Dances of the Asian Modern

contemporary I dance in the city

Dances Of The Asian Modern

RICHARD CHUA reflects on the evolution of Asian dance and the role of tradition and culture in the creation of modern choreography.

PHOTOGRAPHS: MOHAMMAD SOLEIMANIKHAH AND HUNEID TYEB

F

ormulating an Asian discourse in dance in this part of the world is not easy, lest it gets branded merely as a capitalistic pursuit, creating a superficial version of the new Asian body that reflects the new Asian modern.

The organising committee of MyDance Festival, was well aware of this. Working with a small budget notwithstanding, its attempt in showcasing six seemingly aesthetically-disparate works seems to hint at the organisers’ wish to break new ground with dance presentation in Malaysia.

However, an overarching problem of overlooking history in the construction of the new Asian modern (appropriating elements of Western modernity to construct a new Asian enlightenment without considering the histories of existing Asian elements) has worked against the programming of the dance festival. Hence, putting Focus Dance Company (Taiwan), Vou (Fiji), T.H.E Dance Company (Singapore), and Daniel Jaber and Dancers (Australia) on the same stage will inevitably bring about cultural, not to mention aesthetic, alienation among scholars of the Asian aesthetic.

Interestingly enough, there is a common attempt in all the choreographies to address issues within the fragmented body of the new Asian modern, highlighting its imperfections and possible repercussions on these Asian bodies.

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DEC-JAN 2012

Photograph: Mohammad Soleimanikhah

Like any other arts institution, The National University of the Arts (Taiwan) dance company, Focus’ attempt in re-making American choreographer Trisha Brown’s Solo Olos is to remind students of pure expressions in dance, while the other two pieces: Yang Ming-Lung’s No Traces and the indigenous aboriginal dance Songs and Dances of Mangayaw of the Puyuma People serve as pieces to anchor the dancers in the Taiwanese culture, both as a Chinese and a member co-existing with the indigenous cultures in Taiwan. These dancers are examples of Asian bodies finding their identity in the new Asian modern of Taiwan. Among the three pieces, Yang Ming-Lung’s No Trace was perhaps the most challenging to the dancers, for the piece relates to the new Chinese body within the Western modernity, through the use of Western modern dance techniques.

While the Fijian dance piece was eagerly re-creating a Fijian modernity using elements in popular culture, the Singaporean group fervently rejected the arrival of the body of the new Asian modern, refusing to move away from old memories, highlighting the violence old memories laid on these fragile Asian bodies. Being Asia’s newest modernity, where capitalism has run amok, Singapore has paid its price too: the absence of cultural and

Photograph: Mohammad Soleimanikhah

artistic pulse in appreciating a holistic modernity, where arts and culture complements the efforts put into capital development. As a Singaporean, while watching Vou’s enthusiastic attempt in re-creating a Fijian modernity through the use of pop music and a mixture of dance movements from the West and India, I can’t help but to reflect on the Singapore condition – a superficial creation of a spectacle that is relatively empty in its core.

It seems that the Australian work has got the tools to unpack and question this phenomenon.

It asked audiences to move beyond the existing discourses involving an essentialist, simple malefemale binary opposites, to create new possibilities and bodies. What it basically advocates is a sense of revolution against the status quo. This is different from the creative endeavour in developing the new Asian modern. They should not be viewed in the same vein. To many, creating the new Asian modern seems creative and innovative, but to cultural scholars, this is nothing but capital development veiled behind the re-creation of former and existing discourses in an Asian modern, which needs to be discursive, broken down and destroyed.

As mentioned, the meeting of these groups and performances might be coincidental, but the attempts the choreographers made in trying to address the issues and new possibilities in the

Photograph: Huneid Tyeb

bodies had similar intention: a disavowal of histories will bring about dire consequences to cultures in Asia in its attempt to create the new Asian modernity.

Bodies are repositories of personal histories.

Every single one of the dancers on stage has it.

These histories leave traces of their being, their cultures, their sensibilities. As much as they were attempting to create the new, unavoidably they would have to tap on their own histories in juxtaposing the new. In Focus’ pieces, the histories were their Chinese-ness, their desire for the American freedom, the desire to ground themselves in the unique cultural practices of the Taiwanese indigenous peoples.

For Vou, it was about their Indian influences and colonial past. In fact, the Fijian way of appropriating the Western modernity of the British proved to be an interesting study. On a more sombre note, it was perhaps only Singaporebased Malaysian choreographer Kuik Swee Boon who saw the struggles within bodies in these Asian modernities. As it was, Fades presented a premonition indicating the eventual demise of the body of the new Asian modernity.

At this point, one might ask if the last dance piece presented by the Australian dance company might be the key to a more equal and progressive cultural phenomenon?

There is no absolute answer. JD

Photograph: Mohammad Soleimanikhah

A disavowal of histories will bring about dire consequences to cultures in Asia in its attempt to create the new Asian modernity.

DEC-JAN 2012

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