By Ranjaniy Mohan

The spotlight shone on a man in a house. He moves very slowly but systematically using minimal feet movements. Emphasis was given to hand and finger movements. He slowly reaches for the head of the mannequin that is suspended in mid-air, hanging upside down. Blood starts to ooze out from the head, dripping onto his face; but his expression showed neither fear nor pain.

That was the start of the gripping dance by Lina Limosani. The audience was captured as soon as the dance begun. Entitled “A Delicate Situation”, it was anything but delicate. The dancers moved very swiftly and gracefully throughout the whole show.

It was amazing how the dancers managed to keep their feet steadily grounded with the amount of sliding, turning, and spinning they had to make in all those long, white, ghastly costumes that they were draped in.

Two figures emerged underneath all that white cloth, twisting and turning, depicting a struggling motion to stand up. The dancers were very flexible and kept arching their backs. Both figures where clad in white, flowy dresses, their faces not visible, masked by black stretchy materials. The music slowly picked up and intricate hand movements were seen.

It was spell-binding to watch the way they twisted their bodies together in an organized and systematic way against the eerie music that was protruding from the background. Rathimalar Govindarajoo fascinated the crowd by repeatedly rising and falling from the ground using only her back and head.

Elaine Pedley played a pregnant lady who was haunted by a pontianak, trying to kill her baby. Her movements were very delicate and soft. It was interesting to look at the way she changed the position of each mannequin head using her head and knees.

An aspect that should be mentioned is the sound effects used to stage this entire dance. Sound designer Hardesh Singh showed off his exceptional talent in bringing music to life. Tiny sound details like the creaking of a hanger, the pounding sound of thunder, the heavy downpour of rain, the constant wailing and cry of a baby, and of course the creepy background music was enough to give the audience a real-life feel of an actual haunted house instead of a studio.

Low Shee Hoe made wonders with his hands. The movements of his fingers could beat that of a drummer’s and a guitarist’s. The scene where he withered and suffered under the torture of the two pontianaks was indeed a sight to marvel. He screamed and cried with such agony making the audience believe that he was indeed in immense pain, what more when he was trapped in a straightjacket, pulled by both the pontianaks at each end. The way he moved was like jelly, bending and flexing, giving me the impression that he could never break. Besides his performance, the technical direction for the show proved to be excellent as well. The way lighting cast a shadow of the ghost dancing instead of showing the real thing created a mysterious feeling among the audience.

When asked choreographer Lina Limosani of what inspired her to stage such a dance, she replied, “When I received the invitation, I wanted to create something new, something dark and evil in contrast to what I normally stage, which is usually humorous and comical. Besides that, I also wanted to stage something that connected to Malaysia, and thus I found out that many Malaysians were afraid of these Pontianak’s.”

Both Rathimalar Govindarajoo and Suhaili Micheline played their parts well as the pontianaks of the show.  Rathimalar’s expressions were marvelous as she edged towards the audience with her fiery make-up, she started hissing and together with an evil grin on her face, it certainly sent shivers down the audiences’ spines.

Suhaili Micheline was absolutely great as well. Her dance movements were so flowy that it looked as though she was dancing on air. She was adorned with long white fingernails that gave her a wicked and malevolent look as she fed on the pregnant woman’s umbilical cord and killed the baby. Yes, some scenes were indeed grotesque and it had the audience clinging to their seats.

Lina added that during rehearsals, she tried not to scare Suhaili, so instead of literally telling her that she had to tear open a pregnant woman’s umbilical cord, she opted for more subtle words like “suck the blood from the side of the woman’s stomach” so that it wouldn’t leave much psychological damage on Suhaili.

Another monstrous scene would be when Rathimalar straps the poor boy she haunts onto a chair. Although the audience could not see what was actually taking place as her back was towards us and she covered him altogether, the terrible sounds of suction actually told us that she was ripping his body apart and feeding on his organs. Once again, Hardesh Singh has mesmerized the audience with his hypnotic sound effects.

As a whole, the dance was indeed a fabulous piece of art. The workmanship and the effort put in by the cast and the production crew could be seen at the end of the show. Unfortunately, one detail of the show was not clear. According to Lina Limosani’s prior objective to state this show, she mentioned that the purpose of her to stage such a dance was to actually prove to Malaysians that the pontianaks are just a figment of their imaginations. And if they choose not to believe in them, they would not exist at all. 

Alas, the dance instead depicted what the pontianaks do and how they torture and scare humans. To this, she replied, “I did not achieve my initial objective of the show due to a few factors. First would be because I had minimal time to work with the dancers since most of them are part timers and they were busy with other productions as well. Second would be because I did not fully investigate the nature of this work thus, it became very literal. But I would really love to make a development to this dance and create something that relates to my initial purpose.”

She added that she would love to stick to the dark and evil genre for the moment instead of going back to her usual humourous stages. Lina’s already planning on her second dance piece entitled “The Fear of Detachment,” which is set against a labyrinth where the dancers will be required to escape from the tangle they are caught up in. It would be a more intense and alluring dance piece.

Although “A Delicate Situation” belonged to the horror genre, Lina never forgot to insert a piece of humour in it to portray who she really was. There was a scene where Rathimalar seduces the boy that she haunts. Not only does he fall for her seduction, they also share a romantic yet seductive dance together.