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Paris Opera Ballet Triple Bill

A triple bill by the Paris Opera Ballet (France), featuring Blake Works I by William Forsythe, In The Night by Jerome Robbins and The Seasons’ by Crystal Pite.

Performed at Esplanade Theatre; Watched on 23 June 2019

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Blake Works I by William Forsythe

This was a modern ballet set to soft pop ballad music by James Blake. The dancers are clad in simple blue ballet class-wear - the men in light blue unitards and the women in a blue leotard and a short skirt - and they dance to segments of different songs by Blake in groups, then in a trio, then a duet and soon after it gets hard to keep track. The choreography seems very Forsythe-esque - or at least similar to what little I’ve watched of Forsythe. Like In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, the choreography of Blake Works I twists ballet technique into something more modern, all the while retaining the strength of the technique as well as some bouts of classical ballet peeking through here and there, such as a sudden entrechat six or a balance in arabesque on pointe in the showy, Classical ballet style.

I skimmed through the programme book before the performance, but somehow missed the portion where it stated that Blake Works I aimed to present the fugue, which is a form of music composition, through the physical body. However, I doubt it would have mattered even if I did. Any musical implications of the choreography was lost on me, a stranger to musical composition or theory. 

Moreover, I’ve always thought that it’s hard to find meaning or to see the concepts that the choreographer intended to show in abstract choreographies that involve ballet technique, especially with little to no explanation on the choreographer’s part. I’ve never really liked Balanchine nor any modern ballet I’ve watched, so I guess my dislike for modern ballets also add to my coldness towards Blake Works I. I just feel that ballet, right from its birth in the French courts, was meant to tell a story - an actual narrative - as well as to show off power, and using ballet technique in an abstract choreography makes it hard for concepts to shine through. Moreover, most ballet movements are already so closely associated to older ballets that I can’t help but relate these movements to other ballets when I see them in newer choreographies, even when there isn't really any connection. (Feel free to fight me or agree with me on this, my dislike for modern and contemporary ballets has always been something that I struggled with as I couldn't find a reason for it and it’s nice to hear other opinions.)

In The Night by Jerome Robbins

This was definitely my favourite piece out of the three works. The curtains came up to reveal a backdrop of stars, and a piano in the corner. Three duets were performed to live music by Chopin, each duet presenting the relationship of each couple.

The first couple is completely engrossed with each other, and the tenderness is obvious in the choreography. They seem to revolve around each other, their bodies rotating around each other in the lifts, and their movements mirroring each other even as they turn away, only to face each other again. The couple holds each other close, the intricate lifts requiring their torsos to be pressed against each other. Even when they stand apart, their gaze shows the connection between them as clear as day as they mirror each others’ movements. 

The second couple seems to be at the stage of courtship, the woman and the man holding each other at arms’ length. Even during the partner work, the man holds the woman by the hand, the wrist or at the waist, a contrast to the torso-on-torso contact of the previous couple. I think the music adds a lot to the presentation of the couple, as the piano notes go lower and sound more suggestive.

The third couple is a mess of desperate, passionate declarations of love and angry rejections of one another. One moment, the woman leaps into the man’s arms and the next, she is walking off stage. The choreography here is definitely a lot more energetic, a lot wilder and unrestrained; they separate and come together forcefully, and the man almost seems to haul the woman into the air sometimes during lifts.

Eventually, the three couples appear on stage and greet each other, as if they met by coincidence while walking in the park or the gardens at night. It was very 19th-century historical romance novel: almost as if there was a ball going on and these 3 couples snuck off for some one-on-one time in the dark of the gardens. Interestingly, they split off into duos, different from their original partner, and look intently at each other, before the spell breaks and they go back to their original lover. After the presentations of 3 different couples in 3 differing relationships, them going back to their partner seems to present a faith in love: there isn’t any one “perfect” relationship. Each character sees another potential partner, or another potential type of relationship, but chooses to go back to the one they have because it’s theirs. I might be reading too much into this love thing, but this idea really came to the forefront of my mind whilst watching the piece.

Also, the MUSIC really added so much to the piece. Each piece of Chopin’s music was so beautiful and delicate and reflected the choreographic situation, whilst the choreography paired beautifully with the music.

The Seasons’ by Crystal Pite

This piece was a contemporary dance piece that made use of lighting to reflect the choreographic situation, namely which season the section was about. To be honest, I didn't like this piece, but some of my friends loved it. I guess it was down to personal preference.

Pite made use of a lot of canons, and whilst the effect was beautiful at first, the constant, constant, constant use of canons made it predictable and honestly, after seeing canons so many times, the novelty of its beauty wore off. Moreover, I felt that the choreography didn’t flow well in the sense that because the piece made use of a lot of canons, and the piece having made use of 54 dancers, it seemed as if there was a lot of waiting for each dancer. Waiting for the canon to be over or waiting at a spot onstage for the rest of the dancers that were halfway across the stage to catch up.

Also, perhaps it was because I couldn’t see the full extent of the lighting from my seat, I felt that some of the ideas she used were difficult to see. Whilst images of whirling tornadoes, or perhaps the hairs (?) of a sea anemone floating in the current were clear, it was hard to find significant images in most of the choreography? Of course, it’s most probably because the choreographer wanted the audience to interpret some images for themselves, but for me, it mostly felt like a lot of movement with no obvious concept.

My favourite part in this piece, though, was a section with an all-male cast. The males of the Paris Opera Ballet performed intricate leaps and jumps, and then I can’t remember much, only that they were incredibly grounded yet exuded such power and force with their movements that it took my breath away.

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Overall, I think that my biggest takeaway from this performance is that dancers from the Paris Opera are phenomenal. Their ballet technique is ridiculously strong, and they presented a pretty strong showing in Crystal Pite’s contemporary piece. Somehow, this surprised me because the idea of dancers from the Paris Opera, the cradle of the Romantic ballet and the tutu-and-tights ballerina, being fantastic at moving their body in weird and unorthodox ways, seemed crazy, but this triple bill showed that at the heart of the Paris Opera Ballet were dancers who were great movers.

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

musings on artist intentions

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

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

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

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

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

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

That Which Cannot Be Divided (无法被整除)

Performed at Esplanade Theatre Studio; Watched on 24 February 2019

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

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The Odd One by Albert Tiong

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Esplanade Da:ns Festival: Netherlands Dance Theatre

Performed at Esplanade Theatre; Watched on 14 October 2018.

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

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

Shoot The Moon by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot

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

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

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

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

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

Woke Up Blind by Marco Goecke

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

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

The Statement by Crystal Pite

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

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

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

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

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

Stop-Motion by Sol Leon & Paul Lightfoot

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

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Until The Lions by Akram Khan

Performed at the Esplanade Theatre; Watched on 9 October 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

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

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

(I don’t know what I’m saying)

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Masterpiece in Motion by Singapore Dance Theatre

Performed at Esplanade Theatre; Watched on ???

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

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

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

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

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

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

HATCH: Season 3 by Dance Nucleus

Performed at the Dance Nucleus Studio at Goodman Arts Centre; Performed on ?????

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Dance Nucleus is an independent dance house with the aim of providing a platform for artists to develop their craft. HATCH is their artist-in-residence programme that concentrates on creative research and development leading to a studio presentation of the work or work-in-progress. The programme gives time to explore, studio space, financial support as well as a supportive environment to aid the artists.

I attended Season 3 of HATCH last night at Goodman Arts Centre (I love this place omg) and it was really crowded compared to HATCH Season 2. Congratulations to Dance Nucleus on a full house! The presentation showcased 4 works by artists of different backgrounds and experiences.

POV by Sheriden Newman

For this first piece, the audience was invited to sit on the four sides of the performance space. This piece was performed by 4 dancers connected together by elastic bands. I could see that your sitting location would have affected what you saw on the dance floor, like there was one instance where the dancers were standing in a line horizontally on different levels. However, if you sat at another position, you would have seen the dancers in a line one behind another, at different levels, so you’d see only parts of their body. I suddenly thought that it was cool that people sitting at different positions would be viewing the same thing, but the effect felt would have been completely different because of the angle. It’s like one of those optical illusion videos that you see on Facebook.

Brownian (a working title) by Sherry Tay and Joseph Nair

This was my favourite piece of the night. Okay, so they got us to move to the “front” of the performance area, because the rest of the performances did not need the 360 degrees view. However, there was a catch. Those sitting on the left have to sit near the right when they came to the front and those on the right have to sit on the left, and everyone had to move to their seats together. So while everyone was moving, the soundscape for this piece came on and when I looked back, I saw the dancers already on stage dancing. Then I realised that by making the audience move like that, they’re mimicking pedestrians walking along a crowded road, each with their own location to go towards. I thought it was so clever.

For me, the piece painted a picture of a busy street. As the theory of Brownian Motion states, everyone had their specific pedestrian movements and route to walk/dance along, and each dancer had their own specific character. It also commented on the digital age that we live in and how everyone is constantly on their phones all the time.

Shallow Water Blackout by Sherman Fu

My biggest impression of this piece was the lighting. At the start of the piece, the lights faded in and out as the dancers danced, so whenever the lights came on the dancers were always in different positions from before. To me, although I’ve never blacked out before, it was like the blacking out that you always see in movies.

Other than this, I totally didn’t get the piece at all, until the choreographer explained a bit of his choreography during the post-show dialogue. He mentioned that each dancer embodied Time, Body and Mind, and at times one overpowered the other. I thought that the idea was nice, but no one would get it if you didn’t make it clear that you were using an idea like that. All the dancers were wearing all black, and it didn’t differentiate anyone from the other, so we had no idea who was what, or even that they were embodying anything.

With(In) by Koustav Basu Mallick

For this piece, the first thing that popped into my mind was: “Abusive relationship”. Then I was like no, that’s probably too far off. Cloth was hung from the ceiling, and the dancers, at different points in time, were tied in it. So basically, I didn’t understand anything from this , but from the post-show discussion, the choreographer revealed that his piece was about exploring the dynamics of partner work with a fellow dancer, as well as partner work with a prop that seems as “alive” as cloth.

Final thoughts:

So overall, HATCH Season 3 made me come up with a lot of questions, as it always does. I think that one thing that I kept on thinking about was how does one convey to the audience what they want to say? Sometimes, I feel that there’s not much point in creating something that everyone can interpret vastly differently. Which is kinda contradictary to myself, because I always say that I feel that art is something that has a meaning or idea behind it. But I think that I feel irritated at art that doesn’t really have like a “concrete” meaning or idea to take away because I hate not knowing things. (Like I hate it when people give really vague answers about art like “It’s anything you want it to be” and stuff like that.). Maybe that’s why I liked Brownian the best, because it held such a clear meaning to me.

I also remember thinking about relationships can be conveyed on stage. Whenever we see a guy and a girl on stage, we, or at least I, automatically think that they’re in a romantic relationship, especially in dance where everything is so physical and looks so suggestive. But that might not always be the case, a guy and a girl can have relationships as friends, siblings, acquaintances. It’s not always romantic, but how can we convey that on a dance stage where everything is so physical?

Okay, so with that I’m going to stop here. I actually had and still have a lot of questions that I want to ask, but I can’t put them into words and there’s just too many things I want to ask about so yeah. I’ll save them for another time.

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But on to the good things.

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

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

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

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Cameron Mackintosh’s Les Miserables

Performed at Esplanade Theatre; Watched on 1 June 2016

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I had really high expectations and I was also expecting to cry a lot, because I’m just this type of emotional person. Les Mis for me was in some ways effective, but not in other ways.

One thing that struck me the most were the beautiful sets. The sets were so real-looking and the transitions were so smooth. Definitely, the thing that I was most satisfied with was this.

Okay, so for the emotional bits. The first really tear-jerking song in the musical, I would say, should be “I Dreamed A Dream”, sang by Fantine, who had just lost her job and had no money to pay her young daughter’s care-givers. For me, I was really disappointed because although the voice was really good, it didn’t express the emotions of Fantine. As a musical performer, one would have to be able to express the emotions of the character through both the face and the voice. For the audience members sitting far away from the stage (aka me), the only thing we have to go by is the voice and for the night that I watched Les Mis, Fantine’s voice, and many other characters’, did not have that emotional quality for me. I didn’t even feel my hair stick up during “Red and Black”. It might be my high expectations, but I do believe that if a movie can make me that emotional, then the musical should make me even more so (I have a history in crying at musicals).

However, I do really enjoy how they showed the deaths of the people at the barricade. The lighting really helped to highlight the death and destruction and the music made me cry.

I like how at Marius’s Cafe Song (Empty Chairs and Empty Tables) and at the last scene, they got the people who have died to come onstage as “ghosts”. It made me realise the sheer amount of people that had died for nothing and it really tugged at my heartstrings. These were the moments were I shed a lot of tears. (To be honest, I’m basing half my review on whether I cried or not).

In conclusion, this Les Misérables had pros and cons for me. The sets were beautiful, the transitions were seamless and there were some emotional moments. However, these moments weren’t impactful emotional enough for my liking (I mean, come on, its Les MISÉRABLES, it’s supposed to be sad). For me, it was an okay performance, which is kinda sad because I expected a lot.

[thoughtsofadancerboo]

Sounding Body by RAW Moves

 Performed at the Black Box at Goodman Arts Center; Watched on 28 May 2016

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Sounding Body by RAW Moves is an innovative performance, which binds movement and music with technology. The piece starts off with a speech by the Instrument-System Designer, Felix Leuschner. He introduces The Machine to the audience. The dancers wear sensors on different parts of the body, and a specific sound from the guqin is made according to the movement of the body. Felix Leuschner then goes on to pose the question: are the performers musicians or dancers? Are they dancing or playing an instrument? Does the movement control the music, or the music the movement? With these questions in mind, the audience is invited to think about the boundaries of each art form and the overlaps between.

The piece is split into 5 sections, and an additional video at the end as an epilogue. The three dancers each have a solo for themselves in 3 of the sections, two solos in one of the sections and a trio in another.

I believe that the inclusion of the musical system would have allowed the dancers to explore different movements and dynamics, with special focus on a specific part of the body. However, one drawback that I felt had hampered the visual experience as an audience member was that the movements were very limited. With only movement from mostly a certain body part, at times the piece became a little stagnant, especially since not much big movements or dynamics were incorporated due to not wanting to overwhelm the audience with an extremely loud sound that would come from the movement.

Dancer Melyn Chow, I felt, had one of the hardest parts of having a sensor tied around her mid-torso. Not only is the torso a difficult body part to move, it is also difficult to create different dynamics. I believe that she has done a commendable job, especially since everything was so slow and the physical strain must have been extremely tiring.

The performance did have elements of humor in it as well. The trio play around with their sounds and had a mini race to get from one end of the room to the other. Matthew Goh was particularly hilarious, with his head bobbing due to his sensor being tied around his head.

The video that was shown as an epilogue was a compilation of the 5 (?) weeks of preparation, exploration and rehearsals for Sounding Body. I felt that it was a pity that many of the movements that they showed in the video weren’t incorporated into the actual performance, because I felt that there were many potential choreographic possibilities that weren’t implemented.

Overall, I felt that the idea of using technology in this way is really interesting and it shows the increasing trend of incorporating technology to enhance the performance. The movements incorporated could have been more varied and dynamic, but overall the idea behind it was good. It makes one think about the new boundaries that are being drawn, or erased, in art, and whether dance can be categorized as solely dance now.