To be truly free, there needs to be restrictions....

bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS
Choreography and Artistic Direction ~ Marie Chouinard

Watched this unique dance at Victoria Theatre, the place where Dance Sync did their debut and final performance.. Superb technique, creative choreography but unnerving music....

This dance can be aptly considered as unique to the point of being strange... I mean, who would imagine using crutches, ropes, prostheses and harnesses as props for dance.. At times, the props liberate their movements, at other times fetter them, and at still others create them. As a result, what we see is a series of unusual bodily shapes and gestural dynamics.

Oh and did I mention the female dancers (as usual the males were not) were erm... in the buff.. so lots of jiggly actions going on.... Grrrhhh.. much to the delight of this old man with binoculars, sitting near us... He freaked us out man... Each time the girls come on stage.. up comes his binoculars..and I hope nothing else too. (This is not CRAZY HORSE or some LUPSUP bar lor !!) Well for those who are interested, there's an extremely short video clip of some of the dances.. Be warned.. it contains nudity which you can hardly see.. keke http://www.mariechouinard.com/flash.html

Anyway, some of the movements with the props echo the human condition ~ of brokenness, of strength, of passion, of love, of lust, of hopelessness and of hope ~ The choreographer is truly an aesthete beyond norms.

I know it may sound ridiculous, but there was one part when a dancer was running in big circles as if she's in a race.. she stopped... but some others came on stage and started pushing her to run and whenever she tried to stop.. they did that again.. In that short moment, I believe a lot of the audience can feel and imagine what it is like to be her too.. Sometimes, we just don't wanna move on and run the race that others keep tellings us to, as there's so much pain n agony. . and there's a limit to what our body, mind, heart and soul can take.

I was rather excited about the post dialogue session with three of the dancers...

Haiz.. but being the typical local, I didn't dare to go up to the mike to ask questions. So the Ang Mohs and the "Ang Moh speaking" locals (you know what I mean) who were there, were the ones asking the questions and interacting with the Canadian dancers.. I just listened.. and formulated the questions in my head.. Darn wanted to ask why was there a need for nudity and were some parts meant to be suggestive?? What sparked the use of the props? No one asked. I didn't dare ask too. Perhaps some questions have no answers or are not meant to be answered. That applies in life too.

Anyway picked up something from the dialogue session. Internalised and rephrased it to make more sense out of what was exchanged in VT tonight... Rather oxymoronic but it's starting to make sense to me..

To be truly free, there needs to be restrictions. Full freedom is overwhelming.. When a kind of guideline, or system is given, (be it in the form of rules, religion, principles, values) we try to understand how it works and learn to master it. With that mastery, we can then ride on the 'restrictions'.. and the more we explore within the boundaries, the more challenges we find in attaining a sense of freedom. That's when restriction forces us to push ourselves to the extreme.. and when we figured out how.. we'll be fully free..