Seeking the dancer in Everyman

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