Dance festival promises some exciting moves

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 09/16/2007 2:45 PM | Life

The Jakarta Post, Singapore

More than 300 dancers worldwide will turn to Singapore during the da:ns festival 2007 on Oct. 11 through Oct. 21.

Coming from countries like Russia, Spain, Israel, France and the host country, the dancers, who are mostly highly acclaimed for their mastery in their field, will be moving their feet and bodies in over 100 performances, esplanade programming officer Faith Tan said here recently.

Mara Pags of Spain will be performing her excerpts of flamenco artistry, called Sevilla, created together with director Jos Maria Snchez. The dance depicts her hometown, Seville.

Star-studded ballerina, world acclaimed Ulyana Lopatkina from Russia will also sport her finesse in the festival.

The festival, which will take place at the Esplanade theater building at the edge of Singapore Bay, will invite audiences, not only to sit and watch every performance, but also onto the stage.

The project committee recorded more than 50,000 visitors at last year's festival and is expecting more to come this year, with the emergence of several new programs.

""Unlike last year, there will be 'footwork' where performers will teach latin, salsa and tango,"" said Tan.

The footwork, she said, was designed so that people ""can really participate"".

The committee is also planning to kick off a ""parent-child workshop"" that will let parents and their children explore dance and the arts ""in a fun and lively way"".

Parents and children will have opportunities to learn how body movement and music, as well as rhythm, interact with each other and how dance can be translated into visual art.

""For the first time ... we'll have a parent-child workshop to encourage them to learn something together,"" said Tan.

Aiming high at energizing the young generation, the committee is engaging United States-based Music Television and is also offering hip-hop performances by Marty Kudelka within an ""overdrive dance party"".

Overdrive is a nonstop dancing session with the performance of twisting hip-hop dancers and deejays working the turntables at Esplanade's vacant hall-cum-hip-hop dance club Concourse.

""We want to show not only practical contemporary dance but also hip-hop movement,"" said esplanade program marketing official Patricia Lee.

Kudelka, said Tan, is a popular choreographer in Singapore.

Twice nominated for best choreography at the MTV Music Awards, Kudelka has achieved acclaim for his work in music videos of pop artists like Justin Timberlake, Pink, Jennifer Lopez and Janet Jackson.

The festival will also feature folk dances from Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Cambodia and India.

Balinese dances like the baris, topeng, legong and taruna jaya will be performed at the festival.

The baris dance depicts a group of spirits living in a haunted place and usually features at major cremation rituals, locally known as ngaben, to escort the deceased to heaven.

Performers in the topeng (mask) dance move based on masks they are wearing. Masks may be in the form of the faces of gods, goddesses, humans, animals or evil spirits.

The minimum price of a pair of tickets for a show is S$160 (US$105).

On the Net:
www.dansfestival.com
www.sistic.com

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