Choreography for Non-Choreographers

2006-10-13T18:33:00.000+08:00

Hi

Reading some stuff on the internet and found this video clips of actors rehearsing Meyerhold's biomechanical exercises, then to share with you.

"No More Good Guys"

2006-09-20T08:49:00.000+08:00

Many people liked the music I had used in my piece titled "Unrequited", which was Skindive's "No More Good Guys". And almost as many had asked me where I had found it.

Here's a YouTube.com post I found that references the music back to the TV episode of Queer As Folk, where I had first heard the piece.

contengan corak lantai

2006-07-20T15:25:00.000+08:00

Found these lying around. I know it's after the fact, tapi takpe lah. Thanks once again for your work.

You put your right foot here and…

2006-07-16T22:24:00.001+08:00

The workshop was very invigorating and I had continually looked forward to it. What I liked best was its ambition. It appeared to be so insane at times – I am not a dancer/choreographer/site specific performer…that it left me with no sense of reason and hence liberating since can somewhat “hentam”

The environment was also encouraging, mainly from the willingness of the group to let me explore, make mistakes and especially to accept that yeah I really don’t know what I want until I see it. And I think you do need sessions like that, hopefully don’t succumb to too many!

I also liked the getting in shape part of the workshop because either than group pressure, I have really no reason to do 100 abdominal crutches.

The stressful bits were trying to fit the “class” sessions with Marion and translate that into a visible choreography. Later it became apparent that the sessions were effective tools for the creative process only when actively used with the group. So perhaps I don’t really need more time, but needed to use the earlier sessions to really start forming the piece. It would be helpful if I had decided on my sense of theme (which should be allowed to change) and to be conscious of it during all sessions with the group. So maybe that could have been emphasized in the workshop – creating is tough, so start exploring with the group from the beginning.

I would have also appreciated more feedback. Namely for the creativity process I was going through. I think this is essentially a creative workshop and would have liked more questions, comments, things that make me go hmm…using movement as the medium to create…Until I know what I want, I suppose…then y’all mah bitches.

Kakiseni review

2006-07-13T02:52:00.000+08:00

Kakiseni.com, 12 July 2006.

Take The Lead
Choreography for non-choreographers: The dance of democracy
by Kathy Rowland

Can I use the word “inscrutable” to describe an ethnic Chinese man without being accused of resorting to cliché?

Because inscrutable is really the adjective that springs to mind when I think of James Lee, the chess master, moving bodies like pawns in Myra Mahyuddin's A Sleepwalker in Transit, on a rainy Sunday afternoon outside Central Market.

Not stoic, not impassive, and God forbid, not neutral. Inscrutable.

See, the problem sometime with trying to avoid the pitfalls of cliché is that it can deprive you of the most appropriate, concise way of describing something.

I felt that as I watched the performance that resulted from the Choreography for Non-Choreographers workshop, helmed by Marion D’Cruz of Five Arts Centre. Organised as part of a year-long series of workshops under the ‘Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series 2006’, CNCW saw 11 individuals, none of whom had any formal dance training, work with choreographer Marion D’Cruz over six weeks towards a public performance in a site specific space.

The CNCW clearly follows on the success of Marion’s earlier work using non-dancers in dance. Such wilful disregard for genre is of course, not new. Having first surfaced in the hothouse of the 60s, it has in fact suffered the fate of all innovation – institutionalisation. It nonetheless remains a useful means of freeing dance from the confines of bodies schooled in a particular movement vocabulary. If I can use a sports analogy, imagine teaching Thierry Henry to dive. How does the agility, speed, and stamina required of a field sport transform itself into the singular moment of control and release in diving? If you can get past imagining Thierry in Speedos, you’ll see what Marion, in another context, was getting at.

CNCW is framed within this trajectory – a democratisation of the process of choreography. It can be argued that choreography is perhaps less codified in its publicly accepted meaning than dance is. The term itself, while originally used to describe dance notation, is, today, easily applied to any deliberate act of creating a situation, movement, and action. Presumably, this makes it more readily entered upon by those not formally trained in it.

Furthermore, if you accept that all movement is thought, then it can be argued that choreography is the deliberate objectification of that thought, into a process of creating movements whose ultimate aim is to draw attention back to the thought that determines the movement.

With all of this spinning in my head, I arrived to James Lee’s “Will you Please Be Quite Please?”, the first of 11 pieces, all strung together by Marion to form a 55-minute non-stop performance. With its dependence on verbal rather than physical movement, it was an interesting choice to open the show with. Phrased as request-demand-implore-retreat, the piece was marked by an apparent randomness of movement that in fact is structurally designed to lead June and Gabrielle into direct confrontation with each other. The group then forms a cocoon into which the plaintive voice of dissent “I will not be quite please” voiced by Gabrielle, retreats, thereby immediately relegating her counter stance as an act of capitulation rather than defiance. It was an in-your-face beginning that unfortunately, fizzled out into a nothingness almost immediately. Opening gimmick rather than opening piece perhaps best describes it.

The next piece, Gabrielle Low’s “24 minutes in Kuala Lumpur, 64 minutes in Jakarta” explored the variances of income and spending power between the two cities. While perhaps predictable in its use of the ubiquitous icon of American imperialism, the Big Mac, the piece was conceptually sound, and successfully distilled the statistics of inequality and CPI into a delightful depiction of gluttony. June Tan’s “Cita-Cita Saya”, was of a piece with Gabrielle’s in its look at the creation of collective consumer desire. Both pieces also neatly reconfigured everyday movement into the performative through repetition and exaggeration, which – and this is important I think – spoke in a humorous and direct manner to the Central Market crowd.

Vernon Adrian Emuang’s “Unrequited” takes as its departure point the dilemma of the non-bumiputra Malaysian. Structured as a slow moving ensemble of layered bodies shadowing a leader, the work evoked a strong sense of ritual which develops into a kind of collective miasma. While it perhaps adequately comments on our willingness to subjugate ourselves in the hopes of gaining acceptance, it failed to fully develop the twin emotions of desire and rejection that is at the heart of this relationship between non-bumiputra citizen and state. I have to say that the opening gesture of the daulat made me physically cringe – talk about a cliché that can be done without.

The conundrum of course is that as boundaries of genre and form become more and more blurred, the old markers of ‘dance’, ‘physical theatre’, ‘theatre’ becomes increasingly unreliable. One is generally reluctant to say that something is this or that, or is not this or that, for fear of being exposed as hopelessly conventional.

As I watched the performance though, that word ‘dance’, like ‘inscrutable’, kept insinuating itself to me.

Many of the works, or particular movements within pieces, drew a direct line back to the conventions of both traditional and modern dance – the hold and release, the lifts and rolls, the cluster and scatter.

It appeared that rather than utilise their non-choreographic sensibility within the realm of choreography, the participants choose instead to work within the safety net of their newly acquired knowledge of dance movements. Too few of them broke free from the accepted idea of choreography and its relationship to existing images/movements of dance. It seemed like a missed opportunity to use their outsider status to energise the act of choreography, and dance.

“Damaged” by Adrian Kisai for example seemed like a primer on contemporary dance movements – from stupor to frenzy, from contortions to cartwheels, from loose pairings to strict oppositional structures – but begged the question: to what purpose?

Likewise, Hari’s “Don’t Wake Me Up, I’m Sleeping”. While it transitioned beautifully from the preceding piece by Kim (“The More We Get Together”) like an unfolding flower of bodies, it then committed the unforgivable sin, in my mind at least, of using silat movements in its lament of the lack of personal courage in the face of great evil. Perhaps there was a time when such use was revolutionary, relevant, necessary, etc. Today, it is the dance equivalent of “muddy bunga”, to quote a recent attempt at musical theatre.

I was also disappointed that despite the much-bandied about 'site specific' claim, none of the works actually engaged with the dynamics of the public space in a meaningful way. In fact, almost all the works were confined to the square dance lino set on the pavement.

A further complication, a fundamental one at that, was the fact that the pieces were performed by the participants of the workshops themselves.

Predictably, Mark, who is the most experienced performer of the lot, was the most watchable. The dynamics of performance in improvised spaces also seem to fit his demeanour particularly well. He has an angular rigor mortis frenzy (you have to see it to comprehend the oxymoron), which was put to good use in Hari’s, Gabrielle and Pang’s pieces. June Tan may be a performance virgin, but she has the kind of chutzpah that makes her a natural on stage. She turned in a highly sympathetic performance in the opening piece, and again in Gabrielle’s and Pang Khee Teik’s works. The revelation for me however was Myra Mahyuddin. She has a certain self-contained power on stage that makes you watch her carefully, desiring both the secret of her calm, as much as a glimpse of the inner turmoil that, surely, surely must lie beneath. Or so her stage presence makes you believe.

James Lee was, as I mentioned earlier, particularly effective in Myra’s piece, while Gabrielle Low also was noteworthy for her ability to appear detached, which invokes a particular kind of danger – of the unpredictable perhaps – when she works it. Adrian Kisai conveys a committedness in performance, but I did feel that this is perhaps not the best medium for him. He may be body beautiful, but he’s certainly not body comfortable on this stage. It would be interesting to see him in more character driven work in the future.

Which leads me to question the framing of the workshop. Was this a choreography for non-choreographer cum dance for non-dancers workshop? Because as an audience, we were cued to deal with the intentional distancing between form and skills presented by the workshop, but there was literally no discourse about the imposition of non-dancers into the mix. One therefore was dealing with the lack of skills on a performative level, which distracted from any real engagement with the choreographic intent of the work. It’s tempting to speculate the outcome of supplying these same choreographers with formally trained performers. What violence upon the sacred realm of movement would that have served up?

The pieces which worked best were those which dealt with these limitations. Pang Khee Teik’s Hallelujah peopled the dance floor with couples enacting minitue dramas of desire and decline in the guise of slow dancing. I felt that it was the first piece to bring a level of discomfort to the audience. Myra and Kim’s caressing embrace, a whisper away from fulfillment juxtaposed beautifully against the struggle for disengagement that seemed to be at the root of Mark and Vernon’s wrestling. Gabrielle Low, immobilised upon Adrian Kisai’s back seemed to speak volumes in the blankness of her stare, while the act of reaching out and deflection between James Lee and Wyn formed a beautiful ballet of hands, where feet obviously had little rhythm.

Mark Teh’s piece took the idea of choreographer to its more abstract sense – choreography of nationhood via the state’s largest organ, the mass media. Two performers, Myra and Gabrielle, write the day’s headlines with chalk on the ground. With all the frenzy of moving body parts it’s not immediately obvious that the words form an ever enclosing grid which actually shrinks the movable space. Through a series of determining moves, the performers are corralled into a corner, like sheep. There, a formation that replicates the spectacle of the national day parade takes shape. Faster than you can sing “Mamula Moon”, the performers whip out plastic flags, and begin to wave them. Then they eat them. Talk about being force-fed a cheap, plastic form of nationalism.

The accidental audience at Central Market seem enthralled by the entire performance, and frankly, so was I. Despite my very many problems with the performance, it was an afternoon of art with risks, and risk takers are what we desperately need today.

So, dance or not dance? Is that even a question worth asking? Because, stepping away from the individual pieces, is it not possible to view the entire project-workshop and performance as one tightly choreographed event? The choreographer, in the guise of the facilitator, organises a series of encounters with 11 individuals, which turns them into the building blocks, each unit not merely moving, as would a dancer, but first conceptualising, then creating, then enacting each movement – which she then constructs into a full performance?

And does not this act of meta-choreography illustrate perfectly that choreography is manipulation ¬of limbs, of stances, of desires, of thought, of actions, of citizens, of nations?

Should we not be asking ourselves if we have just witnessed Marion D’Cruz’s most recent, most audacious and most accomplished choreography to date?

~ ~ ~

Kathy Rowland is co-director of Kakiseni.

More after evaluate

2006-07-04T03:04:00.000+08:00

It is thought-provoking to read other people's report/ evaluasi.
Actually, I thought my evaluation is a bit cold and not sincere, here, I have more to share. :p

I must admit the workshop has make me work, really work. I haven't been doing physical work for a while and this is a real good chance, and working with these funny and crazy and kind and forgiving people is just pure pleasure.
To be honest, during the rehearsal period, I got so excited on every single rehearsal day, so looking forward to it, suddenly my life brighten up heaps more. Ha ha ha! Just can't help myself to be excited. It's just too much fun. Truthfully, I want say: 'Thanks Marion!' 'Thanks guys!'

Well, I learn lot more than what I wrote on my evaluation, on a very personal level, it's a bit complicated so I shall keep it to myself. I didn't give much thought about the performances, because I see it as the milestone and not the end. But, if we did go to the tunnel it would be a different experience.
Yes, sure Central Market is a colourful place, my school day would be dull without it ;)

Look forward for the next workshop by Marion.

Don't you miss this?

The Manchurian Report

2006-07-04T00:53:00.000+08:00

· what worked well for you in the workshop?
The workshop worked well for me in terms that I could see the various participants’ contributions of ideas, working methods, and visions. A very good place & process to learn what works, and what not and also a good place to copy or borrow and to see things in a different way (I need that badly…). So guys don’t be surprised if u sees something similar in my future works (theatre or films)

· what do you want more of?
More time. But I must admit the good point of limited time also force each and every one of us to work something out at the end.

· what did you learn?
FLOOR PATTERN!

· what did you like?
In terms of choreography I’ll put floor pattern on top of my list. I could see the many more ways it could be useful for me in theatre works not necessary dance related works.

I design “Will you please be quiet, please?" from floor pattern and with it I could see clearly how I want to tweak or change things. It was like a script for me.

· what did you not like?
Seriously and honestly, nothing for me personally that I don’t like. Is FREE and some more we get PAID!!

· suggestions for next workshop and/or other workshops
Maybe could invite some professional or experienced choreographers or dancers to run some of the workshops to share their experiences and ideas with the non-choreographers.

evaluasi mark

2006-07-03T17:05:00.000+08:00

what did you learn?

1. Found out more about the participants - through the way they moved, explained, gave and received instructions, planned, problem-solved and facilitated. And thus, learning that people process and work very differently – some come very prepared, some need to work out on the floor in order to help them visualize their piece, some are obsessive tweakers, some know what their piece is about and work towards that goal, some are more open to change and input on the floor and let the process reveal what their piece is about.

2. The wonder of floor patterns! The stuff I’d previously done had no clear (or otherwise very organic) floor patterns. Working with f.p. became a challenge and an obsession.

3. Other choreographic concepts and using them in choreography and performance.

4. Knee pads are your friends.

5. Hujan = slippery when wet. But it was a great experience to perform in the rain.

6. There is no substitute for hard work.

what worked well for you in the workshop?

1. The amount, variety and dynamics of participants (body shapes, experiences, skills).

2. The introduction and immediate application of choreographic concepts within the sessions.

3. The short amount of time, while a little too short, forced us to plan and lead clearly, concretize concepts and think on our feet. Efficiency is your friend also.

what did not work so well?

1. We needed a leveling-off of movement vocabularies between the participants – we may have found the limitations of our bodies, but am not sure that we pushed these limitations (beyond stamina, body awareness and focus).

2. The ‘site-specific-ness’ of our performance space – in many ways we were doing a site-unspecific work, which is okay in itself. The performances ultimately could have happened in any space. But if we had planned to do the performance in Central Market early on, then the contexts (historical, immigrant, sexual, political, architectural) related to the space should have been investigated for performance.

what did you like?

1. Performing. In a Marion D’Cruz project.

2. The audience and the performance space – we should do more things in Central Market.

3. The clear structure and goal of the workshop – this helped to shape the momentum for the final sessions and performances.

what did you not like?

1. Mac Chan should have been in it. Basket.

what do you want more of?

1. Marion D’Cruz projects – workshops, performances, dance theory classes.

2. More ‘watching’, analysis and discussion of choreography – contemporary, traditional, social and folk dance, physical theatre, sport, national day parades, opening/closing ceremonies (World Cup, Olympics, SUKMA), Bollywood/MTV videos, etc.

3. More in-depth looks at the works, issues and trajectories of a number of contemporary choreographers – local/international, whatever. Especially Marion’s work, to see the Choreography for Non-Choreographers work in the context of her career, and not just another experimental project by the flers at Five Arts Centre.

what do you want less of?

1. Talking talking talking talking on the rehearsal floor.

suggestions for next workshop and/or other workshops

1. Creative Movement workshop before Non-Choreographer’s workshop.

2. Please look at what do you want more of?

The Star review

2006-07-02T13:00:00.000+08:00

The Star, 2 July 2006.

Door into the ‘sacred realm’
by Choy Su-Ling

THE arts? “Oh, they're only for the arty-farty, lah,” many people would say. Well, they shouldn't be. The arts need to be accessible to everyone, otherwise it's all just artistes being horribly precious and performing for themselves and a handful of pretentious fans?.

Marion D’Cruz firmly believes in making the arts as democratic as possible. She began doing that by working with people who were interested in dance but who were not dancers, introducing them to movement and demystifying what happens on stage.

After years of putting non-dancers on stage, she thought about the next step: “If I can make non-dancers perform, I should be able to make the process of choreography accessible to non-choreographers.

“Basically, it’s a way of opening up the ‘sacred realm’ of thechoreographer. It’s one more step in the democratisation of creative space.”

Her Choreography for Non-Choreographers is the second workshop in the Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series 2006 organised by of the Five Arts Centre.

Concluding the workshop two weekends ago, 11 participants put up a five-minute performance each at the mobile-phones-allowed makeshift performance space between Central Market and the Liquid Room dance club in Kuala Lumpur. Bravo! The average “Central Market Jo(han)” now has access to such performances.

So there were two levels of democratisation: choreography for non-choreographers and a performance for a “non-audience”, ie, people who wouldn’t normally go to a dance performance. Access, in other words.

D’Cruz was quick to qualify that this event was not about dance but choreography – perhaps she was a tad wary that the performance would be judged on dance techniques.

Although the word “choreography” can be applied in situations other than dance, the workshop blog at boxspots.blogspot. com revealed that Choreography for Non-Choreographers was about dance-skewed choreography. It included conceptualising ideas, finding inspiration, understanding and expressing emotions (pain, anger, etc), communicating meaning and messages, understanding quality of movements, forming floor patterns, exploring improvisation, and making others execute your vision.

Not all trained dancers become choreographers. Most are merely executioners. The point where they start to become a choreographer is when they start to think.

So, were the 11 workshop participants able to think? Did they “get” choreography? Well, some more than others.

Indie film director and part-time photographer James Lee’s piece, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, was a good choice with which to kick-start the performance. Performers shocked passers-by by telling them very rudely to keep quiet. This form of audience interaction effectively grabbed people’s attention and made them stay on to watch.

Throughout, the performers had to say, “Will you please be quiet, please?” Travelling across the stage, animated, they told each other to shut up in various ways – begging, shouting, whispering, and screaming. The appeal of this format was the comforting familiarity of repetition and the oxymoron of individuals telling others to keep quiet when they themselves aren’t being very quiet!

24 Minutes in Kuala Lumpur, 64 Minutes in Jakarta was a study of greed and consumption. This piece by NGO worker and theatre practitioner Gabrielle Low was certainly entertaining and fun. The skinny labourer (Mark Teh) works hard to feed the capitalists ? it’s a glutton’s dance – one that saw the performers stuffing themselves silly and getting bloated. Finally, they are bowled over, and constipated.

Kakiseni.com editor Phang Khee Teik choreographed Hallelujah, an emotional piece that celebrates the right to love. Although the pace was a bit slow, the piece demonstrated that, regardless of the type of relationship (man and woman, man and man, woman and woman), we all experience the same thing: happiness and hurt, fights and make-ups.

Actor Mark Teh’s piece meant to disturb – and its title obviously not meant to be understood! What on earth does Buang Ruang Kurang Kurung atau Tiap-Tiap Hari, Khabar Angin Lama, Surat Khabar Sama (Space Displace These Fears Erase aka Every Day, Old News Maker, Same News Paper) mean?

Title aside, I would say this was a great piece that described Malaysia all in one space. Malaysians live in denial: someone shouted, “There is no crisis.” Malaysians are shoe-polishers: someone shouted, “Yes, boss.” Malaysians are obsessed with celebrities: someone shouted, “Erra Fazira. Siti Nurhaliza.” Malaysians are hysterical: someone screamed bloody murder. And so forth. For the slap-in-the-face ending, the performers all grouped together and waved mini Malaysian flags shouting, “If they are not happy, they have to leave!” before putting the flags in their mouths. This is Malaysia, so swallow it?.

The More We Get Together by assistant theatrical producer Kiew Suet Kim explored the touchy issue of showing affection in public. She asked, “How far can the hands of the State probe into our personal lives?”

Unrequited by advertising consultant and theatre practitioner Vernon Adrian Emuang, made one feel the agonising pain of unrequited – though I’m not sure if that was also becasue the piece just felt too long. The performers walked in a dazed group from one corner to another, playing follow-the-leader. Although the point where a girl dropped “dead” and is carried by a saddened man was good drama, it was not a good call to have her walk on top of the other performers’ backs (forming stairs). Her fear of falling disrupted her focus.

Cita-Cita Saya by biologist (and frequent stage manager) June Tan tried to depict ambition but instead spewed over-optimism and over-confidence before nose-diving into sad reality.

According to the programme, Damaged by Five Arts Centre’s Adrian Kisai was followed by In One Piece by (theatre company) Dramalab’s Wyn Hee. But I couldn’t tell that by watching as it wasn’t clear when Damaged ended and Piece started – it seemed like both were actually one long piece of work. It sort of made sense: While one damages and the other puts back into one piece.

There was very little difference between Don’t Wake Me Up, I’m Sleeping by journalist Hari Azizan (who works at The Star) and A Sleepwalker in Transit by Universiti Teknologi Mara graduate Myra Mahyudin. Well, there was a big alarm clock in the latter. Otherwise, the execution was similar and after watching, one felt like asking, “So what?”

So what? Even professional choreographers sometimes produce choreographies that are not up to par. The point is, D’Cruz did make choreographers out of these non-choreographers.

However, this group of participants are not strangers to theatre in different forms. Wouldn’t it be interesting to try this workshop on an entirely different set of people, say, a mathematician, a bus driver, a nurse, a computer programmer and a chef?

bagai-bagai berita blog

2006-06-30T21:20:00.000+08:00

Faisal Mustaffa Online

Back To Theater

Wyn's feedback

2006-06-28T17:54:00.000+08:00

Wah, Marion's sangria was #%*@ strong, I got quite drunk at the cast party. Hah, pai seh!

Anyway back to work, here's my FEEDBACK.

What worked well for you in the workshop?
1. Trust and encouragement from Marion and other fellow members.
2. The basic knowledge of chereography theory.
3. The warm up were great.

What did not worked so well?
1. Limitation of time.
2. Run out of movements vocabulary.
3. Go into rehearsal unprepared.

What do you want more of?
1. Movements techniques.
2. More timeeeeeee...
3. More sharing & brainstroming between memebers.

What do you want less of?
1. Long & un-decisive discussion.

What did you learn?
1. Still learning, is how to verbalize direction clearly.
2. Coping with immediate changes.
3. Making the movements work for the idea or otherwise.

What did you like?
1. Creative freedom.
2. Working with passionate people.

What did you not like?
1. Not enough craziness & guts of trying out on the floor.

Suggestion for the next workshop and or other workshops.
- can the next workshop start as soon as possible? haha

Is there individual evaluation as well? Can I have my notes for the last performance? Because I want to improve also, yes?

feedbackfeedbackfeedback............

2006-06-28T11:45:00.000+08:00

Thanks Vernon and Myra for the feedback. Myra emailed be but here it is below. The rest please do soon. This feedback is damn useful for me.....the best kind of teachers are the ones who are always learning.....especially from their students.

This is from Myra......

dear marion,

sorry for the delay. modem at home went kaput. here's my short evalutation..

what worked well for you in the workshop?
1. very clear instructions
2. the odd bunch of people that magically created good chemistry
3. there was space for mistakes without getting shot down for it
4. free workout
5. your observation/feedback were really helpful

what did not work so well?
1. limited time
2. my limited vocabulary in movement

what do you want more of?
1. movement
2. to work on longer pieces

what do you want less of?
nothing lah.

what did you learn?
1. non-choreographers are more interesting people than choreographers/dancers :P
2. keeping focus
3. choreography's interesting and very challenging

what did you like?
1. clear instructions
2. the people that were in the workshop
3. performing at Cental Market

what did you not like?
nothing.

suggestions for next workshop and/or other workshops
1. choreography for non-choreographers part II
2. monthly performance at Central Market
3. mask workshop
4. movement workshop
5. longer pieces to work on

Laporan Projek

2006-06-27T21:37:00.000+08:00

What worked well for you in the workshop?

That so much freedom was accorded to us as choreographers. (Thanks, Marion! PeluXXX) The diversity of concepts, choreographic approach, and various skill sets were exciting, challenging and exhilarating. It was a really beautiful experience to see everyone so accepting of each other.

What did not work so well?

That individual choreography sessions operated in modules of 30 minutes, and that it took about a week before the subsequent round. I had so many things going on in my head but could only try out a small fraction of it. I struggled with a constant battle: whether to add stuff or refine stuff.

What do you want more of?

More time. To experiment, to play a little more. To fine-tune and hone certain aspects. More physical work-outs. More exercises to understand the real limits, or full extent of, human movement.

What do you want less of?

Nothing. I wish we could have had more of everything, really.

What did you learn?

That I can do 100 sit-ups, and that I must remain physically active if I am to keep up with this gang. That I pout and frown more than I should.

What did you like?

The joy of creating, rehearsing, and eventually performing. I really, really liked the diversity of concepts.

What did you not like?

The realisation that I have less control than I thought over my pouts and frowns ... and my blurring out. Scary.

Suggestions for next workshop and/or other workshops:

Can we just get everyone together and let's do stuff again? Soon? Please???

foto dari dress rehearsal... (courtesy of K.K.)

2006-06-23T11:37:00.000+08:00

but don't forget to post your evaluation.

the wonders of Google

2006-06-22T12:45:00.000+08:00

deys,

found these blogs with photos and reviews. Enjois.

Gee's Loud Frequency

Nizam Zakaria's Limau Nipis

dDoinkster Speaks

Jasiminne the Penguin

evaluation

2006-06-19T13:38:00.000+08:00

thank you all you non-choreographers! i really think it went very well......and yes i think we should do it all over the klang valley and beyond....serious. june, just when you thought we could scratch it off the list, now the list is very very long! sigh!

please think about the entire workshop and give feedback. be totally and brutally honest. that was the most powerful thing about the performance....that it was honest and had integrity. any and all feedback but from your own evaluation. some things to consider:

what worked well for you in the workshop?
what did not work so well?
what do you want more of?
what do you want less of?
what did you learn?
what did you like?
what did you not like?
suggestions for next workshop and/or other workshops

you do not have to follow these questions if you would rather not.....you can do your own evaluation system... as long as you think about it deeply and relay those thoughts to me and to all.

synopses of the 11 non-choreography pieces

2006-06-18T12:17:00.000+08:00

1. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?

Most of the time people don't mean what they say, because most of the time their emotions dictate their choice of words and the way they speak. And emotion is something people can't control but only suppress.

James Lee

2. 24 minutes in Kuala Lumpur, 64 minutes in Jakarta

This piece uses humour to explore the themes of greed and consumption, as well as labour and inequality. The title refers to how many minutes an average worker in the two cities must work to afford a Big Mac, according to a worldwide survey on prices and earnings, conducted by a Swiss investment bank.

Gabrielle Low

3. Damaged

Adrian Kisai

4. In One Piece

No more heartbreaks! Let’s take a picture with a big smile!

Wyn Hee

5. Hallelujah

"You say I took the name in vain / I don't even know the name / But if I did, well really, what's it to ya? / There's a blaze of light in every word / It doesn't matter which you heard / The holy or the broken Hallelujah." - Leonard Cohen.

In our closets, we are desperate to celebrate the love we have. I want to celebrate the struggle, which also includes the struggle to justify, to make sense of our feelings.

Pang Khee Teik

6. The More We Get Together

What we see in public -

Kids purest hands holding and hugging,

Whereas lovers loving, hugs and kisses,

Labeled as immoral,

Purity. Appetency. Sensibility…

Who has the ability to draw the line of MORALITY?

Kiew Suet Kim

7. Don't wake me up, I'm sleeping

"Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me." - Pastor Martin Niemöller.

Hari Azizan

8. Unrequited

Like many non-Bumiputera Malaysians, I was struck by the phrase in Yasmin Ahmad's film Gubra, "It's like being in love with someone who won't love you back." Even when someone or something gives you so many reasons to walk away, or leave, hope can be an amazing, awesome force.

Vernon Adrian Emuang

9. A sleepwalker in transit

Myra Mahyuddin

10. Cita-cita saya

June Tan

11. Buang Ruang Kurang Kurung atau Tiap tiap hari, Khabar Angin Lama, Surat Khabar Sama

Mark Teh

Today and Tomorrow 4.30pm @ Central Market (outside the back entrance)!!

2006-06-17T12:17:00.000+08:00

bahan-bahan bukan koreografer untuk 'Buang Ruang Kurang Kurung atau Tiap tiap hari, Khabar Angin Lama, Surat Khabar Sama'

2006-06-17T11:54:00.000+08:00

surat khabar, bendera dan motion sensor

Unrequited

2006-06-16T18:58:00.000+08:00

UNREQUITED: adjective - not returned in kind (Example: "Unrequited (unanswered) love"), of a feeling, especially love) not returned or rewarded.

Music: "No More Good Guys" by SKINDIVE

Like many non-Bumiputera Malaysians, I was struck by the phrase in Yasmin Ahmad's film GUBRA, "It's like being in love with someone who won't love you back." Even when someone or something gives you so many reasons to walk away, or leave, hope can be an amazing, awesome force.

Skindive's "No More Good Guys" is the song that I will be using for our final project. I heard this song on the final episode of Season One in "Queer as Folk", just after a tragic bashing of one of the main characters.

I liked the sound of the song, which I felt was dead accurate, and went looking for the lyrics. Even within the pain of the song, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope and a searching for strength.

Soon I found the MP3 online, and after repeated listening, the song seemed to say that even from pain and suffering, if you looked deeper inside you'd find a reason to be hopeful.

It made me think of the line in Gubra, "It's like being in love with someone who won't love you back." And the pain that comes out of that.

I hope to use this song in a manner that tells all Malaysians that if we would take action, perhaps "the pain inside will stop".

Here are the lyrics (WITH CHOREO-CUES):

(Note: 8 COUNTS to a musical phrase, even counts on snare when singing begins)

(SUM OF THE PARTS) Musical intro (4 X 8 counts, FROZEN, on first half phrase - then into slow walk)
I died today,
but I'm still breathing,
bleeding,
for now,
I'm broken.

(**gunshot** - I'd like to insert like a Group Accent here)

You left me here,
Capsized and sinking,
thinking, right now,
there's no more good guys.

(Music swells)You left me standing here,
(Music swells) alone and colder,
(Music swells)I hope that some day soon,(BROWNIAN starts on 3rd swell)
the pain inside will stop. (FREEZE on stop)

(Music - Phew - ALL FROZEN)

(MELTDOWN - June) You died today,
but you're still breathing,
in my mind, (MELTDOWN - Hari)
that is,
there's no more good guys.

(**instrumental - 4 X 8 beats**)

(MELTDOWN - Mark)
(MELTDOWN - ALL)

You left me standing here, (roll and pulsate to form STEPPING STONES on standing)
alone and colder,
I hope that some day soon,
the pain inside will stop (STEPPING STONES formed, Myra starts climb on 'see me')
I hoped you'd see me,
I hoped you'd understand,
Or crucify me for my failings,
my cruel ambition,
hardly justified,
and the pain inside will ... stop. (Myra falls into Adrian's arms)
(Cannon to stand - walk in procession)

Concepts:

Group dynamics: Alone - Together
Movement - stillness: Message - reflection.
Tableaus - The epiphany

Seeking the dancer in Everyman

2006-06-16T14:26:00.000+08:00

New Straits Times,
Friday, 16 June 2006

If non-dancers were to choreograph everyday movements to elevate them to acts of artistic expression, how creative can they get? FARIDUL ANWAR FARINORDIN finds out about the challenges in Five Arts Centre’s experimental workshop.

IF you expect to see filmmaker James Lee doing pirouettes at a workshop by Marion D’Cruz this weekend, you’ll probably be disappointed.

Lee, who joined the six-week long experimental workshop titled Choreography for Non-Choreographers with 10 other “non-dancers”, will be performing a series of short choreography pieces at Central Market in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow and Sunday, at 4.30pm.

He won’t be doing any of those fluid balletic movements.

“Make no mistake, choreography is not dance,” said D’Cruz during the group’s rehearsal recently.

The artistic endeavour is her first creative project in seven years since 1999’s Playground. It is part of the Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series, a year-long tribute to Krishen organised by Five Arts Centre.

“Our choreography looks at everyday movements, which are then exaggerated. This is actually derived from a ’60s post-modernist tradition which broke away from spectacle performances. A simple act such as drinking coffee can be developed into a complete dance piece,” she explained.

Among the movements that are turned into choreography (as written on a big piece of paper stuck on the wall in the Five Arts Centre’s rehearsal space in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur) are walking, rolling, sitting, walking, running... well, you get the idea.

All of the works are choreographed by the participants, where they are free to use text, music and spoken words according to the themes selected — from pain and healing to materialism and conformity.

This art form also comprises slow and abrupt movements, contorted facial expressions and catatonic poses.

Apart from Lee, the other participants are Adrian Kisai (theatre production manager), Gabrielle Low (youth theatre group member), Hari Azizan (journalist and theatre director), June Tan (stage manager), Kiew Suet Kim (actor/director), Mark Teh (community arts facilitator), Myra Mahyuddin (theatre worker), Pang Khee Teik (editor), Vernon Adrian Emuang (actor) and Wyn Hee (production manager).

D’Cruz said the experimental workshop is aimed at opening up the “secrets” of choreography to non-choreographers based on the premise that “there is a dancer in everyone”. It explores various approaches to movement and choreography.

At the rehearsal, participants underwent rigorous physical exercises, from 100 sit-ups — or was it 110? — to sets of stand-and-fall routines evoking pain even in those watching.

“They are in much better shape now, with stronger bodies and a clearer focus,” said D’Cruz, who teaches Improvisation at Akademi Seni Kebangsaan.

Working with non-dancers, she said, allowed her to focus on exploring each person’s untapped creative space and “allowing others to be in that space”.

It is an organic creative process, so there is no such thing as jadi or tak jadi.

For the project, D’Cruz only wanted people who had no prior experience in choreography because “dancers will come and think that the project is all about dance choreography and will be very conscious of their movements and the aesthetics, which defeats the whole purpose of the workshop.”

She continued: “Non-dancers have a more expansive imagination and their thinking is not limited to a certain understanding of what dance and choreography are.”

Each participant is required to choreograph a five-minute piece each, based on their own imagination and their understanding on the basic concept of choreography, as taught by D’Cruz in the previous weeks.

“We had the first full run yesterday, with all 11 pieces performed in a continuous sequence. In terms of learning some choreographic skills, shaping a piece together and making others understand a person’s creative vision, the participants have done really well for themselves.”

The performance will be held at the entrance of the annexe building, Central Market. More information about Choreography for Non-Choreographers can be found at http://www.boxspots.blogspot.com

Message in the movement

2006-06-16T14:16:00.000+08:00

The Star, Friday, June 16 2006

Dance doyenne Marion D’Cruz takes on the second workshop in Five Arts Centre’s first-ever Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series. NILUKSI KOSWANAGE gets a glimpse of the creative process involved.

THE game plan is simple: take 10 individuals with little experience in dance and choreography and put them into an intensely creative workshop environment for seven weeks. Each participant has to choreograph a five-minute work of physical movement addressing any theme or issue in which all other nine participants have to be included.

Such dynamics are reminiscent of the late Krishen Jit’s vision to make the artistic process more collaborative and inclusive. However, for his wife Marion D’Cruz, it gets a little more personal.

“When Krishen came into my life, he turned most of my ideas and conceptions upside-down. This workshop celebrates this sensibility by having these non-dancers take charge of the choreographic process and place themselves in a potentially upside-down situation,” she said.

Nevertheless, the workshop firmly remains as a part of D’Cruz’s own artistic sensibility and outlook.

Often enough, it has involved collaborating with non-dancers whom she considers to have a more innovative movement vocabulary than dancers instilled with specific vocabulary.

“I have always pushed non-dancers onto the stage for many years because they are more willing to explore the possibilities of their bodies. So I figured that if I could get non-dancers to perform, I could go the extra step and make the process of choreography open to these non-dancers,” she said.

However, D’Cruz insists that the workshop is not geared towards choreographing technically flawless dance pieces.

“It is not about dance per say but it is really about seeing and understanding how the body can convey so many different messages, ideas and conceptions. While I do teach some basic choreographic techniques that can be taken up or discarded at will during the workshop, the main point is to get the participants to think creatively about using their bodies in any setting,” she said.

“The word ‘choreography’ is not always associated or used with dance. You can choreograph a political act or a war, you can choreograph a date, you can choreograph a meeting with your boss.

”Choreography is about positioning yourself in a situation, to get your opinion or message across and this is exactly what we are doing in this workshop, except we remain firmly in the realm of physical movement.”

While the workshop is open to non-dancers and non-choreographers, D’Cruz has taken most of the participants from the local arts community.

“Most of the participants have their own pre-conceptions on the choreographic process, so it would be interesting to see how they can bring together their own artistic experiences and ideas to this workshop. To put it simply, the workshop helps to empower them in any way they see fit,” she said.

The end-point of this intensive seven-week workshop is a 50-minute site-specific performance at the alley-way between Central Market and Liquid Room dance club, which will feature each participant’s five-minute performance.

“Making the performance site-specific is just a part of democratising the creative process. Performing on a stage forces the performer to define his or her work and this can constrain the creative process. With a site-specific performance, the work can be liberated from confining labels like dance and theatre,” she said.

Whether the performances get noticed is almost beside the point; the benefits of stretching creative muscles in an open, exploratory atmosphere will accrue in any case to these budding choreographer-performers and to the rest of the arts community.

The gamut of participating choreographer-performers who will perform this weekend is as broad as it can be – Kiew Suet Kim works as an assistant producer for a theatre company; Mark Teh, a seasoned performer from the youth arts collective, Akshen; Phang Khee Teik, the caustic editor of Kakiseni.com; Hari Azizan, a full-time reporter for The Star; quirky film-director and part-time photographer James Lee; June Tan, a trained biologist who works for the oil and gas industry while moonlighting as a stage-manager; theatre veteran Vernon Adrian Emuang; Gabrielle Low with her experience in working for non-profit organizations and theatre; Myra Mahyudin is a recent graduate from UITM, who is exploring theatre for now and Wyn Hee, who helps with Dramalab productions.

Interestingly, D’Cruz will take a back-seat during this creative process.

“In the end, the workshop is really about them and not about me. This is their chance to be garang so that they can intensively shape their choreographed works into something unique and thought-provoking. I will just give them certain tools and tricks on the choreographic process and after that I shall just watch,” she said.

This has also been quite liberating for D’Cruz.

“Before, I would take a more prominent role in collaborating with dancers and non-dancers. I would piece together all the different movement and ideas from everyone and give the piece an actual structure. Now, I just want to share the making of the creative process and watch freely how it unfolds – it can be as interesting as watching the end-product itself,” she said.

Performances from the Choreography for Non-Choreographer will be staged this Saturday and Sunday at 4.30pm in the alleyway between Central Market and Liquid Room.

Admission is free. To check out how the workshop participants are faring in the creative process of putting out a site-specific performance, log on to the workshop blog at www.boxspots.blogspot.com.

sleeping through the piece

2006-06-14T15:09:00.000+08:00

My 4 minute piece for the workshop is inspired by Pina Bausch's Cafe Muller. I had seen the piece in the opening of Almodovar's Talk to Her some years ago. In not so many words, the eerie yet beautiful feel and look in Cafe Muller got stuck in my head.

The piece we're working on has sleepwalking as a central image. Mark had asked me this the other day, "why sleepwalking?".

To be honest, I didn't have a clue about it until I went to visit the KLCC LRT tunnel few weeks ago. Standing in the tunnel gave me the sense of being in the 'in-between' situation because I was neither going to KLCC, nor leaving KLCC. So I thought, why not sleepwalking and dreaming? Both sleepwalking and dreaming are in between sleeping and being awake, right?

As I see it, the sleepwalker (Mark) represents the weekday commuters on their way to work. They get onto the train, they shut off on the way, they get off the train and walk through the tunnel like zombies. They are only 'awake' when they get to their workspace (I hope).

Gab is the perpetual non-sleepwalker. She mocks Mark's movement, maybe as a sign of rebelling against the 'sleepwalking system' but she herself doesn't realize that she is in a system of her own.

James tries to act like a protector by moving the 7 dreamers aside as Mark makes his way through the room, but without making contact with him.

The 7 dreamers represent the many dreams one could have while sleeping. Their cumulative movements change from one to another as they are moved around by James.

As for the alarm clock, the device marks the end of the transitory passage for the sleepwalkers and dreamers. Once the alarm clock goes off, everyone wakes up, punch out and goes on with life.

I hope this explanation helps!

I'll leave you with a short clip of Pina Bauch in Cafe Muller. Enjois!

sex and sin and redemption

2006-06-14T02:20:00.000+08:00

Blame Ah Whyn for guilt-tripping me. She told me over supper after our last rehearsal that I was anti-social for not blogging. Ouch. The truth hurts! (now I will use this motivation when I do her Pain Dance.)

This workshop (and those earlier photos) have taught me that I overdance -- all those years spent on the podium at the disco had given me the illusion that the mases are watching my every move. Yeah, my people, my funky hand jive will heal your misery. Watch me move! (Marion: "Pang, stop doing that mouth thing!")

Anyway, I know I talk too much as it is, so I try not to inflict it upon you all here. But since you asked for it, here I preach. And at the risk of having an artist's statement that sounds better than the actual choreography, I give you this, my attempt to say too much too abstractly in 5 minutes:

1. In Hallelujah, the songwriter borrows references from the Bible which talks about sex and sin and redemption, using the tension often found in good sacred poetry. The story in the first and second verse refers to David, one of the most famous Kings of Israel, and a great musician. David fell in love with a woman bathing naked on a rooftop nearby (gotta try that one day), and so began an affair with her. David then sent her husband, a soldier, to the frontlines where he got killed pretty pronto. In the second verse, the hair-cutting line probably refers to Samson and Delilah, another case of a man whose love/lust for his woman led to his fall and the fall of his people (forget women, guys, be gay!). In David's minor fall, he experiences the major lift of being forgiven by God. You could almost say that his fall enabled the ecstacy of his redemption. So you can see why this sinning stuff is addictive.

2. Here's the cliche: sex is bad, repentace is good. According to poets, however, the lust for another human and the lust for god are expressed in the same kind of yearning and ecstacy. The poems, particularly by ancient mystics (and one Salleh Ben Joned), are both sacred and profane, holy and sexual, divine and human. Yet the lust for human contact is often so overwhelming, so self-destructive, so heartbreaking, we sometimes wish to be free of it, to substitute it instead with a lust for purity. So we turn to religion. Nobody is free from lust; and everybody can be controlled as long as you keep telling them that there is something wrong with them and you have the cure for it. That is the genius of most religions. It seeks to make clear the ambiguities that poets celebrate. And how we fall for the easy stuff.

3. I became a Christian when I was 14. Around the same time I realised my attraction to other guys was not something most other guys experience, but more importantly, I learned that it was something widely condemned. Until the age of 26, I prayed and worshipped and prayed and attended church camps and led fellowships and prayed and prayed and prayed in my epic effort to like girls. At 26, I asked, what is wrong if two men chose not to contribute to the gene pool? What is wrong with love? Nobody could give me a satisfactory answer. So here I am, determined to find my own answers.

4. The dance demonstrates my view that every relationship -- girl-boy, girl-girl, boy-boy -- are filled with its own problems, fear and hurt and hunger; who then are we to judge other people's relationships? In our private closets, we are desperate to celebrate the love we have. For all the laws and religion, people generally follow the rules they like and justify the rest. I also want to celebrate the struggle, which also includes the struggle to justify, to make sense. Those years I wrestled with myself the way Jacob wrestled the angel for a blessing are important years in my life. My progress is a reversal of David's path to redemption. The years in which I was repenting are my minor fall, my free falling through the black hole of self-doubt and self-imposed ignorance. The years of my post-Christian agnosticism are my major lift, filled with ecstacies and lots of guys with whom I have shared moments of holy and broken hallelujahs. What is art but a great orgasm of all things holy and broken cumming together?

Meta-Choreography

2006-06-14T01:47:00.000+08:00

I am constantly reminded by Kathy not to promote my own show, but I think this should be fine as it is more about Marion and Krishen and all you talented folks than it is about me (hard as it is for me to admit that). So here is the blurb I wrote for the recommendation this week:

Choreography for Non-Choreographers: "Dance Terrorist" Marion D' Cruz's latest work is not so much anti-dance as it is meta-choreography. She has taken 11 individuals and gotten them to choreograph each other and dance each other's choreographies. They include filmmaker James Lee, theatre director Mark Teh, journalist Hari Azizan - none of them choreographers or dancers, so it's quite a sight. Through this, Marion the ultimate non-choreographer once again essays her vision of the arts as a democratic space in which those who can't can. The performance takes place on the democratic walkway between Central Market and Central Market Annexe. Sat 17 - Sun 18 Jun 2006 (4.30pm). Central Market, KL.

The event is posted with pictures by Myra: http://www.kakiseni.com/events/dance/ODQ5NA.html

Lenny wrote this song for my dance

2006-06-13T20:27:00.000+08:00

Hallelujah
by Leonard Cohen

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?

It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya

She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to ya?

There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya

And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

The Sleeping Blob

2006-06-12T17:02:00.000+08:00

The last week!!!
cool poster btw

Myra told me about everyone’s little trick of coordinating your movement when reaching out to Vernon, Gab and Pang.
Thanks guys, as I haven’t explained my highfalutin piece very well.

It is about not speaking out against the wrongs in the world and not taking action. It is about collective responsibility. And yes, Pang, it is about NGOs (which you are playing).

When we first started with the plan of using KLCC as the venue, I walked around trying to find an idea that would fit in with the space and I quickly realised that I associate KLCC with Kinokuniya and Anti War protests. I thought about books but .....
And really, I just wanted you guys to lie down in the foyer of the MPO.

This WWW2 poem might explain it better:

First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews and
I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and
I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and
I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

(Pastor Martin Niemöller)

So the blob is the sleeping masses that don’t want to wake up because they are comfortable in their safe space but when that is invaded, they find that they can’t wake up to save themselves.

I, being the news reporter that I am, have to be literal and have the other characters: Vernon is the blur but cocky ruler, Pang is the activist who is going in circles and getting nowhere, Gab is the model citizen who don’t want to get involved and Mark is the agent provocateur who is really manipulating everything.

See you at the rehearsals....

Catch the performances this weekend!

2006-06-12T16:50:00.000+08:00

3 more sessions.........

2006-06-12T13:42:00.000+08:00

ok so we have 3 more sessions before we 'present' the work. yesterday's first full run of all 11 pieces was pretty good. when i embarked on this project and set up the framework, there were some things i was pretty sure of......that i could 'teach' everyone some basic concepts of choreography, and that everyone could create something with that and your own ideas and imagination. but i was not sure how it would pan out and what the end 'product' would be. but go ahead and experiment and see how......jadi or tak jadi never mind.....in the true spirit of experimentation.

the work that has emerged is pretty remarkable. it has honesty and integrity. it looks good. well done to all. and the pieces are not easy.....some are very physically demanding, others are not, but require emotional depth, clarity and sharpness of what might look like simple movements. others need high, manic energy. and it is not easy to shift from piece to piece.

now we need to:

sharpen focus
deepen physical and mental concentration
know what each work is about and believe in the work.......it is only if you really believe that you are a rusty part of a machine that has been lying around for hundreds of years after a nuclear fallout, that we can believe.
commit 900% to the vision of the non-choreographer who has made the work, in as much as you want each one to commit to your vision.

i am excited......

Wyn's title of the piece.

2006-06-12T00:46:00.000+08:00

My piece is called "In One Piece".
I know I've been giving out vague instructions, so now I am going explain more what is going on and what is the message of the piece. Hope it answer your questions.

There are 2 parts in the piece, 1st, the 'pain' and 2nd, the 'healing'.
The 1st part - is about getting hurt, feeling pain, disorder or disfuntion (emotional or physical). It's a lot to do with emotions & feelings. A kind of emotion that we will get and cannot run away from. And everyone has their own way while dealing with it. So I would like you to decide on how to present your understanding of painful/ hurting/ disorder with your body. Example, you can scream about it, cry about it or just hold on with it. (in silence)

Now the 2nd part is very important, I want the message to be louder then the 1st part. The message/sub-text of the 2nd part is 'Pick up the broken parts and be In One Piece'. That is what the family reunion photo wanted to say and what I'm trying to say too. I like Marion's logic of putting the pieces together, especially when she said '..you get heal but not so much...' (haha) and follow by next piece. Actually I like that.

The structure has been changed so much from the first time because I wasn't too sure then, and thought the latest one might be more intesting & say more. Obviously I did not concern about the limitation of time, too ambitious lah.
So, what do you all think about the latest one? Any problems or questions? Please let me know.

I tried taking out the bird movement and it looks better without it. Therefore, everyone will be doing the piece in human/ normal form.
Will tighten and sharpen the movements and cues on monday.

I really love your hard work and enthusiasm. Cheers!

The more we get together

2006-06-10T17:04:00.000+08:00

The More We Get Together,
Together, Together
The More We Get Together
The Happier Will be
*For Your Friends Are My Friends
And My Friends Are Your Friends
The More We Get Together
The Happier Will Be*

This is the song that evrybody sing in my piece. i think my floor patern is remain but stil will polish the ending and the movement. have been stuck of the idea when the fisrt tried out. but now i think clearer for my self. Thanks evreryone paying attention cos i feel i m a little bit slow when deliver my instruction cos have to interpret to english from my mine, but hope not so bad lah (that is also why i scare to blog, but now just hantam lah).

Picturia Workshop

2006-06-10T16:29:00.000+08:00

Gabrielle's piece: "Fast Food" (Part 1)

2006-06-09T16:40:00.000+08:00

My piece is about greed and consumption. The performers eat themselves silly and gradually expand, with the exception of one performer, who serves the rest and then picks up the scraps.

Note to performers: Please study this photo before we rehearse my piece again on Sunday.

time to steal......

2006-06-07T18:58:00.000+08:00

time to steal ideas and methods of working from each other. my recent observations......

the torture that james put everyone through last week was damn damn good and very necessary. thank you james. all must push each other and yourselves to the limits and beyond....
myra has, in many ways, the least 'performance' experience but she sure makes up for that by really planning well and she executes her plan with clockwork precision. the piece is eerie and tingling and is looking good.
gab's piece also beginning to take shape nicely. simple and clean. funny and not. many levels of commentary. everyone needs to push harder to get that GREED feeling that she wants.

advice for today.....WATCH CAREFULLY HOW EACH ONE IS WORKING AND LEARN AND STEAL.......

on the whole I really think there is some damn good stuff that is emerging......fuwwaahhh!!!! onward to the finishing line......

the original inspiration for Adrian's piece!

2006-06-07T15:29:00.000+08:00

This is Peter Crouch, unorthodox 6 foot 7 Liverpool & England beanpole striker with his avant-garde goal scoring dance. Check out the body-popping robot moves at Youtube.

No Need To Panic

2006-06-02T16:11:00.000+08:00

really, no need to panic. yes we have 7 sessions more. remember this is an experimental workshop. the point is to take time to think and play and experiment and learn - in the world of choreography. no exams at the end. textbook theories say it takes 25 hours to get a 5 minute 'dance' piece from point '0' to performance level - that is for dance and trained bodies. so, yes, we are trying to do a lot in a short time. things to remember for all you non-choreographers:

plan your sessions very clearly in your head and on paper.
carry out your plan but allow things to happen and be flexible to exciting changes.
watch very carefully as the piece unfolds infront of you.
take notes and give clear instructions.
choreography is more about doing and moving the bodies around....you will achieve more by doing on the floor.....less talking......let the movement do the talking.
be very garang to get maximum focus from the group.

to me it is looking good. no need to panic. now we just need to find a venue.......

Now, where's that panic button?

2006-06-01T19:34:00.000+08:00

By the end of this week, we would have had 12 sessions filled with basic theories, 100s, improvs, bruises, body aches and shoulderstands.

By this time around, the eleven of us would have had two rounds (30 min sessions) dedicated to our 4-5 min piece.

Time is short. We're going in and out of the studio 3 times a week. Despite having 30 min (sometimes more) to work on our pieces, it really feels like we only have 10. But then again, the only reason why we feel this way is because sometimes we come unprepared... and we talk too much.

We're left with 6 sessions!!

Need. more. time.

2006-06-01T16:45:00.000+08:00

These are some of the images that inspired my choreography on Monday. The group that staged these performances is called Pilobolus Dance Theatre. It was founded in the ‘80’s by a bunch of non dancers (philosophy majors, literature majors, computer science majors, etc) who took a modern dance class together at Dartmouth College in the US. I think most of the people involved in their shows were pretty athletic though, and I’m sure you would have to be pretty strong to pull of some of their moves.

When I am not there

2006-06-01T02:08:00.000+08:00

There were times that people are not sure about things, this happened to me tonight.
I was trapped in the structure I created last week, run out of idea where to continue and how to go about. I tried hard but got worse.

Here, I want to thank everyone for tonight, your focus & dedication were striking, so encouranging... thank you for trusting me.

everyday marion forces us to take the non-choreographer's oath...

2006-05-27T21:45:00.000+08:00

kertas mahjong - movement from everyday life

2006-05-27T21:42:00.000+08:00

kertas mahjong - quality of movement dan lain-lain

2006-05-27T21:39:00.000+08:00

kertas mahjong - corak lantai

2006-05-27T21:35:00.000+08:00

kertas mahjong - boxspots!

2006-05-27T21:31:00.000+08:00

kertas mahjong - basic prinsip-prinsip choreography

2006-05-27T21:09:00.000+08:00

Unrequited

2006-05-27T17:10:00.000+08:00

Skindive's "No More Good Guys" is the song that I will be using for our final project. I heard this song on the final episode of Season One in "Queer as Folk", just after a tragic bashing of one of the main characters.

I liked the sound of the song, which I felt was dead accurate, and went looking for the lyrics. Even within the pain of the song, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope and a searching for strength.

Soon I found the MP3 online, and after repeated listening, the song seemed to say that even from pain and suffering, if you looked deeper inside you'd find a reason to be hopeful.

It made me think of the line in Gubra, "It's like being in love with someone who won't love you back." And the pain that comes out of that.

I hope to use this song in a manner that tells all Malaysians that if we would take action, perhaps "the pain inside will stop".

Here are the lyrics:

I died today,
but I'm still breathing,
bleeding,
for now,
I'm broken.

You left me here,
Capsized and sinking,
thinking, right now,
there's no more good guys.

You left me standing here,
alone and colder,
I hope that some day soon,
the pain inside will stop.

You died today,
but you're still breathing,
in my mind,
that is,
there's no more good guys.

You left me standing here,
alone and colder,
I hope that some day soon,
the pain inside will stop
I hoped you'd see me,
I hoped you'd understand,
Or crucify me for my failings,
my cruel ambition,
hardly justified,
and the pain inside will ... stop.

Why must blog?

2006-05-26T15:50:00.000+08:00

Today will be the 9th rehearsal of Choreography for Non-Choreography, how do I feel about it?
I was excited before, still excited but it's more like nervous now. I should say it's very exciting working with all of them, simply just because they are all so gila, so not logical, so emotionless, over emotional, so bound & so free of their movements... (trying to use what I had learn...hehe). It is quite funny too.

I presented my idea the first time during last rehearsal (wednesday), I got the idea from a simple word 'pain' and tried to develop it from there. After the session they have given me more to work on. I really appreciate the feedback from everyone because they have given me the chance to dig deeper.

You asked me, what is the issue? There might be issues but this is not about the issues. I am just using the word 'pain' as a medium to go somewhere. Hope it will be right.

I am really looking forward for tonight's rehearsal.

yuk choreograph!

2006-05-26T14:52:00.000+08:00

These are my notes from the first session I had with them bunch of non-choreographer fellas.

I don't really know what I'm doing. ha ha.

old lady marion blogs for the first time!!!!

2006-05-26T13:11:00.000+08:00

non-choreographer's in action!

when liew kungyu (visual/performance artist, designer, children's theatre practitioner) heard that I was doing this workshop, he said that is was the most logical step for me to take. kungyu has followed my work since the late 1980s. he said that since I had spent so much of my work working with non dancers, it seemed perfect to him - this idea of choreography for non-choreographers.

this workshop is really great fun. the best thing for me right now is the range of people - range of experiences, range of bodies, range of imaginations, range of madnesses.....and hence we are really 'celebrating our diversity'! we are now at the stage when each one is beginning to choreograph their piece. for me it is interesting to watch how people use or not use what they have learnt, how they use the power they have to move all these bodies around, how they give very clear instructions or are very vague although the ideas might be clear in their minds, how they negotiate all the different possibilities at their disposal. the work that is evolving is refreshing and, as cliche as it may sound, the work is exciting. again, it is the range of imagination that is the most exhilarating for me.

just a reminder.....this is not about dance. this is about choreography.

ps. it looks like I have blogged before but that was mark pretending to be me. this is really me.

Choreography with Text

2006-05-26T05:57:00.000+08:00

A short exercise to develop work from text.

My text:

I fear for flickering images of me atrophying in someone's mailbox, and then to be re-cast like a bad pirate VCD on someone's memory. Like a photograph that no longer flatters its subjects. Or like magazines out of time in the doctor's waiting room.

Strategy:

Each sentence, phrase or fragment - dissected into tableaus. I suggested we join the tableaus with individual improvisation. A free for all. Moments in time when all performers synched, and when they didn't. The 'didn't' would make the 'did' do more.

Methodology:

The tableaus came out of
1. flickering images
2. re-cast
3. photographs
4. doctor's waiting room

I asked team members to interpret the above phrases, and selected from among what was done. Every choreo-phrase started and ended with the selected frieze. Within it - a free-for-all moment.

Workshop Schedule

2006-05-22T17:52:00.000+08:00

MAY

Monday // May 1, 2006 // 4pm-7pm
Wednesday // May 3, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Monday // May 8, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Friday // May 12, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Monday // May 15, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Friday // May 19, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Monday // May 22, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Wednesday // May 24, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Friday // May 26, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Monday // May 29, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Wednesday // May 31, 2006 // 8pm-11pm

JUNE

Friday // June 2, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Monday // June 5, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Wednesday // June 7, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Friday // June 9, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Monday // June 12, 2006 // 8pm-11pm
Wednesday // June 14, 2006 // 8pm-11pm

PERFORMANCE DATES

Saturday // June 17, 2006 // TBC
Sunday // June 18, 2006 // TBC

Choreography for Non-Choreographers participants

2006-05-22T16:40:00.000+08:00

Adrian Kisai works at the Five Arts Centre.

Gabrielle Low has worked in non-profit organisations and theatre.

Hari Azizan is an awkward-moving writer who wants the world to move as awkwardly.

James Lee is a fulltime filmmaker, part-time theatre practitioner, sometime photographer, and is rarely romantic.

June Tan is a biologist from Imperial College London who manages toxic waste for the oil and gas industry.

Kiew Suet Kim works as an assistant producer in a theatre company, and is an award-winning theatre director and an actor for theatre and film.

Mac Chan is a fulltime / part-time lighting designer.

Mark Teh, not Mark The. Akshen, not Action.

Myra Mahyudin wants to take more pictures.

Pang Khee Teik is editor of Kakiseni.com. He takes himself too seriously. Someone has to.

Vernon Adrian Emuang is in chronic denial of how old he is.

Wyn Hee doesn’t have a proper job & hopes to become famous.

old school contemporary! Einstein on the Beach (1982)

2006-05-22T16:20:00.000+08:00

Marion D'Cruz and Dancers photo history - Playground (1999)

2006-05-22T16:12:00.000+08:00

Marion D'Cruz and Dancers photo history - Dance Tonpu II (1996)

2006-05-22T15:59:00.000+08:00

Marion D'Cruz and Dancers photo history - Let Me Speak (1994)

2006-05-22T15:23:00.000+08:00

Marion D'Cruz and Dancers photo history - Alter Art (1991)

2006-05-22T14:38:00.000+08:00

Marion D'Cruz and Dancers photo history - Urn Piece (through the years)

2006-05-22T14:15:00.000+08:00

Marion D'Cruz CV

2006-05-21T01:47:00.000+08:00

Marion D’Cruz is a founder member, executive producer and resident choreographer of Five Arts Centre which was formed in 1984. Five Arts Centre is a performing and visual arts collective of artists and producers dedicated to generating alternative art forms and images in the Malaysian creative environment.

Contemporary social and cultural issues impinging on Malaysian life are precipitated by the Centre by way of exhibitions, performances, and creative and research workshops. The Centre's activities include drama, dance, music, young people's theatre (including Teater Muda and Theatre-in-Education) and the visual arts.

Marion is also artistic director of Marion D’Cruz and Dancers which was formed in 1983.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

BA (Hons) Performing Arts, University Science Malaysia, Penang - 1977

MA Dance, University Science Malaysia, Penang - 1979. Thesis entitled “Joget Gamelan - A Study of its Contemporary Practice”.

DANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY STUDIES

Classical Ballet. With Celia Lustig, Johore Ballet School.

Malay Classical and Folk Dance

Terinai. With Dr. Chandrabanu, University Science Malaysia.
Terinai. With the late Pak Meh of Perlis, University Science Malaysia.
Joget Gamelan. With Ahmad Omar, National Culture Complex.
Joget Gamelan. With the late Mak Adnan of Trengganu.
Silat and other forms. With Dr. Mohamad Ghouse Nasaruddin, University Science Malaysia.
Silat and other forms. With National Culture Complex.

Indian Classical Dance (Bharata Natyam). With Dr. Chandrabanu, University Science Malaysia and Mr. Bhaskar, Singapore.

Javanese Court Dance. With Dr. Sudarsono, Dance Academy Indonesia, Jogjakarta.

Balinese Dance. With Anak Agung Anom Putera, Bali and Pak Wayan Dia, Jakarta.

Contemporary Dance.

The Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, New York.
The Merce Cunningham School, New York.
The Ruth Curier School, New York.

Choreography, Labanotation, Movement Studies.

The Laban Institute, London.
The Laban Institute of Movement Studies, New York.

PERFORMANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY

Major Works

War on Iraq. 2003. Piece choreographed for the MyDance Festival 2003. Kuala Lumpur.

Curfew. 2002. Worked with choreographer Judimar Monfils. Contemporary dance concert. Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia Boleh! 2001. Piece choreographed by Marion D’Cruz for the MyDance Festival 2001, Kuala Lumpur.

Lear. 1999. Japan Foundation Asia Center production directed by Ong Keng Sen. Berlin and Copenhagen.(performance)

Playground. 1999. Five Arts Centre production choreographed by Marion D’Cruz and Aida Redza.

Swan Song. 1998, 1996, 1993, 1992, 1988. Marion D’Cruz and Dancers. Ipoh, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Vienna, Hong Kong. (choreography and performance)

The Reluctant Saint. 1997. The Redemptorist Order production directed by Anne James. Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. (choreography)

Dance Tonpu II. 1996. Collaboration with Keiko Takeya Contemporary Dance Co. Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur. (choreography and performance)

Savages. 1995. The Actors Studio Theatre production directed by Joe Hasham. Kuala Lumpur. (choreography)

Suara Rimba. 1994. Five Arts Centre production directed by Janet Pillai. Kuala Lumpur. (choreography)

Let Me Speak. 1994. Marion D’Cruz and Dancers. Five Arts Centre production. Kuala Lumpur. (choreography and performance)

Nagraland. 1992. A Dick Lee Musical directed by Krishen Jit. Singapore, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka, Sendai, Nagoya, Hong Kong. (choreography)

Alter Art. 1991. Five Arts Centre. Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. (choreography and performance)

New Directions ‘88. 1988. Marion D’Cruz and Dancers. Five Arts Centre production. Kuala Lumpur. (choreography and performance)

Solo ’86. 1986. Marion D’Cruz and Dancers. Five Arts Centre production. Kuala Lumpur. (choreography and performance)

1984 Here and Now. 1985. Five Arts Centre production directed by Krishen Jit. Kuala Lumpur. (choreography)

The Cord. 1984. Five Arts Centre production directed by Krishen Jit. Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Singapore. (choreography)

Sintesis ’84. 1984. Marion D’Cruz and Dancers. Five Arts Centre production. Kuala Lumpur, Penang. (choreography and performance)

Solo Marion D’Cruz. 1982. Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Seremban, Johor Baru, Ipoh, Penang, Singapore, London. (choreography and performance)

Ramayana. 1981. Collaboration with Asian Artists. New York, Boston. (choreography and performance)

Wrong Guys. 1981. Mabou Mines production directed by Ruth Malecheck. The Public Theatre, New York. (choreography)

The Tempest. 1981. Shakespeare in the Park directed by Lee Bruer. The Public Theatre, New York. (choreography)

Tirai. 1981. Collaboration with Asian Artists. La Mama, New York. (choreography and performance)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

The One Academy - School of Communication Design. Survey of Malaysian Culture. 1995-present. Art and Culture in South East Asia. 1999-present.

National Arts Academy. History of Dance, Movement for Actors, Improvisation, Dance Ethnology, Dance Aesthetics and Appreciation. 1997-present.

Prime College. A-Level Programme. General Paper. 1989-1993.

Kolej Damansara Utama. American Degree Programme. English Composition. 1988-1989.

Fairview International School. English Language and Literature. 1983-1986.

National Culture Complex. Choreography. 1981-1983

University Science Malaysia. Performing Arts Tutor. 1977-1979.

AWARDS

American Field Service (AFS) Student Exchange Programme, California. 1971.

Asian Cultural Council grant to study at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, New York. 1981.

United States Information Service (USIS) award to attend the American Dance Festival, Durham, North Carolina. 1986.

The British Council grant to attend the Dance Umbrella Festival, London. 1998.

Australian High Commission Cultural Award Scheme to attend the Adelaide Performing Arts Market, Adelaide. 2000.

The Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series 2006

2006-05-21T00:17:00.000+08:00

The Choreography for Non-Choreographers project is part of the Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series.

Huh?

The Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series is Five Arts Centre's tribute to the work of Malaysian theatre legend Krishen Jit (1939-2005). While his art is lauded for its unflinching search for emotive expression through experimentalism, Krishen's greater legacy remains with those he has left behind - the practitioners of performing arts today.

Five Arts Centre believes that it is best to honour and pay tribute to one man's dedication by demonstrating that his vision is very much alive and endures in the lives of those he has touched and inspired.

The project consists of a series of six workshop performances to be staged throughout 2006, focusing on experimental approaches and the exploration of ideas, perpetuating the energy and inspiration Krishen brought to exploring art forms in Malaysia.

Each workshop will be an attempt to generate original, experimental work through an approach guided by the zeal and commitment exemplified by Krishen during his career. The workshops must produce original work. They will not be a rehash of Krishen's past productions nor are they confined to attempts at applying Krishen's 'style' or 'method'. Rather, each workshop performance within the series will provide its creator with an avenue for exploration. Since its aim is to allow individuals to explore, the series will avoid conventional genre labels such as visual arts, music, theatre, dance, etc. While each workshop performance should be experimental, the definition of the term is left to the individual initiating the workshop performance.

Apart from Choreography for Non-Choreographers, the other projects in the Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series include:

Baling (membaling), led by Mark Teh.
In 1969, led by Chee Sek Thim.
Ensemble Performance Project, led by Akshen.
Adjudicating Sita, led by Anne James.
Wayang Kulit, led by Fahmi Fadzil.

More details can be found at www.fiveartscentre.org.

Interview with Marion D'Cruz, 8 March 2006

2006-05-20T23:26:00.000+08:00

What are you doing and why are you doing it?

I’ll answer the why first—I haven’t done a project for a long time, specifically in terms of a dance project, because of all kinds of reasons, other commitments, etc. etc. The idea behind the Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series is that we’re giving ourselves a kick in the ass, and I need lah to give myself a kick in the ass.

I have this whole history of working with non-dancers, which I’ve really enjoyed. There’s a kind of movement vocabulary that comes out of non-dancers that sometimes—very often—is more exciting, far more exciting than the movement that comes out of dancers. They don’t have a movement vocabulary that sedia ada in their bodies and so they’re much more courageous, they’re much more open to exploring their bodies, if you lead them in the right way.

The last two pieces that I did in K.L., which were performed in MyDance festivals, were Malaysia Boleh and War in Iraq, in which I reinvented my methodology. What I did was, I said, OK, I’m going to create a piece with a whole bunch of people, dancers and non-dancers, in only four rehearsals, which was really a turn-around for me because my whole thing over the last few years has been process. So I go, and terbalik the thing lah. I’m going to cut the process; I’m going to be very specific. I know exactly what I want.

And those two pieces were very interesting. Malaysia Boleh was so, even now when I look at it, is so funny. It is so funny and it is so political and, really, it was a collaboration with the ideas I had in my head, with everybody. And you’ve got no time. You’ve got no time, so you just tuk, tuk, tuk and you just take, take, take. So it was quite interesting. I’ve had a history of my work being dark, brooding. And that piece was so pop and so funny.

There’s also been comment on my work, or not just my work, but on contemporary dance—“we don’t understand it”, “so esoteric”, “so like, what’s the meaning?”. Playground—“what, what, what was it about?”. Or Urn Piece—“what is it about?”.

With War in Iraq, because I was so angry with that whole situation, OK, no need, you won’t be asking “what is this about?”. We’ll be in your face, tell you in your face, tell you what the ... this is about. And War in Iraq was not funny at all. It was very dark, but it was very in your face, very sad and very heavy, and it was very beautiful also. So those were the last two.

After years of putting non-dancers on stage, I thought, OK, if I can make non-dancers perform, I should be able to make the process of choreography accessible to non-choreographers. It’s just one more step. Ya, OK, I’ve got the experience, and I’ve got the eye, and I can throw it together, and I can structure, and I’m very fast at taking good movement from you. But then I thought it would be interesting to share that whole process. And there are tricks, there are tricks. There are basic choreographic principles, and beyond that, they’re just tricks—to have a good eye, and an aesthetic sense, and to open it up.

And I’m going to be very specific, far from my very organic way of moving. Very specific and very military about it—there’ll be ten people in the workshop and they will come together and decide on the performance site. There’ll be a six-week workshop process, 20 hours total. Each person has to choreograph a five minute piece, using everybody else as dancers. So it’s very structured, but within it what happens might just be 50 minutes of everyone just standing there.

Basically it is to open up the sacred realm of the director and the choreographer. I’m not saying everybody can be a choreographer; you do need the eye and all, but at least to open up the process, take one more step in the democratisation of the creative space. And I’m one of the most democratic choreographers I know of in this country. I will put a Kubhaer, a Mark and a Fahmi on stage with a Judimar. And people are like, “Oh my God, you’ve got a dancer and you’ve got these...” But for me it works lah.

What kind of people will be in the workshop? I mean, we know they will be non-dancers and non-choreographers but…

Anyone who wants. First come, first serve. Ten people, draw the line. The only criteria is that you want to do this, you’re interested, and you’re a non-choreographer, non-dancer, in the terms which are specified by this community. Because, for example, Akshen has done a lot of movement and choreography in their pieces, but they don’t put themselves out there as choreographers nor are they accepted by the community as choreographers. Their work is physical theatre.

I’m hoping to get a nice range, though...

Can you just talk a bit about how it’s going to be site-specific?

My aim is that it’s going to be site-specific simply because I think that’s just one more step in a process like this. I think the site-specific aspect will help liberate the group from the idea that, “Oh dear, this has to be dance because it’s going to be in the Black Box or it’s going to be in the studio”. So if it’s in a dumpsite, then you can create for the site, which can be a difficult thing, but it can also be liberating.

I know when I did Urn Piece, for example, and you get into those urns with water, it was like we were home free simply because of the urn and the water. Urn Piece was really about that. Definitely, a site needs to be chosen by the group. And once the site is chosen, I imagine that maybe the first few sessions will be in a rehearsal space but most of the sessions will have to be at the site—the idea of having it at the site will be that you use the site in the choreography.

But I do intend to actually teach basic principles of choreography and basic vocabulary so that at the end of the workshop people can come out and spew these terms—canon, and scamper technique, and scramble, all this terminology which I think is good lah for people to learn and to know because you can use it in anything. Just basic understanding of levels, and reach, and concepts of space, and all these dancey kind of things…

This interview originally appeared in the Krishen Jit Experimental Workshop Series 2006 programme book.