The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion

Posted:

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Rupert Grint set to make stage debut as a drug addict in a play called 'Mojo'.

Posted:

Lapar Lab explores the relationship between people and space in its latest mixed bill.

SPACE. The nothingness that separates the earth from the moon, the sky from the land, a human being from another human being and a word from a word. We don't see it, we can't feel it, but its significance in the grander scale of things cannot be refuted.

Imagine reading a novel with no space between the words. It will give birth to gibberish. Or imagine people living with no space to separate them from one another. Life would be an asphyxiating journey or perhaps even torture.

But sometimes space or separation can also allude to loneliness, failure, divorce ... death.

What is space, then? And how does it affect our lives?

This very philosophical dilemma is the crux of the latest contemporary dance performance by Lapar Lab, aptly named Space Bar, a tribute to the longest key on the keyboard that separates words. The mixed bill comprises two dance pieces, Safe Distance and Belonging.

Helmed by choreographers Leng Poh Gee and Mak Foong Ming, both the pieces will explore the relationship between people and their immediate environment and how close and intimate and how defensive things can get, in relation to space. The initial idea was sparked, as shared by Leng in a recent e-mail interview, when the inactivity and dormancy of Lapar Lab began to prod him.

"We have been 'sleeping' for at least one year, doing nothing, since our last production in 2011. And the main reason why we haven't been able to do anything was because most of us found jobs elsewhere. We were separated geographically and temporarily.

"That period for me was like a blank space and that was the spark of the initial idea. After much brainstorming, we decided to use the spacebar as the theme, since its function is to separate the words for them to make sense and have meaning. We then realised the significance of separation and disconnection for relationships," Leng reasoned.

Both Belonging, choreographed by Leng, and Safe Distance, choreographed by Mak, explore two different issues, vis-à-vis space but the creative process to mould the different stories involved both choreographers and dancers alike.

Once the direction of each piece was finalised, they went through the process of throwing in ideas based on their everyday lives, from injuries, rushing to work and even the rehearsals itself.

Mak said for Safe Distance, they shared their "own stories pertaining to the issues of interpersonal relationships. The emotion behind each story became an important element for me to create movements and the emotions finally became the motive of the whole dance."

Speaking about her piece, Mak opined that in our interpersonal relationships, we always keep a safe distance. This keeps the bond calm and harmonious. However, once we depart from the safe distance or step out from the comfort zone, conflicts may arise.

"After the conflict, what is the attitude that one will choose toward the other? Is it possible to return to how things were? This is the question I wish to ask the audience."

Echoing Mak, dancer Chow Yong Shuang said, "we are trying to bring out the message that in every relationship, there must not be an absolute intimacy. We human beings are meant to live in groups, but we definitely need to keep some things very personal to ourselves."

Chow went on to say that compared to Safe Distance, Belonging is not such a narrative piece and this endows it with many interpretations. Within it are different chapters and sub-themes with elements like familiar old folk songs, love, worship, contentment and the issues in our country.

"Basically, this piece is a big topic – life," Chow asserted.

But besides the differing narratives, what else makes the two pieces unique and different from each other? Leng shared it had to do with the triggers used to create the movements. He said that in itself engendered different vocabularies for Safe Distance and Belonging.

"Safe Distance utilises daily movements, utilitarian gestures and domestic actions like the pulling of the shirt for instance which can be used as a gesture for anger. So, what has happened is that these daily movements were used to initiate new dance vocabularies and then they were distorted and stylised and some were transformed into pictorial images selected by the choreographer," explained Leng.

Conversely, words, instead of actions, were the trigger for Belonging.

"Keywords such as pray, separation, love and certain lyrics from selected popular songs were used to derive the movements. We played some games and interactive activities to find possible movements," added Leng.

Sub-themes and dance vocabularies may set them apart, but at the end of it all, both Safe Distance and Belonging, seek to explore the relationship between space and people. Without us knowing it, space plays a crucial role in our lives to keep things in order, though sometimes, it causes pain and misery. But that's how life is.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Rabu, 31 Julai 2013