Drama in the DA:NS

Waewdao Sirisook and Nor Silp’s “Puja: Lanna Dances of Northern Thailand” make their Singapore debut next week, appearing for the very first time in the city-state’s acclaimed da:ns festival.

“They’ve been chosen because my colleagues went to ‘Our Roots Right Now’ festival [at Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts in January 2013] where they were introduced to Waewdao’s work,” says Faith Tan, the Esplanade’s producer, during our chat at the Lyon Biennale de la danse last month.

The troupe will be staging “Fauwn Leb” and “Fauwn Nok Kingkala” at the Esplanade Concourse, as part of the festival’s “Rasas: Traditional Dances from Asia” series from October 17 to 19 in a total of five performances. With these works, they will show the amalgamation of Burmese, Lao, Chinese as well as ethnic cultures in our Lanna culture.

The ninth edition of the annual da:ns festival is sticking to its usual successful format. Dance enthusiasts have been preparing for it for months, with, for example, “Footwork”, a series of introductory dance classes, which started in late June.

In the recently renovated Esplanade Theatre, the section called “Centrestage” and subtitled “stunning productions from around the world” comprises Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake”, Wayne McGregor-Random Dance’s “Far” and Maria Pages Compania’s “I, Carmen”.

“They’re all icons of dance,” Tan says, “They’re telling stories from the past but making them relevant to today.

“Bourne’s work is widely known for the fact that he changed the female corps de ballet to a male one – it’s completely different. And although he has many newer works, we’d like to start working with him with this iconic piece, as his works have never been seen here or in the rest of Southeast Asia. 

“McGregor’s works have never been seen here either and in this work he’s drawn from the age of enlightenment.

“If you have watched Pages on stage, then I don’t need to say more,” Tan continues. “As a performer, technically as well as emotionally, she’s very beautiful. She’s an innovator in flamenco – the way she thinks about flamenco is very open – and she can create large-scale works. It’s very difficult to find contemporary flamenco artists who can do that. We’ve presented two of Pages’ works, including the world premiere of ‘Dunas’, her duet with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and we’re co-producing this new work which will also have the international premiere at our festival.”

As always, the festival has commissioned artists to develop a new work in residency and this year’s contributors are Belgium’s Arco Renz, Eisa Johnson from the Philippines and Singapore’s Daniel Kok in “Alpha”. This new work, presented as part of “Shift” series in Esplanade Theatre Studio and designed to shift our notions of dance, “explores the visceral and sensorial minefield of pole dancing, provoking questions on the politics of gender and desire, and the complicity of seduction and manipulation”.

Tan says she’s very excited about the production. “We’ve never presented contemporary pole dancing before. The work has many international artists coming together – apart from the three main collaborators – like Japanese lighting designer Takayuki Fujimoto and Belgian sound designer Marc Appart. Fujimoto puts LED lights on the rigs and you can see the shadows, which is very different from the LED lights in McGregor’s work. It will later travel to Europe as well as Bangkok.”

The other three “Shift” works are, Tan adds, “very different interpretations of contemporary dance”. They include Premier Stratageme’s “Forecasting” from France, Tao Dance Theatre’s “4&5” from China, and Singapore Dance Theatre’s “Intermezzo”.

 

The writer thanks Gina Koh for all her assistance.

 

 DANCE A SPELL