CHOREOGRAPHIC MODERNITIES: MOVEMENT, MOBILITY AND CONTEMPORARY DANCE FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA LIM HOW NGEAN (B. BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION), NUS (MASTERS IN DRAMA & THEATRE), ROYAL HOLLOWAY AND BEDFORD NEW COLLEGE A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THEATRE STUDIES PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2014 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety. I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used in the thesis. This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously. ______________________________________________ Lim How Ngean 20 January 2014 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the kind support and generous contributions of many individuals. I am grateful for the discussions, interactions and valuable feedback that I have received throughout the undertaking of this thesis. My appreciation to the National University of Singapore for granting me a research scholarship, which has enabled many learning opportunities through the institution’s financial and resource support. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the personnel of the Department of English Language and Literature for their administrative assistance. I am indebted to the artists who have been extremely generous in sharing their time, experiences, knowledge and expertise that contributed directly to this thesis: Pichet Klunchun, Sunon Wachirawarakarn, Padung Jumpan, Kornkarn Rungsawan, Porramet Maneerat, Jirayus Puatput, Phon Sopheap, Chumvan Sodhachivy (Belle), Chey Chankethya (Kethya), Noun Sovitou (Tou), Emmanuèle Phuon, Arco Renz Azanin Ahmad, Marion D’Cruz, Daniel Kok, and Joavien Ng. Fred Frumberg and Rithisal Kang of Amrita Performing Arts, Soji Singholka of Pichet Klunchun Dance Company, and Pornrat Damrhung who have been forthcoming with their assistance, guidance and advice in facilitating my research activities in Phnom Penh and Bangkok. Faith Tan and Rydwan Anwar of Esplanade for their assistance in facilitating my research within the grounds of Esplanade. James and Cecilia Low for their hospitality during my stay in Bangkok. Mark Teh and Five Arts Centre for their invaluable assistance in Kuala Lumpur. My deep gratitude to Dr Paul Rae for his inimitable insights, uncompromising rigour and fierce passion in the process of supervising my thesis. You have inspired new ways of thinking, seeing and perceiving. To Anne James for your warm friendship and encouraging spirit. To Mohd Arifwaran for the many discussions, debates and discourses, and help in my research of Azanin Ahmad. To Dr Philipa Rothfield for the gentle advice and suggestions. To Kaan Sheung Kin for the much needed sanctuary. To Charlene Rajendran for unrelenting encouragement, great conversations, illuminating guidance, soulful advice, and, just for the grand old company. Terima kasih, Kawan. To my family for their blind faith and understanding in every endeavour I undertake. Last but not least, this thesis would not have been possible without the unwaivering support, understanding, care and tough love of my partner Ramesh Sahathevan. Thank you for standing beside me the entire time, Apu. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY I LIST OF FIGURES III INTRODUCTION - Ground Movements in Southeast Asia 1 - New Movements and Mobilities 5 - Modernity, Movement, Choreography 7 - Investigating Choreographic Modernities 15 - Locating the Researcher, Positioning the Research 16 - Thesis Organisation 21 1. MALAYSIA: ChorEographIc ModErnItIEs Past And PrEsEnt - Introduction 28 - Azanin Ahmad and The Malay Dance Drama 31 - Choreographic Modernity #1: Innovating the Classical 33 - Malay Modernity Through Cultural Transformations 37 - Choreographic Modernity #2: The Tradition Will Be Televised 40 - Marion D’Cruz and Political Choreographies 47 - Politicised Everyday Movements 48 - Choreographed Contestations 53 - Remembrance, Dance, Modernity 54 - Between Different Choreographic Modernities 60 - Networks of Themes and Traits 61 2. RHYTHMIC OPERATIONS: MatErIal DEscrIptIon and AnalysIs In DancE - Introduction 66 - Rhythm Situation #1: Sustaining Creativity 69 - Subtraction in Dance 71 iv - Rhythm Situation #2: Unfettered Improvisation 74 - Rhythm Situation #3: From Destabilisation to New Movements 79 - The Isolated Rhythm and Other Influences 82 - Discussion: Politics in Dance 86 - Further Aesthetic and Political Considerations 90 3. GESTURING TOWARDS IDENTITY – PART I: Of The Self - Introduction 93 - From Bangkok to St Petersburg, and Back 95 - Pointing to the Self 98 - The Emergent Self 105 - Signature and Signature Practice as the Choreographer’s Identity 109 - From Gesture to Character 113 - Monkey Modernity 116 - Between Different Selves 120 4. GESTURING TOWARDS IDENTITY – PART II: The Ensemble In PerformancE - Introduction 124 - Differences Yielding Diversities 127 - New Identities in Multiplicities and Becomings 130 - Of ‘Faint Becomings’ 138 - Mis(s)fit Multiplicities 143 - Reconfiguring The Audience and the Performer 148 - Situated Choreographic Modernities 153 5. DANCING FROM JETLAG TO BODY REGIMES - Introduction 156 - Learning and Rehearsing Disruptions 159 - Performing Desynchronisation 165 - Stammering Towards a Minor Dance 167 - The Modern (Dance) Body 170 - Locating Modernity in the Traditional 173 v - Vulnerability and Precarity 177 - Life As Usual 180 6. SINGAPORE: ModErnIty Through CapItal MobIlIsatIon - Introduction 187 - Accumulation of Capital: The Singapore Arts Festival 191 - Southeast Asian Cultural Capital: Esplanade 195 - Mutual Benefits 199 - Singaporean Movements 203 - Beyond Capital: Personal and Informal Ties 210 - Choreography of the Hub 215 CONCLUSION - Choreographic Modernities and Their Qualities 218 - Circular Choreographic Modernities 220 - Refracted Choreographic Modernities 222 - ‘Conjunctural’ Multiple Modernities 223 - Choreographic Modernities and Social Movements 227 BIBLIOGRAPHY 233 vi SUMMARY Recent developments in Euro-American dance studies have emphasised movement as inherent to the expression of modernity, and choreography as imbricated in the cultural and political formations of the larger community and society. This thesis contributes to this line of inquiry by examining the creation and performance of contemporary dance from Southeast Asia under the conditions of globalising modernities. Emergent identities and new body techniques are impacting the creation of new choreographic practices, while the mobility born of international performance touring and foreign artistic collaborations are transforming how dance movements and gestures ‘travel’ from one form to another. Choreographic experimentation, I contend, both reflects and produces these modernising aspects of movement and mobility to create ‘choreographic modernities’ amongst certain Southeast Asian dancers and their performances. These emergent ‘choreographic modernities’ are analysed through comparative studies of dancers from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Bangkok (Thailand), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), and Singapore, and through the analysis of a range of dance creations and performances. In recognition of the spatiotemporal disjunctions of modernity, the body of the thesis is ‘bookended’ by case studies in two parts of Southeast Asia with very distinctive patterns of modernisation. It begins with a contextualising chapter on choreographic experimentation in Malaysia over a period of three decades. It analyses the works of choreographers Azanin Ahmad in the 1980s, and Marion D’Cruz in the 1990s and 2000s, and highlights the impact of diverse political and sociocultural developments on their dance aesthetics and processes. The next four chapters closely examine the dances and choreographic processes of Thailand’s Pichet Klunchun, and the dancers of Cambodia’s Amrita Performing Arts organisation. Trained in classical conventions of Thai Khon and Cambodian Lakhon Kaol and Robam Kbach Boran respectively, Klunchun and the Amrita dancers are continually experimenting with their classical forms. They have also developed new I and varied strategies for dancemaking through their engagement with new choreographers and body techniques, and opportunities arising from foreign artistic commissions and the traveling this entails. In successive chapters, I focus on how different aspects of Klunchun’s and the Amrita dancers’ choreographic foundations have been transformed into new forms of expression that indicate a contemporisation of their dance practices. These are, respectively: variations in classical rhythm, the redefinition of gesture, the reconfiguration of characterisation, and the adaptation of performance conventions. The penultimate chapter is the other ‘bookend’, which analyses Singapore as a regional cultural hub with flourishing institutional arts events and venues such as the Singapore Arts Festivals and Esplanade Theatres by the Bay. It pays attention to how the city-state’s cultural and social policies have given risen to its aggressive capital mobilisation that foreign artists such as Klunchun and the Amrita dancers become beneficiaries. In concluding, I consider how an understanding of ‘choreographic modernities’ within the field of dance may lead to broader insights into the processes and effects of globalising modernities on the wider social, cultural and political choreographies of contemporary Southeast Asian societies. II LIST OF FIGURES 1.1. Screen capture of Azanin Ahmad (centre)