As It Fades《從消逝出发》
Show Details
Type: End stage; black box; full-length
Performers: 7 dance artists
Touring Party: 11–13
Duration: 60 minutes
About the Work
Choreographed by T.H.E's Artistic Director and Main Choreographer Kuik Swee Boon and hailed as “one of the top three performances in Singapore 2011” by The Straits Times, As It Fades《從消逝出发》was originally created and commissioned for Singapore Arts Festival 2011. The work was re-created in 2014 at the SOTA Drama Theatre featuring music by award-winning sound artist Bani Haykal in collaboration with guzheng artist Natalie Tse.
Seeded in the Singapore Arts Festival 2011 theme, ‘I Want To Remember’, As It Fades《從消逝出发》is Swee Boon's homage to Asian traditions and their fading presence in our lives. Central to the performance is the use of Hainanese and various folk tunes, and the reflection of personal stories and life experiences from the performers, a powerful trigger of personal and collective memory encompassing culture, heritage and environment on the societal and individual level. These are important as they reconnect us to our roots and to gaps in our past, especially when we don’t have any capacity to remember.
As It Fades《從消逝出发》further draws upon dialects, folk songs and memories of our dance artists and their parents to create a piece of work that speaks with an emotionally charged language; one that is lost, forgotten and buried deep within our bodies. Its dance vocabulary reflects Swee Boon’s view of the relationship between modern Man and traditional culture; that is, a fragmented and incomplete understanding towards the latter, giving rise to part of the work’s Mandarin subtitle《破碎与扭曲》– literally translating to ‘broken and twisted’. Akin to triggering something so deep within us that was once there, As It Fades《從消逝出发》holds on to memory fragments whether real or imagined, in an urgent call to record, to document and to reconnect with ourselves long forgotten.
Since its conception, this landmark 2011 production by T.H.E Dance Company has toured to major venues in France, Italy, China, Denmark and Malaysia.
World Premiere: May 2011, Singapore Arts Festival, Theatre, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore
Malaysia Premiere: September 2011, Mydance Festival, Kuala Lumpur
France Premiere: March 2012, Les Hivernales, Festival de Danse, Avignon
China Premiere: July 2012, Beijing Modern Dance Festival, Beijing
Italy Premiere: September 2012, Oriente Occidente Dance Festival, Rovereto
Denmark Premiere: November 2012, Denmark Mancopy Dance Festival, Aarhus & Copenhagen
India Premiere: September 2014, INTERFACE Festival, Kolkata
South Korea Premiere: September 2016, Daegu International Dance Festival, Daegu
Thailand Premiere: November 2016, Bangkok International Dance Festival, Bangkok
Japan Premiere: October 2017, Niigata International Dance Festival, Niigata
Latest Performance: February 2021, Reawakening Cultural Memories, Our Tampines Hub, Singapore
Media/Audience Quotes
“The kinetic energy of the dancers touched a chord with the audience in an immediate, visceral way with the duality of movement and story interconnected and reinforced by lucid interactions between them…Every moment of dance… told a story in a narrative that weaves between abstraction and literal translation that confronted our senses and demanded reflection.”
– Stephanie Burridge, CriticalDance UK 2014
“Kuik’s signature movement vocabulary is writ large in As It Fades. The choreography is minute yet expansive, pointed yet luscious and undeniably demanding.”
– Germaine Cheng, The Straits Times 2014
“Swee Boon’s movement style devotes enormous attention to detail… Every movement phrase in As It Fades is weighed and balanced like a sentence, and can be savoured like poetry.”
– Bilqis Hijjas, KL Dance Watch 2014
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.