One might ask if a theatre practitioner with an interest in actor training could offer anything constructive to an understanding of a dance performance, especially when the writer is not considered a dance professional? Honestly, the opening question is a reminder to myself, consciously identifying myself as a spectator/writer; or, to be really honest, finding a reason; or ,to be more specific, trying to formulate a common thread of thought which an actor and a dancer could speak effectively with each other, allowing me to speak to the work presented in the evening. In my thinking of this question, the artistic director of T.H.E Dance Company Kuik Swee Boon’s word used in the post-show dialogue earlier this evening “moment” came trickling in my mind, for it is a common word used in all areas of performing arts, be it in music, drama and dance. The word “moment”, derived from Latin word “momentum” ( a state of constant movement within a time/space), indicates a very brief period of time; “in the moment” : instantly in the present time. In theatre, actor bodies (I believe it applies to dancer bodies too) inhabit the “moment” in every part of the bodies’ performance narratives. In dance, dancers strive to move from one of point of movement to another making sure that the body in every point of the narrative is – for a lack of a better descriptive word – “full”. As much as there are contestations in the a body’s state of being in the moment as opposed to being alive on stage in performance discourses, largely unresolved, I am going to gloss them over focusing on just first principles of the definition of being in the moment as I attempt to engage the 3 dances presented by (in order of presentation) T.H.E. Dance Company, Frontier Danceland and the Singapore Dance Theatre through an informed audience view on whether a dancer is engaged in every moment he/she is in in this piece of writing.
