Teatro Di San Carlo's Giselle opens 26 Apr at Singapore Marina Bay Sands

One of the oldest Opera houses in Europe would be staging the ballet Giselle at the Marina Bay Sands.  From the promotion website, the production designs look good, and we should expect a good performance from the cast.

Tickets available at SISTIC.

Review: Light and Nothingness by John Mead Dance Company

Based on the programme note of Light and Nothingness, choreographer John Mead wanted to create a dance piece that was equivalent to a musical "tonal poem", which required audience to engage in a "longer, connected tonal or melodic thread".

This site specific work was staged at the gallery space of The Sculpture Square at Waterloo Street, a former church venue.  It offered the creator and dancers the opportunity to feel and explore space. The dancers, mostly Lasalle and Nafa graduates and also included the Co-Founder and Co-Director Lim Mei Chien, conveyed the sense of lightness or wander well. Some dance movements reminded me of yoga and taiji poses.

Each dancer had a solo segment, which in some way prolonged the length of this piece.   While the choreographer's aim was to create a meditated mood, it went slightly long for me.  But overall the John Mead Dance Company succeeded in creating the right mood in this space, and I was engaged most times. It will be interesting to see their next site specific show.

Davit Fitrik impressed with Eat with Us at Raw Moves' R.E.P

Local dance company Raw Moves presented 2 new dance works at its annual creative platform  [R.E.P] 2014, held at the Goodman Arts Centre blackbox.

The evening's programme started with Chiew Peishan's Peeling Us, a piece that looked at communication and human relationship.   Through the video segments projected through the TV screens, we got to know the dancers better.  While it was a good attempt to fuse dance with video/ film, the piece remained a conceptual piece. From an audience's point of view, it did not have a strong dance element and the theme was not explored further.

Romeo and Juliet: Singapore Dance Theatre kickstarted 2014 season in style

First time catching Goh Choo San's Romeo and Juliet, performed by the Singapore Dance Theatre. Kenya Nakamura and Chihiro Uchida had good chemistry in the title roles and they were convincing as the star-crossed lovers. The company had better energy at this performance compared to last year's The Nutcracker.  Goh Choo San's choreography allowed the key characters to have their moments, but certain segments, in particular the crowd scenes, may be too long. The total length of close to 3 hours could be taxing for a modern audience.  The productions standards were good, though for some scenes where the stage was bare, the lighting could have dimmed the background slightly.

An enjoyable evening, and a good start of SDT's 2014 season.

Tap Dogs returns to Singapore

Australia’s most successful theatrical export, Dein Perry’s TAP DOGS, is coming to the MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands for a strictly limited season from 27 May to 1 June for eight performances only.

The global dance sensation has performed in over 330 cities across six continents and has been seen by over 12 million people.  

The winner of more than 11 international awards including an Olivier Award (UK), an Obie Award (New York)and a Pegasus Award (Spoleto Festival in Italy), Dein Perry’s TAP DOGS is an 80-minute showcombining the strength and power of workers with the precision and talent of tap dancing.

Review of Blackout at Adelaide Festival: More dance element please

A wedding held on a cruise ship was disrupted by a storm and everyone on board experienced some kind of revelation.  This Australia/ Portugal co-production Blackout was by Paulo Castro and Jo Stone, making its world premiere at the Adelaide Festival.   The performance was held at AC Arts Main Theatre.

While this was billed as a dance programme under the Adelaide Festival, it was more like a physical theatre / drama performance to me, with spoken texts and dialogue taking up bulk of the performance time.   On the cruise ship, we had the insecure bride and bridegroom, the absent bride’s father, the drunken bridesmaid, the over-friendly best man, the unsuccessful musician-friend, the macho ship captain and the waitress with a secret.  While these characters could be stereotypical, they were handled by the excellent ensemble cast.

Am I: Shaun Parker's philosophy of "Self" a great start to Adelaide Festival 2014

While the Adelaide Festival would not officially open on the 28th Feb, some productions had already started its run.  

At the Dunstan Theatre of the Adelaide Festival Centre, Shaun Parker & Company's Am I explored "what it means to identify ourselves as 'I'".  Using texts from various literature, choreographer Shaun Parker shared a narrator with 6 dancers.

Melbourne: KAGE's Forklift performance

After an absence of about 15 years, I was back in Melbourne for a few days stay, followed by more travelling to other cities. The Qantas flight was smooth (transit via Brisbane) and my first airbnb accommodation was good.

At the Melbourne Airport, I bought a return airbus transfer to the city centre, where the journey time 35 minutes.  At the bus terminal (or at convenience store), remember to purchase a myki card which will come in handy when you take public transport in Melbourne.

My first event for the day (aka Valentine's Day) was catching KAGE's Forlift at the Arts Centre Melbourne.

The few raindrops threatened the delay of the performance, held at the open space of the building. Thankfully, the weather held up and the audience were treated to a different kind of arts performance.

According to KAGE's Kate Denborough, Forklift is about "anti-stereotype, throwing caution to the wind and discovering something luminous where you least expect it"  The performance was presented by Arts Centre Melbourne.

Plateau Effect by Cullberg Ballet: First encounter with choreographer Jefta van Dinther

It was a mix of young and young-at-heart audience on the Tuesday evening of Culberg Ballet's Plateau Effect.  It would be my second encounter wiht the Cullberg Ballet - the first being former Artistic Director Mats Ek's Giselle at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1999 (year to be confirmed).  So what a good way to end my journey in Stockholm by catching this company's performance at the Dansens Hus, a major dance venue in Sweden.

T.H.E Dance Company incorporates technology in New Vision (Dance Review)

On its fifth anniversary, T.H.E Dance Company started a new performance series New Vision to explore integrating technology with dance.  The performance featured 3 items.

Kuik Swee Boon's On Top of White was a multimedia projection of a person's journey to various parts of Singapore.  The videography held our attention and the movement by Jessica Christina was simple but effective, aided by the music of Bani Haykal.  While the multimedia elements were interesting, there was not much happening on the actual stage.

In Command Pattern, Jeffrey Tan explored the relationship between man and technology.  The merging of dance with computer generated texts was well executed and the projection of texts onto dancers' bodies, and the dispersion of them, did convey the message of men's love-hate relationship with technology.

Zhuo Zihao's 'Felt' Sense was the most ambitious of the 3 pieces, with a heavy dose of technology and the use of 3D glasses. While I admired his adventurous, the cumbersome 3D glasses became a liability and I lost focus on the dance itself. Having said that, this was the piece that really explored  in depth the issue of technology and dance.

Looking forward to the second edition.

Xpressions - Bhaskar's Arts Academy

In Xpressions, Artistic Director and Choreographer Santha Bhaskar created works based  on the music of Balasai, a well known flautist and composer.  In this performance, Santha Bhaskar infused traditional bharatanatyam with contemporary movements.  Her 5 dancers Arulushamaheswary Anbalagan, Nishalini Lakchimanathas, Sarenniya Ramadas, Shruthilaya Ramachandran and Shubaashini Vijayamohan executed the movements well, showing the potential of these dancers.

Of course, the performance would not be enjoyable without the musicians.  The vocals of Ampili Pradeep and Arasakumari Nagaradjane were hynoptic. The other musicians Ghanavenothan Retnam, TK Arunkumar, TV Sajith (played like rock guitarist!), Nivas K Prasanna, Harikrishnan and A Jayagowtham received good response from the audience.

As a bonus, Balasai performed with the troupe at the end of the performance.  What a way to end the evening.

This is a good effort by the Bhaskar's Arts Academy which was enjoyed by the audience.  With better technical support and lighting design, the productions by the company would definitely be raised to the next level.

(Performances held on 12 - 13 Apr 2013)



Flamenco sin Frontiers by Paco Pena Flamenco Dance Company



Well, I had to admit, the initial reason for attending this performance was to see the flamenco guitarist Paco Pena and not the dance. 




But of course, I got more than what I had wanted.....

This time, in addition to the Spanish musicians, we also had Venuezulian musicians joining in the music making, providing a different but yet harmonious sound.  The 2 bands blended very well.  In the usual flamenco dance performance, the musicians tend to play second fiddle.  Here, however, the musicians at times stole the lime light away from the dancers.  I have to add that the dancers were equally impressive, in particular Ramon Martinez.  Daniela Tugues's flamenco was markedly different from those of her Spanish counterparts.

In the first half, the musicians and dancers were arranged to look like they were performing in a theatre.  In the second half, they looked as if they were performing by a campfire, and the atsmospher was lighter and more relaxed.  Paco Pena was also featured as a soloist here.

The evening ended with most dancers and musicians taking turns to do a solo. This was definitely an enjoyable evening, great music, good dancing.  A good way to close the Esplanade Dance Festival.

Aspects of Love: An evening of Ballet

This was another production under the Esplanade Dance Festival, held at the Esplanade Theatre on 23 and 24 Oct 2012.  The evening featured 5 pairs of dancers in 10 items.  As a non-dancer,  I felt that the second half definitely was the highlight.














Gillian Murphy and Qi Huan opened and closed the show with The Man I Love (George Balanchine) and Black Swan (Marius Petipa).  The first piece did not register a deep impression.  The Black Swan pas de deux showed the duo in good form.

 Daria Klimentova and Vadim Muntagirov danced Bedroom pas de deux from Manon and Tchaikovsky (Balanchine).  I liked Daria's movement and she was expressive.  Of course, Vadim impressed with his leaps.

I like Excerpt from The Little Mermaid (John Neumeler) and The Lady of the Camellias, performed by Silvia Azzoi and Alexandre Riabko.  The pair had very good chemistry and look comfortable on stage.  The choreography for The Lady of the Camellias was really beautiful. Of course pianist Lim Yan accompanied the two beautifully.

Tan Yuan Yuan is another expressive dancer and partnered Davit Karapetyan well.  I personally liked the Balcony pas de deux in the first act, compared to Among The Stars (Jessica Lang) that opened the second half.

Ana Maria Scheller and Gonzalo Garcia were the "flashy" pair, with all the twirls and leaps.  Their technique was good, but somehow I felt the pair lacked chemistry.

It was a lovely evening for audience, ballet lovers or not.  The dancers deserved the warm applause from the crowd.

Tobari - as if in an inexhaustible flux

Sankai Juku's butoh production opened the da:ns Festival 2012 organised by Esplanade Theatre on the Bay. It was the group second visit to Singapore.  From the house programme, tobari is a "veil of fabric hung in a space as a partition".