Dance x Theatre x Post conversation with Sub from Maya Dance

While working on our ACM 201 project, I was looking for a local dance x theatre cross-disciplinary work that might be useful in substantiating our project. I chanced upon ‘ Same Same’ online, an inclusive collaboration between No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability (Adelaide, Australia) and Diverse Abilities Dance Collective, DADC (Singapore). The work was directed by Jeffrey Tan with Emma Beech, in collaboration with Subastian Tan (Maya Dance Theatre) and Michaela Cantwell (No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability). You can find more about it here.

(Pic 1: Promo for Same Same found on HoneyCombers)

Subastian! A friend of mine, an intelligent and creative individual that people in the dance scene always go to for advice. I knew he’d be open to sharing about the process, and sure enough, after I forwarded the poster to him, he had already invited me to have a chat about it.

How did Same Same start? Jeffrey Tan from Theatre Today has always been interested in community work, and so he reached out to Kavitha and Sub from Maya Dance Theatre because they have been working with DADC. When the process started, everyone established that there was no goal or any artistic output in mind. It was very much about focusing on forming the relationship across borders between DADC and No No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability.

‘ When we started the process it was a lot of talking. Just talking to get to know each other better, what we like, what we don’t like. What topics we have in common.’

After 2-3 sessions of talking, the team started to devise based on what they had talked about. Parts of the craft came out, - poems, dance and what they wanted to eventually talk about. They had to understand as a group what they wanted. They wanted to focus on the theme of ‘Same, Same’. How are we different but same?

With this, I thought about our project and brought it up to Sub. I shared with him that our group had faced many difficulties when it came to identifying the differences between theatre and dance and that we eventually saw more similarities instead.

I asked Sub what were the similarities and differences he had found. He shared that in terms of expression, it would be natural for dancers to immediately dance and for actors, they would be more comfortable with talking and sharing in terms of playing with words. An interesting individual he met was one performer from NSA called Zoe, a lady with cerebral palsy which affects her speech. Zoe loves dancing and she managed to connect with the dancers from DADC easily. There was also another individual from the dancers’ side that was comfortable with speech, and she connected well with the actors too. From the dynamic process of back-and-forth conversation, Director Jeffrey Tan was inspired and pieced everything to form a script. The difficult part was this- the dancers had no idea how they could transpose this to their craft.

(Pic 2: From left to right: Wanyi, Zoe and Arassi Credit: No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability Facebook)

Script! I’m very interested in script. Our group had thought of using an excerpt from Recalling Mothers as a theatrical device for dancers to work on their craft. There was a gap though, we couldn’t just throw the script at a dancer and asked them to interpret it, so I was very interested to know how Jeffrey went through the process. [and of course, that was my next question]

‘Sub, so does Jeffrey engage dancers and actors in the same way, at the same time during this process?’

‘Yes. It’s like a task. For eg, in our 3 months process midway, we decided that COVID was something that was a common topic for all of us. So he gave us homework for the performers to express their sentiments during this period. It was as open like that! Some came back with diary entries, poems, dances. As a director, he was mainly picking and finding the thread to all these things that were created. It was just a lot of creation and then threading through what made sense.’

Jeffrey essentially was the seamster master here. I did have some trouble imagining what the performance had looked like and Sub said that it was kind of a showing of their creative process rather than a full fledged production. It was more of deciding what fit the theme the most, and also to talk about the relationship that was built throughout the three months.

(Pic 3: Left Jeffrey Tan , Right Emma Beech Credit: No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability Facebook)

Sub described the ending segment. It was preceded by a conversation between the performers about how they felt about COVID. The poems came in, the words and connection happened when the dancers interpreted the poems. There was also a choreographed movement piece and that was based off activities based on covid - like exercising, cooking, watching tv.

At this point, I was rather excited as I saw certain similarities with our project. It might be validation, but in our project, one of the reasons why we believed script was a device for dancers was because of the possible use of imagery. We also felt that it would be ‘fresh’ for dancers to reinterpret and form a connection with the playwrights’ experience. Recalling Mothers itself is a timeless production that builds on its past iterations. There was value in having dancers to respond to Noorlinah and Claire.

In terms of engaging with the dancers and actors on an equal level, Jeffrey used a common task to connect the performers and then to stitch them together. I was particularly interested in how Sub himself, as a dancer interpreted the script. Was it an emotion? Was it the rhythm of the words? What was it that inspired his movement? He answered that it was very much about the content and the emotions derived from it.

Again, I nodded with approval and made many ‘mms’ as he continued. ‘I think in terms of the difference as well between the two forms is the reactivity. As dancers, it seems that we are always working towards a choreographed end goal, there’s always this end goal in clear sight. But when I work with these theatre practitioners or students, their process always includes asking questions like what is my character about? Why is my character saying this? They find out what part of them resonates with the character, and then they bring it in to become that character.

This is exceptionally insightful for me. When we were trying to break down what theatre and street dance was, it was actually very difficult for me. Yes, we acknowledge that there are many similar elements like the music, the staging perhaps of the production? Mis-en-scene, gestures and so on. But it didn’t feel like we had hit the nail. Something that Sub had shared about reactivity made me feel that perhaps we could have had better explored this point. To bring back some of what we had talked about earlier, Sub did mention that in terms of expression, it would seem that it is second nature for street dancers to immediately express themselves via movement intuitively. In layman terms - we may call it vibing. It’s like how you go to a club and you just shake because you like the music right? Sub here believes that in some sense though, that the roots of street dance should yield some form of ‘theatrical element’.

To give a visual presentation of what we think this ‘theatrical element’ is, Sub shared this video.

Loosely breaking down what i PERSONALLY feel this ‘theatrical element’ is, it is the intention and the idea of Storytelling. What we witness in the video as seen earlier is largely present in B-Boy dance battles. Strong gestures, handsigns, symbols. This element of storytelling has largely eroded in today’s street dance scene.

‘It feels like the theatrical element from street dance had become divorced from it. It largely became about the dance instead as a whole.’

When we talk about ‘whole’ - it’s the research, the history, the costumes we use to dance. It has become a common phrase to hear ‘don’t think just dance’ in Singapore’s street dance scene. Perhaps street dance is associated as an activity, a leisure past time. But when we try to label it as a performing arts medium, I believe this storytelling aspect is essential. There is a difference between choreography and performance. Do street dancers currently develop their craft in order to fit their performance value - whether it is a freestyle competition or on stage?

I’m thinking now - perhaps it is not just sharing theatrical elements to street dancers as devices, but to also inspire them in terms of the process of refining their craft, and how they can successfully storytell their movements to their audience.

Anyway, back to Same Same. I did want to share some interesting things from the conversation. By this time, it was noted that Sub had decided to label themselves as performers rather than their craft because it was important that every one of them was open-minded enough to explore both mediums. I felt that it was cool that both groups had to dabble in both acting and dance. That makes a nice cross-disciplinary collaboration :D

Even more interestingly, I was curious to find out how the experience was like working with DADC and how it was different from working with other dancers. Sub shared that it was actually way easier because DADC dancers don’t overthink it and just do it. The whole process was extremely organic. With other dancers usually, they would be conscious about their movement, and whether it connected to the context of the script. Once these dancers feel like they have ‘nailed’ the movement and formed the emotional connection, they would actually stick to it rather than reacting to what is happening with each run.

Based on where it went, there wasn’t really a set choreography. A big factor is also that we are working with persons of disabilities as well, and to have a set choreography would take away the magic from their performance.

I’m extremely thankful for this insightful conversation and am very inspired by what Sub has been doing with the DADC dancers :)

P.S (the whole part on street dance- Just my two cents! Please don’t be confused and grade the group down if I didn’t make sense. D:)