BTS: Re:Writing 2020

Please access to our e-programme booklet here! Photo credits to Shian Bang - thank you for being so giving, generous and wonderful. Please do check out and support him on his new exhibition at the Blue Ocean Fine Art Gallery!

It's been almost a week since we have wrapped up liTHE 2020, a production by T.H.E Second Company. It was presented as a livestream on Youtube with a Zoom Q&A with the team (choreographers, dancers & technical team).

5 choreographers delved into the first phase of our creative processes - Myself (Re:Writing) & Goh Jiayin (Re:Writing), Zunnur Zharifah/Zee (Ideal), Kilevert Mendoza (Kawayan) & Nah Jieying (This Appearance). In this post, I would like to share my experience in co-choreographing Re:Writing alongside Goh Jiayin and how it was like to choreograph for film. I will do so in a form of a Q&A using questions that we've received from our post-show dialogue after the two evenings on the 13th & 14th November!

Synopsis for Re:Writing

Re-Defining space. Re-Writing stories.

The pandemic has thrown a spotlight on our notion of space, how we define it, and the tensions that come with defining it. It has forced us into a ‘new normal’, where we simply have to embrace the rules and restrictions placed upon us to protect ourselves and each other to ensure our collective health and safety. We navigate through these new challenges in our choreography and tell stories of you and me — Us, as we tread the familiar and the unfamiliar. Encapsulating the idea of different chapters within a human’s sense of belonging, Re:Writing explores two disparate chapters: Home & Chaos.

Q: "How did this Collaboration Happen?"

This collaboration arose in a very spontaneous manner. As choreographers, we had to submit a proposal to Silvia Yong (Associate Artistic Director of T.H.E Second Company) on our concept, motivations as well as working processes. I wrote mine with a very specific outcome of implementing Chance Theory to determine the outcome of the final product. With the help of the audience, I wanted the audience to determine the order/sequence in which the piece would be presented. Under the general umbrella of stories, home & belonging, I wanted to connect individuals with their own personal stories using these 4 chapters as starting points: Home, Chaos, Wild & Unknown.

As a choreographer, I've always been wildly inspired by the people I work with. I wanted to tap into stories and their own sense of personal expression, and how these individuals come together and create an entire timeline of weaving stories that somehow rewrites one another. At the same time, I wanted to take the audiences out of their seats by influencing how the final outcome will be presented, with an element of Chance Theory. It is a mathematical probability theory dance technique from Merce Cunningham that has always intrigued me every time I've watched a performance that incorporate Chance Theory. Do check out what it means by clicking on the word to find out more! Re:Writing felt like the right title to me, where each story rewrites one another and each live performance rewrites the other. It speaks to the ephemeral sense of dance and movement too.

When Jiayin approached me to collaborate, I had a mixture of intrigue, curiosity as well as nervousness. Jiayin and I hadn't spent much time together in the studio to know each other's working styles and thought processes. In fact, I didn't really know her much at all! But I've heard good things about her so I thought that it would be interesting to see how this collaboration might work out. When we first began talking about our ideas, Jiayin was interested in redefining space and our relationships with people and the space due to the current pandemic. Somehow, our ideas had overlaps and complemented each other, so we began to work by having brainstorms over Zoom on ideas/imagery/qualities that we wanted to capture!

Chapter 1: Home

The two chapters that Jiayin and I have decided to dive into were Home and Chaos. We asked for the dancers' interpretations of home, and where in their own homes that they felt safe in. We had a mixture of answers - the couch in the living room, the dining table, their own bed, the main door etc... This inspired us to framing this section where we wanted our piece to resemble a door.

Q: "Did you have to think about framing & camera angles from the start?"

Yes and No. We had very clear imageries for what we wanted, just like this beginning shot here when it transitions from the Title Page. Since we had this imagery of a door, we wanted it to be in portrait mode so that it would really resemble a door. To us, our studio is pretty much akin to our second home away from home. We spent so much time here that we are familiar with the little nooks and crooks, cracks, insects, how much props are hidden away from the screens etc. We wanted to bring forth that sense of familiarity into the space, and structure a floor plan. We wanted to frame the dancers in their intimate spaces, as if the audience were entering their rooms and peeking glances of them.

I have to give a HUGE shoutout to Henrik Cheng for guiding us through the process of using the camera to convey what we want to portray. It's an element of choreography/film direction that we've had to taken into greater consideration because it is a livestream. What role does the camera have in relation to the dancers? What are we trying to capture in this moment? What is our intention of capturing this in this moment? Tons of questions flooded our brains, but they're juices that allows us the rules to play with. For that, Henrik, you've been a gem.

Q: "What were the rules that you had to abide by?"

We were constantly dealt with changing rules & safety regulations in order to continue using the physical space. We were really careful to not push those boundaries too far as we wanted the show to go on... (cue Queen's The Show Must Go On)

The main rule that we were told was to not have any physical touch. Absolutely none.

Our decision to bring in items from the dancers' homes helped to develop that sense of personal belonging to the item, and we see the dancers' familiarity with their own item that is related to the room that brings them safety and comfort when we went into lockdown (here in Singapore, we went into a 3 month lockdown from April - end of June). At the same time, each prop was an extension of the dancer, so it was our way of communicating and receiving that care and intimacy that we hoped to translate through the use of props. All of them stemmed as an alternative to facilitate ensemble/duet works without breaking the rules.

Q: What inspired the musical chairs section?

This section is honestly one of my favourite moments! It happened in such a spontaneous, get-to-know-each-other manner that we decided to include it in our piece! Personally, I love games and I love to keep my dancers on their toes. As a dancer, when the material is set, I find the temptation to sink into old habits and tendencies much more easily than when it's more improvised. We wanted to have a change of mood, that brought in a bit more light-heartedness and playfulness just like when we were kids. It's such a great way of showing that connection between one another without necessarily using physical touch.

Q: Your piece is so much more light-hearted than the others! Did you plan for it to be that way?

Honestly, Jiayin and I had no idea on the general direction that this piece would take. We were trying so many different possibilities and directions that it somehow landed in a more light-hearted, playful direction. We wanted our piece to be accessible to all types of audiences - even to audiences who may not be as familiar with contemporary dance or the arts. So we sought out different ways to convey those sentiments. Musical chairs was one of them, and was the starting point honestly to this entire piece.

We found that our piece constantly re-moulded, re-defined, re-wrote and re-established what it was previously. We wanted an accessible storyline/logic/thought process that allowed the viewer to understand what caused the dancer to be frustrated? Intrigued? Happy? Confused? So we played around with that quite a bit during the process.

Again, bringing back to it being a livestream - We wanted the dancers to heighten their emotional feelings. The main difference between a physical show and a livestream is the kinesthetic empathy - that feeling of 'being immersed' or 'in sync' with the performance when you're physically in the same space. Energies & breath exchange & travel, studies have even shown that at some point, everyone's heartbeat will sync up! Livestream is a completely different ballgame - the performers are performing in front of a camera, which represents 183792164 pairs fo eyeballs watching them through their screens. That's a multitude layer of screen that kinesthetic empathy has to pass through! It's not to say that it is impossible to deliver that sense of connectivity when performing livestream, the challenge is much harder to deliver (speaking from a performer's POV).

Zong Qi's look was a last minute decision that I included 2-3 days before our 1st livestream performance. Jiayin and I had to double up as camerawomen on those days - Jiayin with the gimbal/moving camera & me with the fixed camera. As I was looking through the camera, I placed myself where our audiences would be viewing and asked myself "how can I heighten their experience of this piece?"

The eyes are so powerful because they can convey emotions that are often layered in complexity. In this particular moment, Zong Qi putting on the raincoat was a moment where the space is completely empty, and it's her navigating through the emptiness. I wanted her to look into the camera and have that dialogue with the audience in her mind:

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Can you tell me where I am?"

"Do you see me with this raincoat?"

Again, all of this decisions to curate the audiences' experiences are from how Jiayin and I experience Re:Writing. We wanted to bring forth the most authentic experience that we could deliver without compromising on our creative integrity.

Q: What can we expect for liTHE 2021?

We hope to be able to bring this to you in person, as an offering from all of us to you. When I reflect on my thoughts for Re:Writing liTHE 2020, this was what I had to say:

"Working towards liTHE has been thoroughly insightful yet challenging. I found myself being stretched just on the edge of my creative comfort zone as we had to consider multiple lenses, from the choreographer to the filmmaker. However, this stretchy experience has definitely prepared me for new grounds and exciting possibilities as a young choreographer. I now recognise that that creativity is not ours to own, but to give and offer.

With that, thank you all who've shown your support for liTHE 2020! It was a pleasure to have your presence with us, and we hope that you'll continue to follow our creative processes and see where it might lead us!

Dancers: Lim Sherdyn, Vera Neo, Tan Meng Hooi, Koh Zong Qi, Eunice Wee & Marina Edana Idris

Technical Crew: Henrik Cheng, Ng Zu You, Rachel Ong, Denise Leong, Ho Jun Chong (Jaycee)

Associate Artistic Director: Silvia Yong

With Love,

Maybelle x