Re: the Human, and the Other

Since last year’s Searching Blue, I have been contemplating how the Self and Other might coexist, and how we might demonstrate the possibility of coexistence amidst today’s challenging global circumstances, while reflecting on the deeper layers of meaning between the work and our audiences.

As a Singaporean and Southeast Asian contemporary dance company, we have been working to establish our own identity and position. We want to show the world who we are, and to also bring forth more progressive ideas. Now, we realise that even as we embrace and take pride in our cultures, ethnicities and nationalities as part of our identities, there is a larger, more pertinent identity — our common humanity — to be accepted and forged.

The pandemic taught us the importance of staying connected with our communities, but we might need to rethink our definition of what community could be. Could an entire country, or even the whole planet, become connected as a community? If so, let us face head-on this challenge of coexistence between each other, and liberate ourselves from the trappings of a narrowed sense of identity by reimagining new possibilities to create a greater sense of belonging.

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关于：人，与他者

从去年的《寻蓝》开始，我就一直在思考如何在当今艰难的世界局势中展示人与他者共存的可能性，以及作品与观众之间更深刻的意义与关系。

作为新加坡-东南亚的当代舞团，我们一直在努力寻找自己的定位与身份。我们希望向世界展示自己，同时接纳更前卫的理念。而现在我们发现，当我们接受自己的身份、并为自己的文化、国家和族群感到自豪时，我们还有一个更大更重要的身份，那就是我们是否能一起找到作为人的共同认同。

疫情让我们意识到地方社群的联结有多么重要，但我们可能真正需要重新思考的是关于社群的定义。例如，整个国家甚至整个地球的人类是否构成一个社群？如果是的话，让我们正视人与他者共存的挑战，尝试通过重新想象新的可能性来释放关于人的身份的束缚，创造更广泛的认同！