Retracing the Steps

TPAG ISSUE 35 — OCTOBER 2012

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Retracing the steps Text: Richard Chua

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In Malaysian choreographer Jack Kek’s dance piece titled Adam and Eve,we follow the gaze of the biblical character Eve as she sculpts the body of Adam. There is another element that makes this special: theaudience is watching the sculpting process in “real-time”.

n a fleeting moment, it seems that the initial attraction has been established and what ensues are two bodies coming together in unison, executing dance moves that unite male and female. Taking the female dancer’s gaze as a depature for a piece of writing on dance likens the man’s movements to pushing chairs aside for the frail woman in Pina Bausch’s Café Muller. The act of clearing indicates both an intention to explore and to love (clearing the dangers for the beloved), not to mention sculpting chaotic female emotions in times of extreme loneliness.

Not so much a re-telling of the biblical story, Kek’s Adam and Eve is a reorganisation of vignettes of Bausch’s dance theatre genre.

What matters in this piece of work is the choreographer Kek’s own intention and language that either complements, augments, or subverts the form, content, and aesthetics of Bausch’s dance theatre. Attempts to do so in themselves pose a huge challenge. The literature for and against it abound, but there are many different ways of “breaking” it. What’s interesting about the piece is the sculptural form it creates that manipulates the audience’s gaze on the lines and curves of the bodies.

The intention of Kek’s Adam and

Eve might not be to break ground, but to tease out the beauty of dance theatre and introduce it to the Malaysian audience, to whom the understanding of the concept of dance theatre might be limited. The gaze of dancer Hoi’s Eve towards Kek’s Adam not only exhibits love and seduction but also an acute awareness of their sense of identity, as created by the creator (Hoi as Eve, and Kek as Adam can also be studied separately).

Dance of Eden In every part of the dance piece, from the time both of them get acquainted, to the time they get married, to the time they decide on revisiting the dating process the encompassing gazes are directed at each other, but encounter resistance. The resistance might be about the rules they are required to abide by in their world (or, to us, society), it might also be about their bodies. Little known to

them, the audience’s gaze was also present. Their understanding of the power dynamics between the male and the female dancer could offer an objective view of the definition of bodies on stage.

Clearly, both Adam and Eve are trapped in their own world which seems to be under surveillance. The red apple presented in the form of red helmets, as interpreted by choreographer Kek, is a trapping device for both of them. As the biblical lovers attempt to ride away in a motorbike, kissing passionately, they encounter resistance. Metaphorically, the use of the helmet is apt and poignant. What makes an interesting discovery is when they mutually smell each other: and smelling becomes an act of exploration and sculpting that couples the act of seeing and gazing into each other.

The politics within the bodies are at one with the politics of the relationship between “to look” and “to be looked upon”.

The gaze could be read on different levels. The Gestalt Theory of Psychology explains it all; an adage in the 1920s that holds true till this day: People often perceive similar objects as a whole, as a group/pattern.

If anything falls out of the norm, 46 47

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audiences will sense the difference and due attention will be given to them; they are called anomalies1. If we were to apply this to the audience’s perception of bodies as sculptures in a dance performance, it would be interesting to note how the audience might perceive the bodies in flight as symbols, making a semiotic connection with the biblical story.

Living sculptures What makes Adam and Eve interesting is Kek’s strengthening of the spiritual aspects of the relationship.

It is the hurt and happiness that defines the symbol of Adam and Eve. Hoi’s hurt is perhaps one of the most haunting that a female body can manifest. Her rendition of the struggle of a woman wanting to free herself from the restraints of not being able to love provides a good direct reference to male-patriarchal naivety and oppression. It is credited to her extreme effort in body-centeredness in terms of technique.

For the technique largely accounts for the gravity of her dance section, allowing audiences to appreciate her emotive flow from the feet up – thus likened to a Renoir sculpture.

Hence what requires further study here is how “real-time” is defined in the theatre. Is it the time when the bodies were gazing at each other, or the extension of “gazing” to the audiences? Meanings abound, semiotics aplenty, signs notwithstanding, what’s interesting is that dance performances have already moved out of the realm of showcasing technicalities into postmodern experimentation. In this day and age, with the onslaught of the internet, YouTube-like realities, analysis in the temporal aspects and structures have taken on a new dimension.

Exploration into the different intrinsic differences of body movements – maybe in the language of sculptures – can be further carried out. It could

Notes (1) “The Gestalt Principles.” 15 September 2012. http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm.

give a valuable insight into the nature of time in the performing arts.

In conclusion, with all the problematics that the gazes of Adam and Eve give to each other in the piece, and putting the reflexivity and struggles in fulfilling their desires aside, is it possible for Adam and Eve (it might be a good reference point for all the male and female bodies in this world) to break free from the gazes between the dancers and the audience? Perhaps, taking an alternative view through the lens of theories relating to appreciating sculpture could open up new perspectives that help expand the knowledge of how sculpture and performance art related to the human form.