In the midst of the pandemic outbreak, when humans were made to hunker down at home, wildlife were seen roaming in the empty city streets. The clandestine ventures of the beasts stirred up deep emotions in the dance artists at Arts Fission. Referencing the medieval bestiary tradition, artistic director Angela Liong created a remote collaboration project with her dancers and came up with four bestial dance diptych.
CREATURES FROM THE MYTH
The four dancers: Aisha from the Philippines, Ice from Thailand, Wei Wei from China, and Delia from Singapore, all dug into their own cultural animal myth and each adopted a bestial identity. The sense of incarceration during the circuit breaker intensified their creations into entrapped bestial avatars. The dancers emulated their own beast’s daily struggle in its instinctive needs to pounce and run and climb even within the tiny bedroom of their urban patch.
The emotions of loss and alienation in the dance work reflect similar sentiments felt by most people in our current days of uncertainty.
D.I.Y DANCE MAKING
The modus operandi given to the dancers is minimalistic and totally D.I.Y. in the making of The Secret Room of Bestiary. Each of them has to shoot her own performance by using her own iPhone with basic apps and piece together the dance footages. Each of them has to incorporate a piece of cloth that adds textural treatment to their bestial dance diptych.
We hope viewers, young and old, would enjoy our collection of the modern time bestiary and find solace to fill up crevices left by life interrupted.
Date: September 5th – 6th and 12th – 13th
Ticket: $10
Ticket Link: https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/slsecret0920