SIFA :: ‘Colony - A True Colors Project’

So glad that I managed to catch ‘Colony’ at SIFA. A True Colors project produced by Audrey Perera, the multimedia dance show is inspired by the collaborative movements in an ant colony. It celebrates the diversity of the structure and the inter-changing roles within an ant colony, transcribing them to human interactions, emotions and the seeking of self and identity in a fragmented world.

Along with artistic director Remesh Panicker, the choreographers, music composers, film director, and sound, set and lighting designers, the thirteen dancers from Singapore, Southeast Asia and Japan created an imaginary world of an ant colony. Two groups of humans live in a run-down tenement, made distinct by their chosen clothes and sense of fashion. Then we have the Lone Wolf and the Wanderer. We see the web of emotions and relationships portrayed by the dancers. 

The 75-minute show (no intermission) was interspersed with footage of the rehearsals and the thoughts of the dancers and choreographers. I thought that was a brilliant touch. It didn't matter that dance usually held no footage. This is a contemporary show, touted as multi-disciplinary, so anything goes. The contemporary dance had moments of quiet and also violent ‘fights’. 

Among the thirteen dancers, there were six dancers with disabilities. The six dancers incorporated their disabilites into the choreography and didn’t let that deter them from expressing their emotions on stage. They poured their heart into the movements. They presented their struggles to live together, to collaborate in spite of their differences, personal challenges and aspirations. 

I enjoyed the show. It was very well put-together. The movements were very coherent and fluid, and its message — determined and powerful. 

Producer Audrey Perera wanted the audience to know that this wasn’t a charity show or a fundraiser. In an interview with CNA Women, she elaborated on her viewpoints and opined, 

Many also think that artistes with disability “are not at the same level and hence lower their expectations”, but that is simply not true, Perera said.

“When you have different bodies performing together, obviously not everybody’s going to be technically perfect. But dance is not just about technical perfection. It’s about self-expression, communicating emotion through that movement,” she told CNA Women.

“The fact is that in every human, there is the desire, the need to self-express. And dance is a way to self-express. Watching this is very powerful and poignant,” she reflected.

But don’t watch it through a lens of pity. Artistes with disabilities want to be seen for who they are, not defined by their disability, Perera stressed.

“The thing I’m learning from these artistes is that we are the ones who fixate on their disability. They don’t. They get on with their lives. They express themselves, they work, they live, they find their ways around the disability,” she said.