The new Spontaneous Dance Company and Nophand Boonyai, the visionary director behind “Welcome to Nothing”, “The Adventures of Captain Dan” and last year’s best-reviewed play, “Sunflower”, want you to witness “Signs and Gestures”.

“First of all, this is not a play,” says Nophand. “We won’t call it a performance, either, otherwise the audience expects something. We’d prefer to call it ‘a demonstration in communication through body language’.”

“I came across a book on the topic and found it very interesting, so I did some further research online.”

Nophand explains how he puts theory into practice: “In the rehearsal, we started from doing improvisational movement, playing on the adjustment of composition, space, force, emotion, etc. Then I went home and wrote a draft script with list of exercises and questions, and that’s faster than keeping on improvising.”

“We started from simple body gestures in everyday communication—greetings, asking directions, for example. And the question is whether we can use these gestures in different contexts.”

“A thumb up means giving praise, but if you stretch out your arm, it suggests anger, and when you twist your thumb down, you show disapproval.”

Nophand has no wish to “teach or lecture”, just share some observations, as he puts his three performers onstage.

“They ‘saw’ the show, but they looked like they didn’t, and some just walked away.  
Interestingly enough, when they noticed a video camera taping the action, they were more interested.”