Beautiful Thing 2 (2011)

Beautiful Thing 2 position the body almost as an architectural object in an empty stage. Using time as powerful strategy in the very dramaturgy of presence. The performance prescribes nine lines in space. The physicality of the body becomes abstracted over time, till the spaces it holds and moves become more present. The performance remains constantly on the edge of performing and not. In moments playing with the body’s potential to grow in space, at others for it to dissolve into space. It meticulously deconstructs and presents the study of movement mechanics until we are forced to ask the question: what is dance?

It has always been the potential of dance to place the body at the center of its discourse. The famous statement by choreographer Chandralekha: ‘Where does the body begin and where does it end?’ is perhaps today more relevant than ever. One cannot anymore reduce the body to being the vehicle for choreographic intention. Beautiful Thing 2 wishes to centralize and essentialise the body, stripping it of unnecessary narrative and embellishment until it is seen once again as the most important site of being.

Duration : 26 minutes

Credits

Music – Maarten Visser
Light – Jan Maertens
Photography – Singapore Arts Festival
Commissioned by – Singapore Arts Festival
Co-production – Szene Salzburg
Co-presentation – Festvial Bo:m
Performer – Padmini Chettur