have been a few past performances in the recent weeks since teh last time i wrote. the preparation for the next wave was packed with razor bitching sessions, endless political struggles of the underclass, the vicous malignancy of uncontrolled outbursts and its side effects, the aftermath of horrible dance rehearsals, the unwelcoming unrelenting exudation of viscous ego, the senseless repetition of steps and the dreaded hours of time better used! what's worse towards the emancipation came remarks of deconstruction it's like setting up the skeleton of the building only to have it destroyed by a tongue. in an attempt to construct in whatever interest or whatever form of psychology, i think it'll do justice if one applied a judicious method of analysis and not mere physical form. i am not out here to critisise the breadth of experience and choreographical acumen and sensitive interpretation of movement, expression(feeling from the inside, which i understood more reading one paragraph from a website than having 5-10 people trying to explain to me, in the end getting more confused and flustered and left to feel hopeless-thanks luigi!) and articulation but merely in the context of it's delivery, which can be approached more systematically and productively, in a way that points the strength and weakness with the attempt to not destroy n reconstruct as in the building analogy but to work on what has already been worked on. similarly, i personally feel that the politicking in dance is nonsense shit, pardon my blunt-ness. but i don't know the objective of dance to some. personally it's about knowing and exploring movements in one's body that can translate to meaningful vocabulary for people to understand, at the same time to develop my skills in adaptibility to different genres, technique that not only helps in strengthening the body but also help me to understand the reason why my body moves a certain way it does, in a way, developing a tangible understanding of the limitations of the human body, which need not be physiologically or academically explored. a local dance, Michael Sim, correctly attributes dance into three aspects that complements one another. he mentioned that dance comprises of knowledge, technique and feel/groove/others etc. allow me to personally apply my limited knowledge i attempt to pass judgement in this matter.
knowledge encompasses knowing what u are doing. without knowledge. the rest doesn't fall into place. it doesn't even make sense. however, it is not necessary. some people say knowledge is an adjunct to movement esp when it comes to dance i.e. it becomes cumbersome to know. i admittedly acknowledge my ignorance in dance history, terminology, its significance what have nots. but i think it's quintessential. not only it helps one to appreciate dance better, it may also be an impetus for further development. besides, knowledge of dance will help in technique development. Aristotle said,"
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet." i think time spent in educating oneself about dance is worthwhile especially if ur interest is there, when u are young, focused and commitment-free. i quote another local dancer, Syed Hamzah, who tells me,"
think about it!" on a more personal note, i encourage those people who are dance enthusiast to get dance education albeit miniscule. it helps to create dancers who are dance educated and not mere monkeys who dance and don't know what they're talking about half the time. i feel guilty!
with regards to technique, ah-hah, seems to be getting full circle already it seems. ok not quite. i think to develop technique one has to have 1)discipline 2)enthusiasm 3)openness 4)good habits 5)good genes 6)time and money. of course this list is non-exhaustive but i derived this out of personal experience- not that i have much of it in the first place.and as usual comments are welcomed for what anyone thinks contributes to technique development. but essentially, i think the root of developing technique can be summarised into the 1st point about discipline. the good thing i see from singapore dancers is their determination to persevere, not all, not some, but most! I guess whatever genre one does, the technique is important. Again i quote from the jazz dance innovator, who candy and i find extremely inspiring, Eugene Facciuto a.k.a Luigi, "
if u keep doing things RIGHT long enough, they'll get better right, But if you keep doing things wrong long enough, they'll feel right, WRONG!" some concepts are difficult i have to say, i'm struggling myself in jazz and hip hop but needless to say if i put the right attitude in maybe i'll get better or worse! in addition i think it is important that we as dancers learn from someone who is experienced in that genre of dance. sure....of course you can d/l tonnes of online videos, copy them and make them ur own, show it to ur friends and they blindly follow, not knowing their risking their physical entity. my point is when it comes to execution, your teacher is your best mirror,not the mirror you see on the wall! i guess that's my reason for putting money in limiting factor 6! true dance is expensive for the some of us, but it's worth it. i mean, unless u are michael sim, who i congratulate for his undying, unvarnished spirit for emphasising knowledge and proper technique, presentation etc, dance teachers need to pay PUB bills also! Besides, knowing to do things right also helps to minimise injury to the body. we dance to enjoy ourselves, not to kill ourselves. i guess at the same time technique should come with a little understanding of the dance anatomy and physiology. the only person i know who does that, other than teachers in LaSalle SIA, NAFA or Odyssey Dance theatre, is Peter Teo.
After much nonsense about technique and knowledge, the realm of much controversy and much of where the nonsense of whose right and wrong when u don't know wat the hell you are talkign about urself takes place! The 'feel/groove/etc' is much debatable. so whose right? what should locking look like? you should feel this way doing this..not that! i get these things all the time. people who explain so-called mechanisms without the theory! personally, i think, lest u are dancing in a group or doing some contemporary shit, it doesn't matter how one really feels so long as you enjoy yourself, again, Mr. Luigi says,"
It is the rhythm of the body and the feeling.....when dancing you must not intellectualize. forget about yourself. for right now you are not you- you are tuning up your body...." This does not apply to jazz only. in fact it applies to hip hop e.g. krumping, locking, robot etc. i guess simply put technique is the summation of knowledge and technique that translate into meaningful movements and feel is the externality that provides for sensible expression and interpretation.
i hope to have put a lot of things into better light. but somehow i think it has not resolved the issue of what i would term political dancing, which blatantly i am experiencing first hand. some of the dancers i know have the wrong attitude and approach to dancing, which contradicts the purpose of dancing in the first place. some of the dancers i know have skulls so thick, i swear it's made of pure ego!
then there's this thing about comparing yourself and others, which i have to address. it's not wrong, for me personally, cause i am setting a benchmark for myself, whatever or whoever it is. but sometimes it gets excessive and unnecessary. i believe if you want to dance and be better or excellent, challenge urself and see how u do, not by (passively or actively) challenging others.
i have a lot to learn from dance. i try to experiment, imitate, develop my own style and educate myself, a little a day. Someone told me- i forgot who," good dancers are good observers." i strongly concur and i encourage dancers to open up their senses when dancing and learning. it's not rocket science nor neuroscience. it's just using what u have! that being said, there are many studies i read that try to study the factors that affect one's dance development.
However,would they even matter if the seeds aint for the right tree?
