Writer: Mayo Martin
Publisher: Today – For Art’s Sake
Date: December 18th, 2010
I think people should take a leaf out of THE Dance Company Guidebook. In particular, from that chapter on Being Adventurous.
Their performances of three pieces in tonight’s Edge is testament to just how willing this young company is to get out of their comfort zones and simply try something new, occasional awkward hiphop moves be damned.
The night kicked off with a restaging of Water Bloom. One of their earlier pieces choreographed by company artistic director Kuik Swee Boon, it bears the mark of much that we’ve come to know and appreciate from this tight unit of dancers, here giving life to a patchwork series of movements that are at turns poetic and delirious, haunting and sombre. (A bit of eerie X-Files mood in there somewhere too).
They follow it up with a 10-minute teaser of Kuik’s next piece, As It Fades, which we’ll see at next year’s Arts Fest. And it doesn’t seem at all like a “typical” THE piece. It begins with the group standing in a line, each one by turns enacting a series of disjointed actions by turns. Granted, it’s just a snippet of the full show, but I didn’t sense any kind of overarching “big theme” as in say, O Sounds or Silence, just a series of individual or dual expositions, almost fragmented. And it was done very nonchalantly, I thought, as the dancers did manic, did flirtatious, without any seeming connection.
Plus, they’ve discovered humour: Lee Mun Wai mumbling something in Cantonese as he dances, Zhou Zihao channelling Chaplinesque and strongman gestures (complete with mock wheezing). There may have been some hints of these quirks in previous pieces, but it seems like they’re exploring it further in this new one.
Oh, and the final duet between Yarra Ileto and Zhou – without touching each other – was just beautiful.
And then, in Bohemian Parody, they do hiphop and channel their inner Kung Fu Hustle gangster selves.
The group has shown a keen interest in collaborating with other choreographers and this one’s a new work by Kim Jae Duk, whose company Modern Table churns out pieces that are, well, un-THE. (He also presented the fantastic, super-tight dude duet Clocker. Can we see more of his works at The Esplanade’s Studio Season or da:ns Fest please?)
Which is why you’ve got the entire gang (including Kuik) all dressed in white, doing their best B-boy (and girl) attempts.
It’s not a natural thing for most of them (with the notable exception of the night’s most excellent performer, Zhou – sorry dude, slipped my mind but you should’ve at least been the runner-up for best newcomer this year, not that you’re actually new in the biz…) but they’re serious about making it right, and that’s mega plus points, IMHO.
But it’s not only the fact that they ventured into hiphop territory (not completely, of course, since it’s still a contemporary dance piece) but also that Bohemian Parody is one weird piece for them to do.
A commentary on, as the liner notes say, “the pretentions of faux-bohemian life”, you had gestures that vaguely suggest snorting coke (at least that’s how I saw it), scenes of someone breaking people’s necks, legs and arms (complete with sound effects), someone dancing with a bunch of sneakers tied to his waist, and at some point, someone coming out doing the sangmo thing (you know that Korean headgear with the long tassel that they twirl around with their heads?)
Great job, guys!
PS, that token blog post photo probably has nothing to do with the show, but that’s the only photo I’ve got. Heh.