Dance preview: New Vision is triple the fun

Dance preview: New Vision is triple the fun

SINGAPORE - T.H.E Dance Company's annual New Vision series will be launched this Friday, with a triple bill of multi-disciplinary works by Jeffrey Tan, Kuik Swee Boon and Zhuo Zihao.

Artistic director Kuik says: "New Vision is an experimental platform, a platform for us to take risks. We're looking for something fresh, something new."

Tan's work Command Pattern harnesses motioncapture technology and startlingly life-like projections to examine the symbiotic relationship between man and technology.

The choreographer says of people's dependency on the electronic world: "We can't say we don't need it, it's already in our bodies. In some ways, we've created a monster."

In the 20-minute piece, an alphabet soup of jumbled letters sweep across the stage, coagulating to form a menacing silhouette, to a soundtrack created by composer Tze Toh.

In Zhuo's Felt Sense, the Singaporean choreographer teams up with musician Bani Haykal to deliver a wordless riposte to the notion of trauma.

Audience members will each don a pair of 3-D glasses to watch a video of the dancers which will be beamed onto a translucent scrim.

As the actual performers move behind the projections, their physical and digital bodies begin to blend into one.

Zhuo, 32, is a full-time dancer and choreographer with T.H.E. He says of the 3-D technology: "A lot of the time, when you're watching a performance on stage, it can feel very far away and you miss things like the expressions of the dancers. I wanted to close that distance."

The music for the 20-minute piece will be provided by Haykal, 28, who layers sounds of different frequencies to create a pulsating tension, interspersed with piercing, high-pitched whines which induce very real physical discomfort.

Finally, Kuik's 10-minute piece, On Top Of White, uses multimedia elements to explore the place of intention and meaning in modern dance, and aims to convey a sense of playfulness and freedom.

Book It

NEW VISION

Where: Gallery Theatre, National Museum of Singapore

When: Friday to Sunday. 8pm (Friday and Saturday), 3pm (Saturday and Sunday)

Admission: $32 from Sistic (call 6348-5555 or go to www.sistic.com.sg)


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