Concerts

Heh that's right Kueh...20 min. It was like a huge crowd laying siege to their booth, quite a sight to behold. Which is why I count myself lucky to end up with a ticket for the Friday night performance. I heard there were people willing to buy tix for $20, double the actual price. Heh, there's scope to start a black market over this kind of thing =P

Anyway, Dance Night was good stuff, better than last year's one, in my opinion. Part of it must be because of the tiny venue...makes things much more personal, and you can see all sorts of details in the dances - little moves, costume embroidery, the expressions on the dancers' faces. That in fact turns out to be quite important. If dancing is poetry in motion, then the meaning does lie in the detail too.

This year's Dance Night seems more...meaningful. More artistic. Last year most of the dances just struck me as chains of aesthetically pleasing movements, the dancer's equivalent of purple prose, I guess. The dance I remember from last year was the moon dance, because there was a clearly apparent meaning. This year's one had more dances like that, I think. More interpretable meaning.

The modern dances were breathtaking as usual with their energy, and the ballet pieces showed good technique. But it's the pieces with stories that struck the deepest. Ling's tap dancing comedy piece, for one =P Slapstick, but it was movement for a clearly visible reason. And then there was their SYF piece, designed, as they said themselves, "to put everyone in a pensive mood". The only trouble, I think, was that it came at the end of the concert, when I would rather have preferred to be in a high mood =P It involved all the dancers dressed in white and green, the guys barechested and lugging around these enormous bamboo poles. The girls weaving in and out between them, walking flatfooted and with rhythmic clapping. Then there was the chief/priestess figure sitting serenely on a bamboo pole being borne aloft by two guys.

I thought that the piece was about a seaside tribe and the mutability of reality. Seemed to me that the dancers were by turns birds and fishes. And when they came out with these sheaves of rattan and started waving them about, I thought it was branches waving in the wind, and then waves rolling in the sea. And at the end of the piece, the chief/priestess dons a mask, which I saw as a pseudo-religious gesture commenting on the origins of human belief. All in all quite a postmodernist take on the piece.

The programme booklet describes it as a dance about the simplicity and rhythm of an agrarian society living in a bamboo forest. And I ask myself, why didn't I think of that? =P

I think the most striking piece of the night, though, was the one with the cheongsam Shanghai women. Started with this excellent tableau of ten women in seductive poses, set to 1930s squeaky Shanghai music. The women sauntered slowly across the stage, going through the pleasantries when they met each other. And then, when the music switched to this soulful voilin piece, they started a really slow and solemn dance sequence, ending with the powerful image of them all gathered on DSR leaning forward, as if gazing after a departing lover. Then the music switched back, and they were back to their pleasantries.

Really quite a powerful piece of drama, I think. It wasn't flamboyant...probably because in a restrictive cheongsam, you really can't move around much. I think it was precisely this understated movement and slowness that made the dance so strong. It was all in the detail...the sway of the hips, the slight smile, the little handbag toted like a weapon. The power lay in the stillness, in the precision of each step. These women communicated much because of their restriction.

Heh I don't know precisely why suddenly I've developed such a taste for Dance Night. Partly I think it's cos there's a lot more of a dramatic element in this year's dance night. Was telling Vaish that RP should learn from the cheongsam dance how to put up a good drama, as opposed to their forte, a good comedy. But it's also because I've come to see dancers as more than just bodies in motion. An art form that is very much like drama, except much more physically strenuous, and not much difference in terms of mental stress either. It's the impression that there is meaning to be plumbed behind every move. And if drama is hard enough to interpret, then dance is even more of a challenge. A challenge that I'm only just beginning to appreciate.

* * * * *

Anyway, preparations for "Euphony" are well under way. Just spent the whole of today typing out Guitar stuff...a detailed set of stage manager's notes, the MC script and a thank-you note for HCI's Guitar Club. And the whole of yesterday virtually given over to Guitar prac and the tech running of the first half of the concert. It's gratifying to see that as the time approaches for the concert, everyone's really coming together. Musically, we have a show going, I think. The small groups are really working hard with their pieces, and the big ensemble pieces are really entertaining. At least from where I sit.

The biggest problem now, as always with a staged event, I think, is the tech side of things. It's important for the stagehands and AV techs to know what to do at what point in time, and I'm rather concerned that we didn't manage to get a tech rehearsal in any earlier than Saturday. That's partly because the PAC is booked until Sat for Dance Night; another symptom of the bad timing of the concert. As it is, we'll have tomorrow afternoon and a bit of time before the actual thing on Tuesday to finalise all the tech stuff, which is, sad to say, quite complicated.

Moving things is bad enough already. We not only have a 51-strong ensemble to handle, but we also haev 15 small group items, 3 of which require amps in a rock-band setting, and one of which (the Exco item) requires props and percussion. And with only 8 stagehands to play with, things are going to be quite tight, I think. And then there's lights and sound, always the weakest link in a concert. Lights aren't that complicated...they just have to fiddle with stage lights, house lights, lights for the apron stage and a spotlight for the MCs. But sound is really a headache waiting to happen, with 4 wireless mikes and a total of 6 condensers to switch on and off.

I'm hoping that tomorrow's tech rehearsal will go smoothly. We really need to try running through the entire concert once at least, twice if we can handle it. As it is we aren't going to have a dress rehearsal. We're really short on time. And I hope at least that we'll get the tech down to pat.

I was actually thinking of playing around with the lights for a bit, to add cinematic/dramatic effects to the concert. Then thought better of it, since the AV techs aren't familiar with the PAC systems, and we haven't had tech runs in the actual place yet. I'll bet that we've got enough headaches already to deal with tomorrow. Will add any dramatic flair, if needed, through the MCs.

Anyway, though, througout all this stress and rush, I actually find that I quite like it. At least it's a legitimate respite from Humans essays, of which I have three waiting to pounce on me once the concert ends. But in the time being, it's nice to be working for something that's not related to academics. Heh, I find that I can spend the whole day typing out 17 pages of stage directions, but I can't bring myself to write an intro for a hist essay. So much for me being a Humans student, eh...

Speaking of which...was thinking of whether to tell Purvis what I think about my own writing, but I figure that it'll only sound arrogant or self-defensive, either of which won't help me to put my case across at all. At any rate, right now I have more important things to do. And anyway, seriously, I don't really think it's all that crucial, really. I need to be convinced that it's important not to have Purvis have the wrong impression of me. At any rate, respect and admiration aside, it's rather sickening at times to see the special treatment that we give him. There's only so much that can avoid being ascribed to hypocrisy, in my opinion.

But enough of that. Every time I write of him I seem to get bitter =P Off to continue Guitar stuff...yes, it's a real relief. I wonder what I'll do once the Concert is over. It's quite a fearful prospect, actually.

pondered by phoenican @ 15.5.05