Begun: da:ns festival 2012

The initial flip through the earlier announced programme didn't excite me very much. But as the friends flew in one by one, and asked me which ones I would be watching, I began to feel a tingle of interest. Peer pressure. Totally. Still, there're fewer shows that I'll be watching compared to last year's.

Esplanade's da:ns festival 2012. In addition to the ticketed programmes, the Rasas showcasing the rich dance heritage of Asia interest me. Checked off the timings and made a note to hit Esplanade earlier before whatever main shows I would be catching in order to also fit in a free programme or two from the Rasas at various spots dotting the performance venue. The costumes are so jewelled, intricate, and frankly, stunning under the spotlights. Disappointed that the rains cancelled 2 sets of 'Ramakien' (the Thai version of the Ramayana) by Nang Yai (shadow puppets) Players from Wat Ban Don. The rains paused, and the last show at 9.15pm went on, luckily, but too bad I was at another performance.

Festival Commission: 'Silences We Are Familiar With: An Ode To Love' by Kuik Swee Boon and Bani Haykal with T.H.E Dance Company (Singapore)

I chose to begin the week with festival commission, 'Silences We Are Familiar With: An Ode To Love'. The dancers from The Human Expression Dance Company were fairly strong. Modern dance requires the dancers to also be actors. And they did that through voice and facial expressions. Loved the live music composed by Bani Haykal. The music, very obviously, wasn't just an accompaniment to the dancers. It was also the narrative and the background to the point of the dance, of which I would have been lost without it.

The red strings pulled out across the stage towards the end were pretty dramatic, and remained there till the ending. Frankly, those helped me put the dance into perspective. In a way, this being an Asian production, the red strings would mean so much- Asian legends often speak of the red strings tied to two people in love, or more, and these are the invisible threads of fate, destiny and whatnots.

The post-show dialogue boggled my mind a little. It was said that there were many layers to the dance. However, I feel that it wasn't that multi-layered, and only eros love had been explored. Well, it was the premiere and I would only watch this once. But I guess this is what I, as a member of the audience walk away with after the show.

'Tobari- As if in an inexhaustible flux' by Sankai Juku (Japan)

The dance of darkness, butoh, frankly, can be slow, and I'm not a very good member of the audience at sitting through it. All I know is, while this dance form is performed rather widely outside of Japan, it doesn't reach the same level of popularity in Japan. Mostly, butoh in Japan is performed without an audience. However, the friends insisted. "Ushio Amagatsu is doing a solo. This might be the last time you'll ever see such grace." Right. He's already 63 years old.

At one juncture during the performance, I sat very still, and thought about tea. Those precise movements in the discipline of chadō aren't unlike the delicate to-the-finger-tip movements I was seeing on stage. The same sort of patience and inner zen required from the practitioner and the observer. Ahhh... The music kinda faded out as I concentrated on the dancers. It was secondary, I thought. There was something about the traditional white painted bodies, faces and ethereal expressions set against a constellation of stars. (View an excerpt here.) The movements were deliberate, paced and stately. True to its history, one is not able to see a set of movements as belonging to any specific genre of dance, except to be definable within the realm of butoh.

Don't know, but butoh performances I've seen overseas can be done on the street, by non-Japanese performers, and some also marry other traditional dance influences, and can be completely unlike Sankai Juku's version. Butoh can also be street art, isn't it? That was a topic of intense conversation at supper. We went down to Haji Lane for a street party hosted by Going Om, and laughingly commented that butoh could be transplanted here too.