T.H.E. Dance Company’s new Liminal platform showcases mid-career choreographers

Liminal

The Human Expression Dance Company
Esplanade Theatre Studio
April 3, 8pm

Like a satisfying three-course meal, the inaugural edition of Liminal, a platform created by The Human Expression Dance Company (T.H.E) to nurture mid-career choreographers, offers diverse approaches to contemporary dance grounded in the visceral physicality characteristic of the company.

The deeply personal works by choreographers Fiona Thng, Klievert Jon Mendoza and Anthea Seah, all artists at the company, acknowledge the liminality of this phase of life.

Thng’s duet The Rooms Inside and Seah’s solo Ma opened and closed the evening with cogitations on motherhood, a parenthesis around Filipino Mendoza’s trio Laya, meaning freedom in Tagalog. 

Laya is Mendoza’s expression of his own spiritual journey, employing props, lights and costumes by fashion designer Angeline Oei in a highly symbolic manner to convey the message of obsessive desire versus freedom.

Two dancers stand on stage, Michail Logothetis Alafgrakis calmly observing from the back, a quiet presence. The other, Chang En, hypnotises with serpentine gestures.

Clear spheres strewn across the floor glisten in shafts of light, making a striking image as Chang entices dancer Carmelita Nuelle Buay into a duet.

Buay holds a glistening ball in her hand, transfixed as Chang clothes her in a ball-filled bodysuit. The balls cling to Buay, tumours distorting her body until, like popped pimples, she purges the infection and lies down in surrender. Here, as the narrative moves towards the freedom section, the choreography loses definition. The lack of specificity results in a vague ending that loses the impact of the beginning.

Chang offers a standout performance with her stylistic versatility and thoughtful interpretations of the choreography. She mesmerises with enticing movements in Laya after morphing into a capricious non-human entity in The Rooms Inside. 

Thng’s duet figures motherhood as the birth of new life and relationships. With quirky idiosyncratic movements, it reflects on both the emergence of a baby and the creation of a mother.

The dancers, faces covered in lacy material, are amorphous creatures that meld together and then become distinct individuals. Chang irritably swats Mendoza away. He cosies up to her and crawls after her. The audience titters at these humorous reflections of real life. 

In works with minimal private donorship or patronage, there is a greater reliance on structured funding. Understandably, these schemes usually focus on young emerging artists, while commissions go to established artists, leaving mid-career artists struggling to find opportunities to refine their craft.

While platforms such as Liminal create more continuity in the development of choreographers and the scene, it is a financial risk for T.H.E. Mid-career artists are less of a box-office draw than renowned choreographers with an established following. They require more investment of time and resources, as both the work and skills are being developed through the production.

It is hence no surprise that Seah, named T.H.E’s resident choreographer in 2025, offers the highlight of the evening. Thng gives a knowledgeable and sincere performance in Seah’s Ma, which feels like a peek into the thought life of mothers.

A chair on a white dance mat is an isolated space where a tired mother dozes, worries, questions and pulls herself together. Thng embodies this internal dialogue; the dilemma is made explicit whenever her shadow is replaced or multiplied through multimedia projections designed by Artania Raharso. The various silhouettes at her feet complement and contrast her dancing.

The struggle is real, but once the voices of the mothers and their children come over the speakers, a sense of peace descends, creating a pleasant ending to this triple bill.