Forward Moves
Singapore Arts Festival 2009
7 June 2009

By Jessica Ho

Body Swap
by Joavien Ng

The general concept and idea of this piece is very interesting. It is a collaborative effort between two complete strangers from different cultural backgrounds - an European girl living in Hamburg and an Asian Chinese girl from Singapore. This cross-cultural experimentation started when the two dance-makers met for the first time in Abu Dhabi, the geographical midpoint between Hamburg and Singapore.

Before beginning the choreographic process, they “switch lives” for a period of time. Dani from Hamburg was flown over to Singapore and likewise, Joavien went to Hamburg to stay with Dani’s boyfriend and family. They tried to understand each other deeper by living each other’s lives.

The piece started with Dani in full white costume and Joavien in yellow; obviously representing each other’s skin colour. With Dani sitting legs wide open and Joavien in a squatting position, they started talking about this collaborative project to each other, as if they were talking about someone else. In their conversation, Dani always seemed to think that the “Chinese girl” was from China and Joavien thought that the “white girl” was from America.

As they talked on, they started taking random pictures and videos of themselves and even the audience. They often took a microphone from the side of the stage and started posing questions about racial issues to certain members of the audience. For example: “Do you think Americans are too loud?” or “Do you think Asians are overly polite?” This kind of talking cum question and answer sessions were featured quite a few times in this piece.

At one point, both of them sat at a corner of the stage with brown paper bags covering their faces while a video played showing their experiences staying in each other’s homes. It showed how they had to adapt to different weather, different food, the places they were brought to, the different activities that they did with each other’s boyfriends and parents.

There was also a section when Dani grabbed the microphone and began to sing an old Chinese song as Joavien danced and lip-synced. It was quite hilarious because she would have difficulty remembering the Chinese lyrics and she would frantically run towards the paper where the lyrics were written in understandable sound vowels for reference. There was also another funny moment when Dani started rapping and Joavien danced like a crazy woman in a disco.

Soon after, the two of them started wrestling with each other as if trying to merge their bodies into one. There were so many odd moments - Dani stuck her head under Joavien’s armpit, Joavien stuck her fingers into Dani’s mouth, and so forth.  Finally, they ended by pulling each others’ shirts up so high that their heads were covered with only their hair sticking out. They then stripped down to just their underwear and a tank top before running towards each other. They crashed their bodies against each other and then fell to the floor with a loud bang. After pulling themselves up, they put on each others’ clothes.  Dani, who was obviously bigger than Joavien, could not get into Joavien’s clothes. She only managed to get one leg into the pants and one arm into the shirt.

I felt that this piece has an interesting concept but I would have liked it a lot more if it didn’t seem so much like a post-modern physical theatre – too much talking, random Q&A sessions and singing but very little movement.  I left the theatre wishing that they explored and developed the choreography much deeper.

During the whole piece, I was not really sure when they actually swapped bodies. It seemed as if the swap occurred at the end when they wore each others’ clothes.  But when I think back, I felt that, mostly, they were constantly going into and out of each others’ personalities.

Q&A
by Daniel K

The spotlight revealed a bald-headed topless guy (Daniel the choreographer and performer) wearing only a pair of tights, which resembled a pair of undersized jeans that was too short and too tight for his legs. The opera music of Madame Butterfly came on and he moved in a somewhat smooth yet restrained way.  His expression was neither calm nor troubled, but very focused and serious. He moved across the stage in movements that seemed “not-quite-there”. It was as if he was trying to do big, long shapes but unable to fully extend the movements. There were also quite a few rough falls that just made me jump in my seat. I did, however, like the mood of the piece created by the slightly dim, brown lighting.

After Daniel finished his solo, he put on a pair of nerdy-looking glasses, grabbed a microphone and started explaining to the audience about a survey he did before he began his choreography.  He interviewed a wide range of people from different ages, backgrounds and careers. The entire survey was about what an audience would want to see in a performance, more specifically in a contemporary dance performance. In his effort to create a dance, which is catered to the audiences’ needs and wants, a methodical approach akin to commercial product development was taken.

On a screen, Daniel projected a slide show of all the results of the survey and explained very carefully each section. It was a very detailed survey which covers questions on music, lighting, costume, themes, type of movements, and so forth.  The results of the survey showed that:

·       The most popular theme is on human relationships

·       The most popular type of music is classical

·       The most popular costume are those that reveals or bares the body

·       The most popular movements are those that covers space, and

·       The preferred type of lighting are earthy colours, contrast, and dark

He explained that he created his entire choreography based closely on the results of the survey in order to please the audience.  He reminded us of the dim, earthy colours he used in the lighting, the costume which bared his body, movements which covered space and the opera music from Madame Butterfly that reflected the theme of human relationships. Upon concluding the talk, he did the exact same solo again for the second time.

As soon as he finished, he put on a huge, white fur coat, a pair of sunglasses and a huge, hip hop styled chain around his neck.  Again he talked to the audience but this time he gave the live audience a change to make choreographic decisions for him as he allowed his piece to be changed according to the choice of the audience. He asked what music we would choose, how we want him to travel across space, and how would we like him to dress up.  We voted for Pop music, rolls in travel, and a Mystery costume.

He then stripped off his costume until he was wearing only a pair of black tights which resembled a swimming trunk. Two assistants helped to “dress” him in a mystery costume, which was black-and-yellow gaffer tape stuck all around his head, torso, right arm and leg.

He began his solo for the third time – now performing to the song I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That). Most of the movements were exactly the same, with only some rolls replacing the runs as he travelled across the stage. I felt that his solo improved by the time he did it for the third time. The movements were visually longer and more relaxed, with quieter and gentler falls.

After watching this piece, I felt that Daniel could have produced a better piece if he had not gone so much into the methodical details of following everything in the survey results. I felt that this piece focused too much on the technical side of choreography that it became merely a presentation of an experiment.

Good quality art is after all organic, creative and inspired! I don’t think it is necessary for the audience to see how well the choreographer followed the survey for them to be convinced that it is good.  A good piece of art is not born because the choreographer follows a set of rules or guidelines. Most audiences prefer to leave the decision in the choreographer’s hands. They simply come to see how a choreographer or performer can impress, entertain and give them something that can touch their emotions and stir something in their hearts.