Johore-based (Skudai) dance company Lee Wushu Arts Theatre has travelled to many different places to perform. They have presented performances in London, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, to name a few. Their works — mainly with a strong fusion of Wushu (Martial Arts) and contemporary dance — have earned them accolades. They are also popular in their hometown, in the state of Johore, in Malaysia. The way they operate seemed like a big company; but they are actually a young company (the average age of company members ranging from 15 to 17), with the artistic director Lee Swee Seng merely in his thirties, and two of his strongest dancers averaging at 23 years old. I had a good opportunity to catch their production named Farewell, My Concubine — The Movement of the Matyr in 2011. It was a production that featured the company’s two main dancers: Ter Wei Lun and Cheong Kee Qing. Their bodies sparked my reflection on the co-existence of martial arts and contemporary dance — of which I felt was rather difficult, given that both forms of movement are very different; not to mention martial arts, a more restricted one. This afternoon, after watching their performance again in their latest offering Wushu Madness II — The Realm Between, I was convinced that the seemingly different forms could actually come together, albeit philosophically. A new way of looking at it is necessary: Philosophy preceeds physicality, it is.
