Mr. Sign
Show Details
Type: End stage; black box; full-length
Performers: 6 dance artists
Touring Party: 11-13
Duration: 70 minutes
About the Work
Resident choreographer Kim Jae Duk’s first full-length creation for T.H.E Dance Company, Mr. Sign, centres on the subject of thoughts and ideas. Framed by a larger inquiry on existence and rationality, Mr. Sign examines the individual’s place in a hierarchical society, where relationships may not necessarily provide emotional satisfaction and peace of mind is only achieved through the realisation of self. Ultimately, it questions if communication is indeed important to humans.
The Korean choreographer is also the creator of the original music. Praised as a “precociously talented maverick” by The Straits Times, Singapore, Jae Duk draws upon myriad musical influences including the reworking of traditional Korean ‘trot music’, Indonesian gamelan, and parts of Tchaikovsky’s classic piece Swan Lake, to create an edgy, heart-pounding music score for Mr. Sign.
The first version of Mr. Sign premiered at M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival 2013, Singapore, and toured to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the inaugural d’MOTION International Dance Festival. In 2019, it was reworked with a completely new cast, and subsequently toured to Sicily, Italy in 2022.
World Premiere: November 2013, cont·act Contemporary Dance Festival, Singapore
Malaysia Premiere: December 2013, d’MOTION International Dance Festival, Selangor
Italy Premiere: April 2022, Scenario Pubblico, Sicily
Latest Local Performance: January 2022, Our Tampines Hub, Singapore
Media/Audience Quotes
“T.H.E has struck gold with South Korean choreographer Kim Jae Duk…(Mr. Sign) is hard-hitting with a tinge of humour.”
– Germaine Cheng, The Straits Times, 2013
“Mr. Sign is a universally resonant work able to strike a chord with any audience...the work's expansiveness fires the imagination, and is one why it can transcend cultural borders.”
– Li Hai Yen, dance journal/HK, 2014
“There are plenty of moments during Mr. Sign that are so disturbing and out of this world, we cannot help but giggle at the dark humour that results from the the dancers as they speak gibberish, bicker amongst each other over who truly is the legendary and mysterious ‘Mr. Sign’, or end up literally carried around...an exaggerated mirror of our own society.”
– Richard, Bakchormeeboy, 2019
Enquiries
For booking inquiries, tour rider, full performance video or more information, please submit the form or contact us via email at athelyna@the-dancecompany.com.