Dance review
Playful, painful and pungent Batu examines how women experience and carry histories
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Ayu Permata Sari and Hasyimah Harith’s Batu explores how women carry family and cultural memory through kitchen utensils.
PHOTO: BERNIE NG
Elizabeth Chan
- Ayu Permata Sari and Hasyimah Harith’s Batu explores how women carry family and cultural memory through kitchen stones.
- The 75-minute dance work creates a home-like welcome, then moves into stories of childbirth, loss, humour and pain.
- Its strongest moments come from real encounters, but some sections feel uneven and less convincing than others.
AI generated
Esplanade Theatre Studio
Oct 16, 8pm
In Batu, Indonesian choreographer Ayu Permata Sari and Singaporean choreographer Hasyimah Harith explore how women’s bodies carry and transform inherited traditions through the domestic and ritual significance of grinding stones. Commissioned by Esplanade for da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now, the 75-minute work is most compelling when meaning emerges from encounters rather than theatrical intensity imposed upon them.