It’s a truth we’re all familiar with as People of Colour, and one that has certainly reared its head as of late; racism is a persistent scourge, make no mistake. TOUCH review
Countless art pieces have dissected the emotional and psychological toll these experiences have on us; in TOUCH, Chandralaya’s Artistic Director Deepa Mani and Rebel Stepz’s Sheena Chundee attempt to address the isolation and prejudice they have faced as Ballet and Bharatanatyam dancers of colour over their careers by blending their two movement styles.
Playing at Gasworks Arts Park and The Round, TOUCH is a promising premise which falters dramaturgically, causing a work which could unearth profound observations on racism through the transcendent power of dance to simply skim the surface.
Perhaps its biggest missed opportunity is not painting with other colours; tonally, the performance lingers in disenchantment for most of its runtime, leaving a tired, bitter taste in our mouths, and limiting the potential for any nuanced exploration of its themes. Anger is certainly part of the experience of prejudice, but TOUCH wallows in this frustration without providing much else, making the piece come across as an airing of grievances rather than an exploration of experiences.
Dancers Deepa Mani and Jasmine Lim are undoubtedly technically accomplished; Mani’s Abhinaya is spot on, and Lim injects terrific vitality into her movement, but the two performers aren’t given any range or space to develop, to the point where consecutive sequences are indistinguishable from one another despite their best efforts.
Instead, red lights blare and double bass grunt, as rage is reduced to its most literal skin-clawing, finger pointing form; given the stature of the artists involved and the almost two-year gestation period since its Dancehouse season, it’s disappointing not to see slightly more intricate images.
However, the most fatal shortcoming of TOUCH is a lack of trust in audiences to interpret sequences themselves; any mystique which emerges through the choreography is clumsily crushed by a tedious voiceover bemoaning how unfair things are for them. TOUCH review
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TOUCH does have moments of beauty however, when both dancers take to the stage, mirroring and echoing each other’s movements in their own stylistic vocabulary. This visually striking collaboration uncovers the intriguing similarities and differences between their dance forms, and comes far closer to the celebration of cultural richness the creators of TOUCH had imagined. TOUCH review
Equally, music composed by Bhairavi Raman, Nanthesh Sivarajah and Rohan Dasika strikes a nice balance between the contemporary and tradition and helps punctuates the emotional peaks of the performance.
Ultimately, TOUCH is a stronger piece when it moves away from defeatism and the need to explain itself and embraces the unique beauty of blending forms; sadly, this is a revelation that comes too little and too late, stunting the pieces’ ability to say anything meaningful.
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