Identification and interpretation

AFTER PERFORMANCES IN Singapore and Europe, “Alpha”, a contemporary exploration of pole dancing, finally came home to Bangkok last Friday as part of this year’s World Performances@Drama Chula series.

Partly conceived in residency at Chulalongkorn University’s Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts seven months ago, the multicultural collaboration dealt with the different identities of pole dance, from strip-club sleaze to its more respectable face of fitness discipline and even a possible future Olympic sport.

Bangkok, which is known equally well for its glittering Grand Palace as for its dark nightlife on Patpong, provided Kobalt Works' director Arco Renz and his collaborators with the inspiration for this creation of contradictions.

Every single layer of “Alpha” was built entirely around the state of ambivalence and coexistence of opposing forces. In the first section of the show, Filipina pole dance champion Eisa Jocson charmed the audience with her sensual movements and seductive eyes. Amidst her big steps around the gleaming pole towering centre stage, I noticed how her fingers gently flickered as if she were secretly summoning each of us into her world onstage.

But in a world brightly lit in red by Japanese LED lighting master Takayuki “Kinsei” Fujimoto, Jocson still wouldn’t allow us to fully indulge in our carnal fantasies. Covering her upper body above her boy shorts was a loose metallic jacket. In lieu of high heels, she sported black trainers with matching elastic-knee braces. Her hair was tied in a casual ponytail rather than flowing loose to enhance her sultry moves. 

The show played with our emotions even more when, just as Jocson had finally unzipped her jacket and approached the pole, the theatre went to blackout. When the lights came back on, the elegant dancer had been taken away from us and replaced with a strange man of a much shorter stature. Grinning in his glittery sequinned cap and bright yellow underwear, Singaporean dancer Daniel Kok started shaking his body in comical, campy club-going moves.

Discrepancies such as these occurred throughout the show, making us examine and re-examine our expectations and perceptions of what we were witnessing time and again. Just as we thought Kok might have been a joke, Jocson reappeared and they both broke into individual contemporary dances. During Kok’s dance, Marc Appart’s powerful electronic music suddenly switched to cutesy Japanese pop. Strobe lights creating intriguing moving shadows were used when the dancers were rolling on the floor, but not during their pole dance extravaganza. 

As for Jocson, the more flesh we saw, the more “masculine” she actually became. In the last section, she stripped down only to her black sports underwear, completely exposing her torso, just like her male counterpart. Her movements displayed incredible strength, her bare breasts were never a distraction and her eyes no longer piercing. The stage, too, was stripped of its technical glitz. Under simple white lights, the dancers took turns challenging each other on the pole in silence, spinning, balancing, and hanging upside down in splits. The spectacle reversed to its “beginning” in a rehearsal studio setting.

Although I personally would have like to see a wider variety of movements in “Alpha”, the show clearly achieved its goal of provoking questions and blurring the gender lines of pole dance stereotypes. Nudity in a public space might have been an issue for some audience members, but to me, it was a vital to this performance. People need to realise that sexuality is not always pornography, and it is often our preconception that defines our gaze. 

Despite concerns about the level of propriety one can expect from a respectable Thai venue, what better place to broaden people’s perspectives than a university theatre where experimentation and critical thinking should flourish?

 

ANOTHER  HOMECOMING

>>> After its world premiere in Singapore, Pichet Klunchun Dance Company’s “The Gentlemen” comes to Bangkok tomorrow to Sunday at the Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts, Chulalongkorn University.

>>>Tickets are Bt600 (Bt 300 for students and Bt400 for artists and under-27s). 

>>> Visit www.ShowBooking.com or call (02) 218 4802 and (081) 559 7252.