Dance

PAN

T.H.E Dance Company

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre Cultural Extravaganza

Live stream, Sunday (May 23), 3pm

Merely a week before Pan was to premiere live at the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, tightened Covid-19 safety measures drove it entirely online.

The new measures, which last until June 13, require all performers to be masked for performances in front of a live audience.

Given the high-intensity movements choreographed by The Human Expression (T.H.E) Dance Company artistic director Kuik Swee Boon and resident choreographer Kim Jae Duk, it would not have been feasible for the dancers to perform masked.

Pan was originally conceived for a live audience and later adapted for a hybrid of live and online audiences. The sudden online-only move meant a rush to adjust the production elements.

Despite this, Adrian Tan's lighting design has been successfully recalibrated for the screen alone, clearly delineating bodies and movements while capturing changing moods.

The change of camera placement also proves effective, as the streamed performance brings the audience up onto the stage with the performers, magnifying aspects such as the locking of eyes or the details in unfolding fingers.

The title Pan comes from a word that in Mandarin means "coil" and exists in the Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese languages. It also references the creation myth of Pangu, a colossal being whose body broke apart to form the elements of the natural world.

Kuik uses this as an allegory for transculturation, Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz's concept of the continual merging and converging of cultures.

Pan is presented in parts, beginning with Kim's SeungMu, a contemporary take on one of Korea's most significant folk dances.

The costumes by Loo An Ni update the traditional white conical hood and coat with sleeves that would drape far past the fingers to a sombre black trench coat and detachable hood.

These accentuate the weight of stillness against the changing rhythms embodied by the dancers, who are like tightly wound springs. The sleeves reveal the speed of the dancers' hands and wrists, which flash repeatedly with their quick gestures.

Towards the end of the dance, the trench coats are hung up in a line across the back of the stage. They become additional bodies joining in the dance, a reminder of the people, history and lineage that preceded this moment, as the heavy crimson curtains draw together.

In the break, when the dancers would presumably be changing, the masters of ceremony, disabled performers Tung Ka Wai and Danial Bawthan, also known as Wheelsmith, bring the audience backstage to meet the dancers.

They converse with them in a variety of languages and dialects such as English, Mandarin, Malay and Cantonese, revealing tidbits about each dancer's origins and roots.

For instance, junior apprentice Haruka Chan was born on the first day of spring in Japan and her name, given by her Singaporean Chinese and Japanese parents, is based on this.

After the break, the curtains part to reveal the dancers, seemingly where we left them. The coats remain suspended, a trace of another dance and culture.

Kuik's The Notion Of Transculturation is more meditative than his other dances. The breath of the dancers seems to seep out of them. They pulse on the spot, constantly assembling and dissolving apart in various permutations, reminiscent of the creation myth of Pangu.

This flows into the Epilogue, a collaboration between Taiwanese composer Wang Yujun, Malaysia-born Kuik, South Korean Kim, Tung, Wheelsmith and the company dancers of various nationalities.

This is the most meaningful of the segments. The dancers form a line looking out into the wings as Wheelsmith and Tung enter. They confront the dancers, who join hands and surround them.

The whole group melts into a single mass and Wheelsmith recites a poem of his in Malay - "like sea and sand, mixed but not together" - as he rolls forward in his wheelchair, emerging from behind the bodies.

All the performers match each other move for move, offering and responding. "My way? Your move? Your way? My move?" asks Wheelsmith.

An audio description of what is happening on screen is supplied on an accompanying app by Access Path Productions creative development director Grace Lee-Khoo and freelance audio describer Seren Chen. For the deaf, a poetic description of the music appears in a caption each time it changes.

Pan proposes to present transculturation as a convergence of cultures across geographical, historical, social and physical boundaries.

While I would prefer to see all performers sharing equal time on stage, the Epilogue weaves different bodies together seamlessly, successfully highlighting the beauty of every performer's movements individually and collectively. It is a sincere attempt to embrace transculturation in theme and practice.

Book it/ Pan

Where: Sistic Live

When: May 30 to June 24

Admission: Pay as you wish, from $5 to $50 via Sistic

Info: This is a 30-minute excerpt from the live stream