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Contact I think that, oftentimes, contemporary dance, and dance in general, suffer in attendance because of overly bombastic and self-important language in their promotional materials that try too hard to impart how artistic, important, significant and clever their performances are. Is dance really that complicated? The synopsis for Contact is a turn-off, but the performance itself was a charming, uplifting and delightful experience. Choreographed by Leng Poh Gee and performed by UMa Dance Company, with the support of the Dance Department University of Malaya and Lapar Lab, Contact, at the very least, lived up to its title. The opening piece was performed in silence, with dancers in a line advancing forward in staggered positions, holding envelopes and papers in one hand each. It set the mood through the measured pace of the dancers, who then stepped forward into position to face the audience. They introduced themselves briefly and succinctly : name, level of education achieved before going on to university, their backgrounds, and their thoughts prior to entering university. Some had dance backgrounds while one or two did not. One had never even thought of going to university. And, one by one, the dancers made contact with the audience, engaging and encouraging the audience to see them as discrete individuals, before performing their first dance piece as a group. The dance performances were made up of ensemble, small group and solo performances. Kudos goes to the lighting designer. The lights played a major role in helping to set the tone for each of the performances. The set was bare, but the dancers made full use of the space. Some of the dances presented seemed to simply explore technique, movement and space and left me dazed and confused. Is contemporary dance supposed to make you feel out of sorts?
 Other pieces are simply delightful and a joy to watch, like the duet of a courting duo. Happy, charming, joyful, and somewhat whimsical, you feel the dancers’ smiles and the spring of their step. The solo pieces are especially powerful, with the most memorable one performed by the only male dancer in the troupe. He had a beautiful, strong and engaging presence on-stage, fluidity of movement and good technique. He commands your attention on stage but doesn’t hog it. He is one of only two or three dancers that night who truly showed a connection between music, body and choreography. A dance art teacher once told my class that the mark of a great dancer is when you can see the music and hear the dance as the dancer performs. Some of the performances approach that gold standard enough to leave me, a contemporary dance non-enthusiast, breathless and awed.
 There was no intermission but the dances and their transitions were carefully arranged to bring the audience from one scene and setting to another. In the middle of the performance, the dancers performed a piece to spoken word, using the text of the letter they received for their audition and interview into the university’s dance department as music. Some of the pieces, such as this one, seem more like drama improve rather than dance. But, they still engaged, even as they sometimes befuddled, the audience.
The end of the dance performance saw the students bring an abstract sculpture on-stage, and, one by one, introduced themselves again and stated their thesis title and supervising teacher. The performance has come full circle – from high school students wondering where they were going with their lives, to anxious university applicants and, finally, university graduates. Through each of these stages, the dancers made contact with the audience verbally, and made contact with the audience visually and emotionally through the dances presented. While some of the dance choreography and choice of music baffled me to the point of frustration, overall, Contact was utterly entertaining. And, perhaps, that is the point of contemporary dance – to make you think and feel out of the ordinary, move you out of your comfort zone, and make you see things differently. At the end, I found myself clapping and smiling almost as widely as the friends and families of the dancers who were sitting in the audience with me.
 This whimsical, light, yet sprightly duet augmented by lively expression and good technique.
Maybe, contemporary dance is not simply a show of technique or an exercise in how befuddled you can leave your audience. Or, maybe I should just count myself lucky that this particular performance did more than live up to my low expectations – it surpassed it by miles. What Contact really did for me was convince me that contemporary dance is worth considering and attending. After all, the exit is only a few steps away. But imagine the experience, the delight and the sheer entertainment you miss out on. Sometimes, trying to see the world doesn’t need to involve buying a plane ticket to another country. Sometimes, all it takes is a small donation or a ticket to see the world you thought you knew through a completely different lens.
Read also: Ad astra per aspera — the journey to the stage (by Bilqis Hijjas) |
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