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TPAG ISSUE 35 — OCTOBER 2012

SPACERetracing the steps

I n a fleeting moment, it seems thatthe initial attraction has beenestablished and what ensues are twobodies coming together in unison,executing dance moves that unitemale and female. Taking the femaledancer’s gaze as a depature for a pieceof writing on dance likens the man’smovements to pushing chairs asidefor the frail woman in Pina Bausch’sCafé Muller. The act of clearingindicates both an intention to exploreand to love (clearing thedangers for the beloved),not to mention sculptingchaotic female emotions intimes of extreme loneliness.Not so much a re-telling ofthe biblical story, Kek’sAdam and Eve is a re-organisation of vignettes ofBausch’s dance theatregenre.

What matters in this pieceof work is the choreo-grapher Kek’s ownintention and language that eithercomplements, augments, or subvertsthe form, content, and aesthetics ofBausch’s dance theatre. Attemptsto do so in themselves pose a hugechallenge. The literature for andagainst it abound, but there are manydifferent ways of “breaking” it. What’sinteresting about the piece is thesculptural form it creates thatmanipulates the audience’s gaze onthe lines and curves of the bodies.The intention of Kek’s Adam and

Eve might not be to break ground,but to tease out the beauty of dancetheatre and introduce it to theMalaysian audience, to whom theunderstanding of the concept of dancetheatre might be limited. The gaze ofdancer Hoi’s Eve towards Kek’s Adamnot only exhibits love and seductionbut also an acute awareness of theirsense of identity, as created by thecreator (Hoi as Eve, and Kek as Adamcan also be studied separately).

Dance of EdenIn every part of the dance piece, fromthe time both of them get acquainted,to the time they get married, to thetime they decide on revisiting thedating process the encompassinggazes are directed at each other, butencounter resistance. The resistancemight be about the rules they arerequired to abide by in their world(or, to us, society), it might also beabout their bodies. Little known to

them, the audience’s gaze was alsopresent. Their understanding of thepower dynamics between the maleand the female dancer could offer anobjective view of the definition ofbodies on stage.

Clearly, both Adam and Eve aretrapped in their own world whichseems to be under surveillance. Thered apple presented in the form ofred helmets, as interpreted by

choreographer Kek, is atrapping device for both ofthem. As the biblical loversattempt to ride away in amotorbike, kissing passion-ately, they encounterresistance. Metaphorically,the use of the helmet is aptand poignant. What makesan interesting discovery iswhen they mutually smelleach other: and smellingbecomes an act ofexploration and sculptingthat couples the act of

seeing and gazing into each other.The politics within the bodies are atone with the politics of the relation-ship between “to look” and “to belooked upon”.

The gaze could be read on differentlevels. The Gestalt Theory ofPsychology explains it all; an adagein the 1920s that holds true till thisday: People often perceive similarobjects as a whole, as a group/pattern.If anything falls out of the norm,

In Malaysian choreographer Jack Kek’s dance piecetitled Adam and Eve,we follow the gaze of the

biblical character Eve as she sculpts the body ofAdam. There is another element that makes thisspecial: theaudience is watching the sculpting

process in “real-time”.

Text: Richard Chua

SPACE

Notes(1) “The Gestalt Principles.” 15 September 2012.http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm.

audiences will sense the differenceand due attention will be given tothem; they are called anomalies1. Ifwe were to apply this to the audience’sperception of bodies as sculptures ina dance performance, it would beinteresting to note how the audiencemight perceive the bodies in flight assymbols, making a semioticconnection with the biblical story.

Living sculpturesWhat makes Adam and Eve interest-ing is Kek’s strengthening of thespiritual aspects of the relationship.It is the hurt and happiness thatdefines the symbol of Adam and Eve.Hoi’s hurt is perhaps one of the mosthaunting that a female body canmanifest. Her rendition of the struggleof a woman wanting to free herselffrom the restraints of not being ableto love provides a good direct refer-ence to male-patriarchal naivety andoppression. It is credited to herextreme effort in body-centerednessin terms of technique.

For the technique largely accountsfor the gravity of her dance section,allowing audiences to appreciate heremotive flow from the feet up – thuslikened to a Renoir sculpture.

Hence what requires further studyhere is how “real-time” is defined inthe theatre. Is it the time when thebodies were gazing at each other, orthe extension of “gazing” to theaudiences? Meanings abound,semiotics aplenty, signs notwith-standing, what’s interesting is thatdance performances have alreadymoved out of the realm of showcasingtechnicalities into postmodernexperimentation. In this day and age,with the onslaught of the internet,YouTube-like realities, analysis in thetemporal aspects and structures havetaken on a new dimension.

Exploration into the different intrinsicdifferences of body movements –maybe in the language of sculptures– can be further carried out. It could

give a valuable insight into the natureof time in the performing arts.

In conclusion, with all theproblematics that the gazes of Adamand Eve give to each other in thepiece, and putting the reflexivity andstruggles in fulfilling their desiresaside, is it possible for Adam and Eve(it might be a good reference pointfor all the male and female bodies inthis world) to break free from thegazes between the dancers and theaudience? Perhaps, taking analternative view through the lens oftheories relating to appreciatingsculpture could open up newperspectives that help expand theknowledge of how sculpture andperformance art related to the humanform.