The Straits Times
Monday, May 21 2011
Moving Ode To Loss
Kuik Swee Boon’s intense homage to traditions speaks volumes in his strong Asian voice.
Choreographer Kuik Swee Boon has a deep obsession with lost tongues – the fading presence of Chinese dialects such as Teochew, Hainanese and Cantonese – in people’s lives.
A recurring theme in many of his works since his dance group started in 2007, the obsession has finaly alchemised into As It Fades, which premiered at the Singapore Arts Festival last weekend. Anyone who knows Kuik, a former dancer with Singapore and Spanish national companies, knows he is a man of few words. But when he speaks, what he says is usually urgent, intense and profound.
Like the man, the work was a compact and masterful ode, a poetic homage to traditions and the erosions wrought by time.
As It Fades marked a breakthrough for the Singapore group since the last time I saw them on the Esplanade Theatre stage for Silence in 2009. Eschewing heaving droning soundscapes in favour of rousing melancholic melodies by Max Richter, Kuik sculpted dramatic solos and quiet duets, tapping on a vast vocabulary of long-limbed, languid sweeps and frenetic knee jerks.
His choreographic voice has matured most distinctly, and with much more clarity, in As It Fades – it was strong, articulate and, unmistakably, Asian. Comprising complex floorwork and powerful lunges, the movements were symbiotic and tightly woven, the ebb and flow between steps reminiscent of taiji.
Moveable sculptures, which looked like cascading glass shards in mid-air, formed the eloquent and beautiful backdrop of the piece. At times, they turned into sails as the dancers migrated them from one side of the stage to the other then moved into a circle like a tornado force.
As It Fades painted a sorrowful but slow acceptance of people’s cultural loss: A sole female voice crooned a Hainanese folk song. A rambling young male Cantonese voice revisited childhood memories. Five elderly men and women emerged from the back of the stage to dance a slow waltz with the dancers.
The work spoke to me deeply as a Singaporean and as an Asian.
And it touched many more in the post-show dialogue, and elderly woman said that the work and the folk songs spoke to her, even though she came to the show worried that she “didn’t know much about contemporary dance”.
To which Kuik said: “People think contemporary dance is only for young people, but T.H.E believes in connecting with our past before we move on.”
The troupe’s lyrical works are often built on Singapore stories. With As It fades, it captured the poignant sentiments of a half-forgotten heritage.
T.H.E is no longer a young company with plenty of promise. It has clearly delivered and its dancers, under the patient and demanding hand of their artistic direction have grown from strength to strength with each show.
Certainly it has emerged to be one of the strongest contemporary dance groups in Asia.