SINGAPORE – A local dance company will look at the idea of watching and being watched in an online show on Saturday night (May 30) titled Survei:ance.
In the 40-minute show by Sigma Contemporary Dance, its first online performance, nine dancers will perform from their homes.
The company's artistic director, Ms Hong Guofeng, who directed the show, says the performance aims to spur creativity despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 outbreak.
"As contemporary dance is something that evolves with time and situations, we also take it as a challenge to work with what we have in order to present this show.
"The themes we explore in this work is inspired by the shared experience of Singaporeans, and by extension, the rest of the world. So we hope that this performance will not only connect dancers and performers, but also the many audiences that would have gone for the many shows that were cancelled."
Ms Hong and her team began rehearsing for the performance on May 8, meeting and discussing their progress through Zoom.
Using their combined screens as a "stage", the dancers adapted their movements and transitions to overcome space and technical constraints.
In the absence of a technical crew, the dancers got involved with curating angles, frames and the lighting aspects of the performance.
Experimenting with this new frontier of digital performance, the team devised ways to get creative with Zoom, to cue protocols and musical transitions in the piece.
While the team originally intended to screen a live show, team members quickly realised that technical glitches such as time lag, audio errors and disconnection could disrupt the performance. They decided to pre-record the show for their viewers in a single take instead.
"While the experience of watching a performance on a sRead More – Source
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