Asia Dance Channel

Drawn to Malaysia - Two Visiting Artists-Academics on Traditional Performance, Non-narrative Meanings and Puppetry

15 September 2009, 8.30 – 10.30pm

The Annexe, Central Market

By Hon Jia Xuan

How is dance (or the arts in general) doing in Malaysia? Looking at the fact that my talented dance peers who graduated from ASWARA (Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan, the only higher education institution dedicated to the performing arts, culture and heritage in Malaysia) and myself now studying dance overseas, I can safely say that opportunities in this industry (if it could be considered as one) in Malaysia are still limited.

On the other hand, the glass is half-full too. As I quickly caught up with one of the dance lecturers at ASWARA, I learnt that the number of students is increasing and the institute is planning on expanding its premises. When things are definitely changing now, a question comes up - what is the broad picture that Malaysian artists and the nation know (or should know)?

The talk “Drawn to Malaysia”, organized MyDanceAlliance on 15 September 2009, turned out to be an excellent occasion for discussions and debates as such with the perspectives from both local and two artists/lecturers who decided to stay in Malaysia for three months during their sabbatical. It was interesting to hear the practices of foreigners and their relationship with Malaysia in the first half of the night, while in the second half questions and issues in regards to arts practices in Malaysia were brought up, proving that the event as such was essential for me to piece up the broad picture, as previously mentioned.

Wendy Rogers and Matthew Cohen in their own words

In the first half of the talk, guest speakers Wendy Rogers, professor of the dance department at University of California Riverside (USA) and Matthew Cohen, senior lecturer at the Drama and Theatre Department of Royal Holloway University of London (UK) shared their background, their interests or involvement in dance or theatre, the intentions of returning to Malaysia following previous visits and eventually what they learnt during their stay.

Rogers is a dance artist and educator in the USA with her practice rooted in California. Born and raised in the Berkeley in the 1960s, she was well-exposed to alternative ideas, just like how her very first dance classes were - she experienced the inherent joy of dancing through improvisation and creating group choreographies until she was old enough to join technique classes (which was a few years later). She founded her own Wendy Rogers Dance Company in the 90s which now, in her own words, existed in the form/concept of a 10-year project where she still gets to achieve her artistic visions but through collaborating with other dancers-choreographers and without the pressure of having to manage a company trying to survive under the arts funding system in the USA. Roger’s creations are what she termed as “site-derived”, instead of “site-specific”, works and she draws inspiration from forests and the architectures of a famous American woman architect, Julia Morgan. What initially drew her to Malaysia were the Malaysian dancers who have non-Western traditional background and the choreographies they produce. In her own words, “I am…experiencing a lot of questions - ‘What makes something contemporary or traditional?’ ‘What does it mean to conserve a tradition?’ ‘What makes meaning?’”

On the other hand, although born and raised in America, Cohen who stayed in Europe and Indonesia is not attached to a particular location as much as Rogers. With a background in anthropology of theatre as well as a trained dalang (puppeteer), he is now working on his upcoming book which explores the notions of exoticism and post-colonialism in South East Asian (SEA) dance practices, starting in the late 1900s up till the 1970s (“How was the ‘exotic’ SEA portrayed and appropriated by choreographers in the West, such as Ruth St. Denis?” “How did dancers from SEA, such as Uday Shankar, enter the world stage and how did they interpret their own culture in the West?”). With these in mind, his visit to Malaysia is making him rethink the ASEAN ideology, the culture of politics and the politics of culture. He ended his presentation with a sharing of two excerpts from a piece of work that Anas, one of Cohen’s UM students and Cohen himself devised in two months’ time.

The discussion with lots of questions and no answers

The second half of the night was a discussion between the speakers and audiences. Active contributors from the audience included Professor Mohd Anis from UM, Ramli Ibrahim from Sutra Dance Theatre and Fahmi Fadzil, an independent interdisciplinary artist. The discussion lasted for an hour, but within such a short time, questions were raised and discussed. As it was an informal discussion without a particular focus, I attempt to list these issues broadly as the following:

Ø Artists consuming the idea of ‘exoticism’; the gap between dance scholars and dance artists.

Ø The “fusion-cuisine syndrome” in a globalised world; the solutions to overcoming this dilemma.

Ø The performing arts in Malaysia; how they are closely related to the socio-political situation of the country.

Some interesting ideas or comments that were being brought up included the following:

Ø Although Malaysia hails herself as a multicultural society, there is a huge concern when it comes to cultural practices in the non-English speaking communities. Subtexts in contextualized performances are not being understood due to language problems.

Ø While there seemed to be a lot of happenings in the performing arts industry, a sustainable environment is not being created. The sustenance and continuity of idea is not happening.

Ø Politics play a huge part in art making in Malaysia, especially amongst the younger generation. Is there still a point of continuing to perform the idea of “Malaysia”? What is modernism and post-modernism in the context of Malaysia? How does nationalism come into play in these two eras? How is the nation going to move forward from this point?

Ø Artists form the most well-informed community in Malaysia (in terms of national development).

I left the talk with complex feelings. Three years of living abroad made me realise my cultural identity is uniquely Malaysian. Yet, just like what the simple question of “What brought you to Malaysia to make art?” eventually led to, I asked myself, “I am a Malaysian, but what makes Malaysia a nation? What is so special about Malaysia?” It is definitely not as simple as a portfolio of beautiful beaches and magnificent architectures, a leader and the government, the population or the languages we speak. It is the culture and heritage. What, then, is our culture and heritage? How do or should artists put the idea of “Malaysia” into performances?

In the current context of Malaysia, solutions to these issues seemed still too early to be found. However I was intrigued by the fact that these issues were brought up, which is the main reason I found this talk extremely valuable and essential - we are heading towards 1Malaysia, aren’t we? Can practitioners in the arts and culture industry assume their roles in nation building, or in the identity search for Malaysia?