By Chan Sze-Wei (739 words, 4-minute read) In grainy close up, we see segmented views of one woman, fighting to breathe with every fibre of her sinewy body. She grunts, writhes, sweats, hyperventilates. Her body multiplies by video effect but perhaps also by mass audience hallucination. Depending on which way you lean, Pat Toh’s Topography […]
Harrowing and sublime: Topography of Breath 2.0 by Pat Toh Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (1,031 words, 7-minute read) “Dance making in Singapore: an instant noodle culture?” I’ve never forgotten the title of this talk hosted at the Dance Nucleus in 2016 (then helmed by Foo Yun Ying). At the time, local companies and choreographers bemoaned resource limitations and annual grant requirements that seemed to drive everyone
Slow food: liTHE 2019 by T.H.E Second Company Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (786 words, 4-minute read) I’ve recently been reading articles about how childhood trauma is determinative of one’s risk of future health issues from asthma to cancer. Also how ancestral trauma is recorded in our DNA. Snow White is the original first Disney Princess. She is 82 this year (!) and it’s quite
Fantasy issues: “Princess” by Eisa Jocson Read More »
Podcast host Chan Sze-Wei and guest Melissa Quek discuss new works platforms at the M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, as well as other new works platforms organised by dance companies and entities in Singapore such as Dance Nucleus, P7:1SMA and Frontier Danceland. The M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival is organised by THE Dance Company. This
Podcast 66: M1 CONTACT & New Works Platforms (Part 2) Read More »
Duration: 20 min Podcast host Chan Sze-Wei and guest Melissa Quek discuss works they saw at the recent M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, specifically at the platforms DiverCity, Off Stage and M1 Open Stage. These include H A S E R by Singapore dancer-choreographer Syimah Sabtu and Leftovers by Josh Martin from Canadian company, Company 605.
Podcast 65: M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival (Part 1) Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (687 words, four-minute read) In 1987, William Forsythe created a ballet for the Paris Opera with a young Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire in the central duet. In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated is a high-octane incarnation of neoclassical ballet. Set to a pounding score, the ensemble silhouettes deliver razor-sharp pique unisons, while
What More Ballet Might Be: William Forsythe at da:ns series 2019 Read More »
Duration: 66 min ArtsEquator held a live recording of its year-end dance podcast at Dance Nucleus SCOPE #4 on Sunday 2 December 2018, 7pm. Listen in as Chan Sze-Wei, Soultari Amin Farid and Bernice Lee share about the works they have seen this year in Singapore and Southeast Asia – as well as further questions
Podcast 51: The ArtsEquator End-of-Year Dance Podcast 2018 Read More »
Duration: 36 min Chan Sze-Wei finds out more about the Asia Network for Dance (AND+) from one of its co-conveners Anna Chan, who was former head of Performing Arts and Dance for the West Kowloon Cultural District and current Dean of the School of Dance at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Stream Podcast 50
Podcast 50: Anna Chan, Asia Network for Dance (AND+) Read More »
By Chan Sze Wei (1090 words, five-minute read) T.H.E. Dance Company turns 10 this year and Invisible Habitudes, a da:ns festival commission, reads as an eclectic postcard of the artistic signature of Kuik Swee Boon. The company, and Kuik himself, have been astoundingly prolific with new creations in the span of these 10 years –
“Invisible Habitudes”: Postcards From a Choreographer’s Journey Read More »
Duration: 30 mins In this month’s dance podcast Chan Sze-Wei chats with Hwa Wei-An and Luqman, two dancers who move between the worlds of contemporary dance and street dance. Wei-An is the organiser of Paradigm Shift, a contemporary-based dance platform taking place in Singapore that encourages exchange between contemporary dancers and dancers of different backgrounds.
Podcast 43: Paradigm Shift; Contemporary and Street Dance Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (849 words, 5 minute read) L-E-V Dance company’s OCD Love is tightly choreographed and intense in its physicality, as might be expected from a choreographer issuing from years dancing, choreographing and directing for the iconic Batsheva Company whose Gaga style of dancing and theatrical physicality has become iconic of Israeli contemporary dance.
“OCD Love” by L-E-V Dance Company: Mental Illness Plus Dance Equals Ballet and Horror Read More »
Duration: 40 mins Podcast host Chan Sze-Wei leads a discussion on dance-making and dance programming for/in gallery spaces. Joining her are three guests: Vanini Belarmino, Assistant Director of Programmes at the National Gallery Singapore; Lim Chin Huat, cross-disciplinary artist and performance-maker whose recent dance work In Her Hands took place earlier this month at the
Podcast 40: Dance in the Gallery Space Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (1,110 words, six-minute read) Norhaizad Adam’s second full length work with his company P7:1SMA (say “prisma”) is set in another world. The audience steps through the door of the Drama Centre Black Box into an arena of wooden crates and sacking, the whiff of wood and coffee beans in the warm light
“Ngopi” by P7:1SMA: Stop and Smell the Coffee Read More »
by Chan Sze-Wei (745 words, 5-minute read) Singapore-based Raka Maitra and her company Chowk are familiar names at the Esplanade’s Kalaa Utsavam and Raga programmes annually. The company is firmly based in classicial Odissi dance and the martial arts of chhau and kalari. But with them, tradition is not a formula. Walking into the Esplanade
“from: The Platform” by Chowk Productions: A Running Imprint on the Mind Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (920 words, 8-minute read) Given that the publicity synopsis to Dries Verhoeven’s video installation pretty much tells all, I’m surprised by how excited I am by the time I’m finally summoned to enter the heavy white door. A lot of the theatricality in my experience of Guilty Landscapes III is in the anticipation
The Easy Trigger of “Guilty Landscapes III” Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (945 words, 9-minute read) “There are so many taboos and judgements around our bodies and the politics they carry. Let’s take the leap to talk and dance about tough questions. Let’s be unashamed. Walang hiya.” Over two weeks this February in Manila and Singapore, a group of dancers came together to look
Dancing Unashamed: ¡Walang Hiya! Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (1150 words, 10-minute read) This was one of those rare occasions where I realise that I’m watching an important work of art. A discovery, a risk, a breakthrough, that will influence my aesthetic and many others’ for years to come. I unfortunately did not see Pallavi and Space, the 2016 first instalment
“Pallavi in Time” by CHOWK: Seductive Virtuosity Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (903 words, 5 minute read) Many things have been written about Mattie Do, the pioneering female film director from Laos. She’s put her country’s horror films on the world festival map. “She wears international laurels including the BFI London Film Festival and is an alumni of the Cannes Film Festival’s Les Cinemas du Monde
Mattie Do: Horror Film? It’s all Ballet. Read More »
