With well-known choreographers and
dancers lined up for CReations 2014- Requiem, I looked forward to Maya Dance Theatre’s latest
dance repertoire with great expectation.
While the first piece ZenDance:
Form is Emptiness 2014 (Part One) immediately captured my attention with its
rice-paper costumes which gave a stylized form to each dancer, it
disappointed me as the dancers seemed to be foreign to their costumes, and were
unable to integrate the costumes as part of their dance. Nevertheless, I could
see that the choreography required total focus and synchronization from the
dancers, not just in terms of forms, but spirit too. While the dance looked
messy due to the inability to handle the rice-paper costumes with ease, the
dancers executed their actions with great faith and belief, and as an audience
member, I truly believed that they were paying homage to something greater than
themselves through the dance.
When Dr Sun performed in the rice-paper costume in ZenDance: Form is Emptiness 2014 (Part Two),
we could see that she was able to handle the costume so well that the costume
was integrated as part of her movements. The costume and the dancer were an
entity, and the movement was constantly moving on a horizontal plane in the
space. To me, as a "form", she was a new born, which later metamorphosed into a
butterfly. She executed her movements with great fluidity, as if she was water,
wind, and air—the natural elements one could find on earth. She danced as if
she breathed through the dance, in one long breath. Every moment of hers was different; every moment
changed; and it is “life” to me. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form—this Zen
philosophy was fully demonstrated with Dr Sun's highly crafted and enlightening
dance piece.
Do you know you? is a piece
in which the Self took a retrospective examination of oneself, with Samantha
Teo who examined her "inner self", played by Viv Phua with diversity of strong emotions and
expressions. The complexity of "Self" meeting the "other self" was
portrayed through the interactions between the characters, and between the
characters and the audience, judiciously choreographed by Kenneth Tan.
Wear Have You Been? choreographed
by theatre director Jeremiah Choy gave a dramatic examination on the matter of
attachment to possession, which was represented by possession of a long-lost
favorite article of clothing by each dancer. While it was interesting to see how
drama and characterization were incorporated into dance, some dancers lacked
the energy to sustain their characterization and emotional state within the movements. The dancers seemed to be lost at times in the depiction of their characters in
the 15-minute piece.
Soul River/Blues wrapped up
the evening with high energy and spirit. Bernice Lee demonstrated her ability
to execute movements with convincing expressions, flexibility, and sensitivity to her
partner and space in this piece. It was especially a joy to watch her in her
dance sequence with Shahrin Johry. They interpreted the piece with subtlety of
emotions demonstrated through their playfulness in forms, which portrayed their
sentiments at the same time. To me, Soul
River/Blues is about life force and the source of energy/spirit.
The evening ended on a high note, in celebration of life. Throughout
the evening, the music created a diversity of textures and soundscape that gave
meaning to each dance piece. Should you spend $30 on a Saturday to catch the
dance? Yes, you should! If you have an hour and $30, do travel to The Arts House to
appreciate the art of design, music, movement and "art" itself, which depict
our inner yearnings and pursuit. Two more performances on 18 Oct (3pm and 8pm). More
information can be found here:
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