By Pawit Mahasarinand and Chavatvit Muangkeo (Self-Unfinished)

The astonishing moves of Xavier Le Roy give artists and fans across the region much to think about.

In what has been a cultural coup for Southeast Asia’s dance fans, the past fortnight has seen France-born, Berlin-based dancer and choreographer Xavier Le Roy perform three different works in three cities. First came Product of Circumstances in Jakarta, then Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) in Singapore and finally Self-Unfinished in Bangkok. And efficient organisation by the Goethe Institut meant Le Roy had time to share his expertise with local artists and students during workshops and discussions. 

I didn’t go to the Indonesian capital, but caught Le Roy’s Printemps on Thursday, October 15 in the Merlion City. 

Although it was a preview, Le Roy faced a nearly full house as he stepped onto the bare stage of the Esplanade Theatre Studio wearing a simple red shirt and grey pants. 

Back to the audience, he signalled the start of the music – the Berlin Philharmonic’s recording of Stravinsky’s classic “Le Sacre du Printemps”.  As he turned towards us in his conductor’s pose, we realised speakers had been arranged beneath our seats to create the illusion that we were his musicians.

We didn’t need to be classical music experts to clearly see and feel that his conducting movements were so precise and accurate that he’d be able to hold a baton in front of an actual orchestra. Meanwhile, we also saw that his movements were not limited to the hands and the upper body. He was conducting with the whole body and the movements was more animated than those of a professional conductor—he’s not in a tuxedo and we’re not in suits and evening dresses after all. 

Suddenly shunted from the role of passive spectators, the audience became a part of the performance and imaginations ran free. 

The question-and-answer session that followed was as long as the show, with Le Roy offering insights into the inspirations and creative process behind what we had just seen. 

A local teenager started off asking whether Le Roy composed the music by himself—probably because of the way music and dance were inseparable in this work. “No, but I wish I could,” said Le Roy. 

Paul Rae, Professor of Theatre Studies at the National University of Singapore, noted the relationships between “conducting” and “being conducted”, and “dancing” and “being danced”. “For me, it’s about power and also sacrifice,” he said of the piece. 

With Printemps, Le Roy confirms that not only is the possibility in the creation of contemporary dance apparently limitless, but the differences in the audience’s comprehension and appreciation of it is also welcomed. 

The following Tuesday (October 20), Le Roy staged his signature solo work Self-Unfinished at the Alliance francaise de Bangkok (AFB) Auditorium. My senior-class theatre student Chavatvit Muangkeo was there and here’s his review: 

“On a stage lit with office fluorescents and bare but for a desk and chair, Le Roy led us through a jaw-dropping physical experiment that seemed to defy the boundaries of human movement. 

His 50-minute silent performance began with everyday movements – sitting down, standing up, walking forwards and backwards, and lying still – but then things got strange.

This ordinary-looking human being suddenly became monstrous. His feet and hands switched positions, and with his T-shirt over his head we were presented with the image of a headless creature. Next, he bent over and let his arms dance with his legs like a pair of lovers on the dance floor. The weirdness didn’t stop – feet over his head, he folded his spine and began walking on his shoulders. 

After the performance, audience members were heard to remark that they could almost feel the pain in their own necks as they watched Le Roy’s incredible moves.

Though any orthopaedic surgeon would feel faint at the sight, Le Roy literally upended our standpoints on dance and showed us new angles on human anatomy. 

He revealed his twisted but profound ideas at a workshop the following morning. He looked for things he did in the past to create his work and didn’t try to express anything more than what he did on stage at that moment. “What I do is what I do; the way you look at it is up to you,” he said.

Also at the performance and workshop was Kandha Arts ’n Theatre’s artistic director Sonoko Prow, who gave this verdict in our phone conversation: “The whole experience was very inspirational. It has encouraged me to defy previous advice from fellow artists. For example, at the end of the performance, there was no curtain call. From his explanation at the workshop, I came to realise that we artists don’t present our works to get praise from the audience at the end – what’s more important is that we deliver our creations, and that’s it.” 

Creative independence was also a subject on Le Roy’s mind during our phone interview after the show. He explained why his works differ so much from one another: “The necessity of producing a work comes from a question, a very active one that is linked to different things – there’s no recipe. I’m not looking for a vocabulary or a language that I would then use for different themes.” 

“Each project demands different movements and defines my relationship with the audience. Le Sacre du Printemps is a very specific address to the audience; in Self-Unfinished, supposedly they are all in one room and I expose myself more, and the (direct) gaze is gone.” 

Le Roy said he drew inspiration from various sources, again in accordance with the nature of the project he’s working on. “I think it’s important to be informed as much as you can because you always work in relation to a certain medium or certain kinds of ideas.” 

Finally he spoke of his Southeast Asian experience: “It’s great to be in a different culture, away from the self-centred European state of mind.”

Each of the three cities provided him a very different experience. In Jakarta, he had almost a full day of working with local dancers and choreographers; in Singapore, he went to La Salle College of the Arts and met students who “have had different inputs in their all-day training”. In Bangkok, he noted that “there are dance and theatre artists who have to do other day jobs,” and that “there’s not what one would call a contemporary dance scene yet.” 

Keep track of Le Roy’s new dance experiments at www.InsituProductions.net.

The writer wishes to thank Goethe Institut’s Dr Norbert Spitz, Kannikar Saengsuwan and Moh Siew Lan for their assistance.