4KHQZkBgQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThey_Shoot_Horses%2C_Don%27t_They%253F_(film)&usg=AFQjCNHYxMwfCYk5Z8grqRNKMLTsy7aXzg&sig2=sak-5cFB_S7zFhSoKBnH7w&bvm=bv.102022582,d.c2E&cad=rja" target="_blank">They Shoot Horses, Don't They</a></u>) were also requested to either make an "archive box" of one of their dance works, or to be a "user" of a box made by another artist. Intriguing, because of the impossibilities, especially when the originator-user pairs were mostly from different countries, different dance traditions and had never met. The boxes took the forms of actual cardboard boxes of production-linked material, stage designs, props, and in other cases a website, a letter in a glass bottle. Tonight three pieces were presented, between wine and cheese breaks. There was some great stuff! I'm not reviewing here, but as far as I could tell from watching the official programme shows by the same artists, there were no "copies". The boxes presented this evening turned into stimuli for a new work, new interpretations, new ideas and sometimes new working processes as well.<br />
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The showings were followed by a discussion, which festival director Ong Keng Sen urged in the direction of considering the significance of the archive, questions about ownership, loyalty to the transmission, transmission across different cultural contexts, and possibilities for copy-left in dance. He provided a very interesting tidbit about the legal arrangements that had been made for this Archive Box project, specifying the intellectual property rights for each box and each new interpretation. He ended it off by paraphrasing a lesson from law school that a contract itself does not have a significance; it is the relationship between two persons that has a significance. (I am also paraphrasing very loosely here. Please correct me if you were there.)<br />
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Incidentally, I spent a week exploring the transmission of dance material as "gifts" (open to re-interpretation) as opposed to "copies", at a choreolab facilitated earlier this month by Danny Kok for the Esplanade dan:s festival. We had some great discussions about the impossibility of a perfect copy, the specificity of the author or transmitter in setting the priority for certain aspects of the copy, the leakages and transformations through receivers/transmitters with different physical facility, different personality, and varied intellectual and artistic interests.<br />
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For a while I fiddled around in my head with the artificial dichotomy of "making copies/reconstructions" vs "making interpretations". But originals, copies, interpretations, collaborations... so much potential in each and in between!<br />
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In the end I noticed that the post-showing discussion this evening ended up like many post-show dialogues that I have been in. Rather than a wider discussion on issues of archival, copy-left and ownership, there was a great desire for the audience (and in this case the artists themselves as well) to simply uncover the creative process and the personalities of the author(s). Human relationships remained the pull of gravity.<br />
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<br />szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-29866603590909043272015-09-04T16:04:00.003+08:002015-09-06T02:08:40.507+08:00SIFA ShockI was really excited to learn that my trip back home this September coincided neatly with the arts fest (sorry, SIFA, I really prefer the old name and it doesn't confuse with an Indian classical arts association).<br />
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I think the programme this year is delicious - varied, with interesting and challenging choices. I was really excited about the use of the Tanjong Pagar railway station for dance programming (Maybe art could make a contribution to stalling the erasure and commercialisation of whatever Singapore has been), and the out-of theatre experiences like "It won't be too long" and the open homes series. I love that the dance programming focuses on Asian artists and includes both pretty movement and "interdisciplinary" and conceptual work. I've seen some great shows in the last two weeks, that tickled my senses and made me think, including Wall Dancing, Traitriot, and A Grand March. (missed Goh Lay Kuan because I wasn't back yet.)<br />
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Okay, tickets are a little expensive, but this is usually my investment for the year. The arts fest has been instrumental in helping me grow as an artist since I was a teenager. Maybe for that reason, I also carry some pretty high expectations not only of the curation but the presentation and the role of this event as a sort of public good. <br />
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Then I got a shock on 28 August.<br />
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I was at Tanjong Pagar for A Grand March by Zan Yamashita, and Some Experiments in a Decade and a Half by Natsuko Tezuka. With the unexpected bonus of some pre show dance films thrown in. <br />
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Even before the show, I'd been warned that the station was uncomfortable - too hot and limited seating. I figured, no sweat, I'm a dancer from the tropics. I made sure I dressed light and hardy (or as my mum in law would say, 'kum lar zar'). <br />
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Yamashita's piece was staged on the railway track, strewn with debris. A powerful setting that suited the work visually and conceptually. We were encouraged to sit right in front of the set. Sitting on the tracks or damp grass was marginally uncomfortable, and many people chose to perch on the platform edges instead, even if that meant not hearing his text completely. Being still young-enough and spry-enough, I wiggled around on the steel track through the 40min piece and decided it had been worth it. <br />
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The shock was in the next piece, a lecture-demonstration by Natsuko Tezuka. Set up against one wall of the ticket hall, she danced, standing and lying, referred to and wrote on a wall projection, and spoke and responded to questions relayed through an echoey mic system. The audience was encouraged to pick up plastic chairs and arrange them freely in the space, which ended up in a sort of semi-circular lecture hall format around her of about five or six rows.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f1AicyLgCvo/VelPoR81LpI/AAAAAAAAAjM/NajdaUXtLpo/s1600/st_20150831_mwdance_1645508.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f1AicyLgCvo/VelPoR81LpI/AAAAAAAAAjM/NajdaUXtLpo/s320/st_20150831_mwdance_1645508.jpg" /></a> </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The view from the first row. Now sit down and put a lot of heads in your way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/moments-of-wonder">Photo by Kevin Lee/Straits Times</a> </span></div>
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I thought this was a very interesting work, with a unique vocabulary and investigation. But audience members began to stream out from about 15min into the 75min performance. After 40 minutes I began to question whether I would do the same - and this is something I very very rarely do. </div>
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My partner was fidgeting too. I told myself that I would decide on whether or not to stay, if two out of four of these criteria were fulfilled to make the time bearable:<br />
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1. If I was able to see the performer. <br />
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2. If I was able to see the projections. <br />
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3. If I could make out the dialogue. <br />
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4. If I could breathe. <br />
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1. Five minutes into the show, I realised that I could hardly see the performer's body, even though I had managed to pull up my chair in the fourth row, just next to the stage manager (who necessarily has a clear view). So I stood up and watched, and with some wandering around I managed to see a bit more. A bit of an endurance act to keep up for 75 minutes.<br />
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2. White text-on-black slides were projected to a ground-level screen, maybe 3x2m, made from a sort of reflective paper like the back of a printed poster. It clearly had to be ground level because Tezuka wrote on the screen surface with a whiteboard marker at several points in the show. The audience on plastic chairs from row 3 onwards would have been able to see only about half of the screen at a time. Visibility was better when I stood up, but quite a lot of the projected text wasn't big enough to read clearly. There were reflections on the surface from the lighting. When Tezuka started to add diagrams and text to the screen, the reflections made the visuals simply illegible. <br />
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3. Tezuka spoke mainly into a mic, but was not easy to understand. Part of this had to do with an adorably heavy accent. But I believe more to do with the fact that the sound engineering was downright awful. It seemed that neither the acoustics of the room or the sound system had been adapted or tested. <br />
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4. Air. Or lack thereof. <br />
Got heat? How about stuffiness. I suspect that the combined discomfort was the main factor driving folks away. I think I spotted some box-fans at the entrance to the space, but I'm quite sure I didn't feel any during the performance!<br />
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Score: 0.5/4. <br />
At the 40min mark we bailed, and I started drafting this post in my head.<br />
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Was it limited resources that had forced such poor conditions for performance at the Tanjong Pagar railway station? In 10 years I've never experienced such disadvantageous conditions for an artistic work or for an audience at the Singapore Arts Festival. I might imagine something like this at the dance festival I've worked with in Laos and where sponsors and conditions change by the hour... but this at the Singapore Arts Festival?!<br />
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Poor ventilation, poor stage/seating concept and set up, poor acoustics,nd poor floor... On that evening the movement material wasn't very high impact, but the tiled floor is clearly punishing or even dangerous for any highly physical choreography. As an unfortunate contrast, I recall one of the earliest events held at the station after it was closed - a large scale Hermes pseudo-art installation show. The extensive structure built in the ticket hall was air conditioned and comfortable even in the day. Clearly it's possible to adapt that venue suitably with a sufficient budget.<br />
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Festival director Ong Keng Sen was there on 28 August, presenting bouquets to the artists. I wondered how he was able to account to them for these conditions - he didn't even choose to stage his own show (Border Crossers) at Tanjong Pagar. Did the festival get this venue for a song but not have the budget to adapt it? If so why did they choose to proceed? Was this mess one of the points of tension that rocked the SIFA team? I hope there's a reasonable explanation for what happened, but right now I can't imagine what it might be. That said, the other events that I attended at 72-13 and the SOTA studio were comfortable and seemed to have adequate technical conditions for the works. How did this slippage happen at Tanjong Pagar?<br />
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If it was a question of resource-shock..the evening wasn't done with me yet. On the way out I took some time in the considerably cooler station foyer answering a festival survey (apparently conducted this year by an external consultancy instead of the usual festival volunteers.) I paraphrase this question:<br />
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<b>If there was a possibility that SIFA could not continue because of insufficient funding, would you be prepared to pay $100 for a ticket?</b><br />
Me: $100?!!!! No. I'm an artist!<br />
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Would you pay $50 for a ticket? <br />
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Me: Probably not either!<br />
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So how much would you pay?<br />
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Me: I would apply to perform or to volunteer in the festival if that's what it took to see some shows.<br />
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(Lady says as she writes, "Not willing to pay more for tickets"<br />
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<i>What is going on, folks? </i>In 2014 the arts festival was reincarnated as a commissioned event run by a private enterprise (The Arts House Ltd). If I let my runaway imagination out on the expressway - Is the arts festival teetering on bankruptcy? Is it about to be privatised into a commercial luxury event?<br />
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I'm going for my next performance at Tanjong Pagar tonight. Oh boy.</div>
szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-41838790784259569222015-08-02T07:23:00.000+08:002015-08-02T07:23:52.808+08:00SylvieTonight I saw Sylvie Guillem's "Life in Progress" at the London Coliseum - added dates as part of her "farewell" tour. The programme included pieces made for her by her longtime collaborators Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and Mats Ek, with a guest appearance of a duo from Bill Forsythe.<br />
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This isn't a review. It just triggered a memory 13 years ago when I first set eyes on Sylvie on the stage of the Opera Garnier in Paris. I had picked up a student ticket in the gods, not really even knowing what I was going to see. She was dancing in Manon, returning as a guest to the Paris Opera. She set the stage on fire. That performance changed my life. It was one of the defining moments in my understanding of performance, and bringing something personal and challenging to every performance.<br />
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Over the years I watched her at every opportunity I could get, on stage, on DVD and on youtube. One of her statements from her DVD <i>Evidentia </i>has stayed with me: (this is a very rough paraphrase as I understood it then) that if you take a risk on stage as a performer, push yourself to the point where you almost fear what you do, then you will take the audience with you entirely. They will feel that risk and go with you.<br />
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But as I watched her over time I often felt quite sad that I found that few of her performances gave me the thrill I first felt when I saw her. Her collaboration pieces of the past few years quite underwhelmed me. As did some of the programme tonight. Yes, 6 o'clock legs, fine and fierce control. But I didn't see <i>her</i> quite as much. Except for <i>Bye </i>by Mats Ek.<br />
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More than about Sylvie, tonight told me a lot about me, and how I've changed as a dancer in 15 years. How my tastes and my aspirations, my idea of my "work" has gone from technical performance, pushing myself all out in performing presence, to creating and bumbling and fearing, to playing and now driving myself on to investigate questions of society, questions of the body's capacities, and questions of abstract composition and the relevance of art and performance.szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-51399934797955970962015-08-02T07:03:00.001+08:002015-08-02T07:24:40.963+08:00LatelyLately I marked the end of my postgrad diploma in London - for those of us who don't speak that strange vocabulary, that means 2/3 of the way towards the MA at LCDS.<br />
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Most recently, last week I began studio research for my next project. I also heard the good news that an artist I respect very much, <a href="http://sarawookey.com/" target="_blank">Sara Wookey</a>, has agreed to be my MA supervisor.<br />
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It's been a really full year. Since my last update at the end of 2014, I have written papers on Contact Improvisation - a cooperative form of dancing contrasted with its roots in the martial art of Aikido, and separately speculating on Contact settings as a laboratory for new forms of social organisation. I participated in the creation of a new work by Paolo Mangiola, who questioned contemporary dance as a form for the future. I reflected on my choreographic process through a jelly-making lecture demonstration. I turned my last few years' hobby of sliding down staircases into a dance film, with the support of a wonderful group of collaborators mostly from the London Contact Improv community.<br />
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And throughout the month of June I worked with a wonderful group of dancers to produce <a href="http://sunshinempire.com/" target="_blank">"The Sunshine Empire"</a>, an interactive performance selling the secrets of happiness.<br />
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Now it's my summer of Contact Improv in Europe, and reflection and rest in between.<br />
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In a way it seems that this time in London is allowing me to finally come into my own - spending time with other choreographers and like-minded collaborators has helped me find confidence in my practice: my exploration and research, my aesthetic, and my working style. (For now!)<br />
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I'll be home in Singapore soon, looking forward to attending a workshop with Danny K at the Esplanade. And! Fingers crossed, I hope I will get to vote.szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2040332469654959166.post-23561557228743829982015-08-02T06:44:00.002+08:002015-08-24T04:19:40.516+08:00The Sunshine EmpireOn probably really the last, last of 15 performances of Sunshine Empire today:<br /><br />I'm so grateful for you wonderful collaborators. I have watched the delight, puzzlement, surprise and challenge that you brought to our audiences these last two months. While we made part fiction, it was also really personal and genuine and powerful in that way. Often I find myself standing back while I ring the timings, and just truly enjoying all of you perform. The more I see, the better it gets. I'm really glad and proud of what we've made together.<br /><br />Also, thank you for all the venues, and the old and new friends who have supported us, making time to come to our shows, and supporting us with feedback along the way. You know who you are!<br /><br /><a href="http://sunshinempire.com/">sunshinempire.com</a>szehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10589744068626122914noreply@blogger.com0