DiverCity 2014— Noted With Thanks
Choreographers/Dancers: Jessica Christina,
Sheriden Newman, Wang Wei Wei, Yarra Ileto
Original Lighting Designer: Tommy Wong
Assistant Lighting Designer: Josiah Yoong
27 Nov 2014, 8.00pm
National Museum of Singapore Gallery Theatre
DiverCity 2014 - Noted with Thanks, the
opening performance of M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival, was an
evening of reflections by four female foreigners living in Singapore.
Choreographed by Sheriden Newman (an Australian who has lived in
Singapore for 3 years), Yarra Ileto (Australian, 12 years), Jessica
Christina (Indonesian, 7 years) and Wang Wei Wei (Chinese, 7 years),
personal tales of living in Singapore were told by each dancer with
ensemble support from the other three.
Of particular interest was how, throughout the
performance, lighting designer Tommy Wong played with shadows and lines
extensively, which provided a dream-like state to each story. The
shadowy stage seemed to suggest that the audience was peeping into the
dancers' intimate moments, as well as their innermost yearnings.
However, just when the audience members started to be drawn in, the
stage and auditorium were brightly lit and a recorded clip of applause
was played. During these segments, appreciation mingled with alienation
as the audience was jolted from its immersion in the dancers' anxiety,
joy, fear and determination. At these times, I found myself more aware
of the stories of the four dancers unfolding before my eyes.
The first solo was created by Newman. With her
Bharatanatyam training fused with contemporary steps, she moved
rhythmically with pieces of white A4 paper floating around her. Her
dance demonstrated the tension between exploding upwards into the air
and remaining rooted to the ground. The paper surrounding her signified
bureaucracy and the chase for paper qualifications which are highly
prized in Singapore. While the execution of the series of movements that
shifted her gravity was enjoyable, a more psychological connection
between the dancer and the paper would have better supported her
concept.
Ileto began her solo with a voiceover about her
life in Singapore, one which adopted a tone of playful mockery. She
began the narrative standing on a table that was followed by a
trance-like dance sequence performed with lightness and tinted with
sarcasm. It was danced with fluidity and an organic connection between
voice and movement which suggested that she has approached her new life
in Singapore by drowning in life itself.
The third piece was choreographed by Christina
who used it to question her purpose as an Indonesian living in
Singapore. She designed her dance sequences such that she was creatively
surrounding a table upon which she scribbled Indonesian words which
were shown to the audience. She danced with great flexibility and a
sense of cheerfulness and wildness. At times, she embraced the table; a
metaphor for seeking a place of refuge juxtaposed against the notion of
living within the restricted spaces of Singapore.
The final dance sequence was both a battle and
an interaction between the dancer and her shadow. Wang performed a
series of moves that involved balancing, twisting and bending, depicting
someone moving through life with calculated care. Compared to the
preceding three pieces, there were fewer dramatic moments in this piece,
and it proved a subdued conclusion to the evening. I felt it might have
worked better to have ended the night with a more impactful piece, such
as Ileto's or Christina's.
Across the pieces, the movement of fingers was a
key element of the performative vocabulary. The dancers maneuvered
their fingers with precision and articulation in various parts of the
performance; they were wings that flew freely, fingers that typed
frantically, or hands that wrote ceaselessly. They symbolized mixed
expressions of conflict, joy and love. Together with the soundscape of
scribbling, paper tearing and objects clashing, the fingers that danced
through the space generated the disturbing sensation of being trapped in
an energetic but industrious life, and also hinted at the search for a
moment of freedom, or perhaps at a search for a way forward – for new
chapter of life in a country that is newer to some of them than to
others.
(This
dance review is an outcome of Critics' Circle Dance Writing Mentorship
Programme. Mentor: Dr Stephanie Burridge)
