Voize - Very Unique Bharatnatyam (with Blue Danube music)

Rachel Chan reviews the Short and Sweet Dance Competition 2009.

For 10 x 10 minutes each, the Short and Sweet Dance Fest appeared a promising bite-sized version of avant-garde entertainment. To those intimidated by long theatre performances, it seemed like something to tune in and out of depending on the quality of each piece. Participants were given score sheets to vote for their favourites.

However, the opening dance (Shades of the Moon), featuring a rather well-known dancer, accompanied by two others, appeared like the choreographers portrayal of his love story with his own Speedo-clad (if well-toned) body. For the uninitiated such as yours truly, a denizen of the nation of Philistine who does not understand such postmodern representations of entertainment, boredom would probably be the word. When a fellow dancer mooned the scratching of her armpit, apart from drawing a few laughs, it left me wondering why anyone paid to see this.

This was to be followed by a rather mediocre violin virtuoso accompanying a lone ballet dancer(Fugue for Dancer & Violin), reminding one of those excruciating scenes in German art films where the heroine dies after pleasuring herself. Pardon my musical tastes, but if the dancer to the violin was meant to embody the agony one undergoes when a neighbour practices the instrument, I certainly did not get it.

Thankfully, these twenty minutes of boredom and existentialist torment were redeemed by the third performance (Nunuk Ragang)- where dancers clad in tribal costumes of East Malaysian origin performed a theatrical dance accompanied by a Western composition. What clearly worked that night were dialectical arrangements such as the Bharatnatyam ensemble by two dancers to the tune of the Blue Danube.

Another redeeming one was a piece chronicling the evolution of entertainment (Nerds Gone Nuts) which started off with a Bujang Lapok routine, merging into three girls with waterguns, then a cheerleader rollerskating while others rolled about with Nintendo, and finally a succession of Rubiks cubes. A rather serious piece was one which highlighted the struggle of poverty (Hungry for Hope), using music from the King of Pop (not the only one that night) and clingy movements to evoke the hand-to-mouth existence of starving children. Others, such as the Gypsy Trail was educational, with its tracing of similarities in dance styles from Indian classical to the flamenco, but A Plyed Experience (starring a clothesstand, two people acting as clothesstands, and one woman acting as a clotheshorse) certainly stayed true to its name it truly did require practiced attention.

In conclusion, postmodern art, when over-represented, can truly seem like an excuse for being lazy. What if everyone were to display their bodily functions as art? Then thered be no differentiating a fragrance from a fart.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• bharatnatyam
• short
• sweet
• dance
• fest
• klpac
• blue
• danube
• voize