The continuum : Beyond the Killing Fields
Captation intégrale2008 - Director : Picq, Charles
Choreographer(s) : Sen, Ong Ken (Singapore)
Present in collection(s): Biennale de la danse , Biennale de la danse - 2008
The continuum : Beyond the Killing Fields
Captation intégrale2008 - Director : Picq, Charles
Choreographer(s) : Sen, Ong Ken (Singapore)
Present in collection(s): Biennale de la danse , Biennale de la danse - 2008
The Continuum : Beyond the Killing Fields
"Bright red blood which covers the towns and plains of Kampuchea, our motherland, sublime blood of workers and peasants, sublime blood of revolutionary men and women fighters!"
- National anthem during Khmer Rouge bloodbath.
Based on Pol Pot's massacre of the royal court dancers of Cambodia, this documentary performance has played in USA, Berlin, Rotterdam, Vienna, Singapore, Phnom Penh, London, Stockholm, Oslo, Goteborg, Rome, Lyon, and Istanbul. The real life story of seventy-five year old Em Theay, master dancer of royal classical dance in Cambodia. This is a unique form of dance which has women cross-dressing in male roles. Em Theay has survived the scourge of the Khmer Rouge to live on, teaching her skills to the national troupe after the trauma. This story of dance passed through generations of mothers and daughters becomes all the more horrific when one learns that nine out of ten royal dancers, musicians, actors, playwrights, poets, artists were killed by Pol Pot in his fanatical attempt to set his country back to year zero.
Pol Pot's vision was to realise a peasant nation of self-reliant agricultural work brigades modelled on Mao's China. Reminiscent of Nazi Germany's genocide of Jews; technicians, teachers, monks or doctors were executed. Those who spoke French, English or who had studied abroad, were likewise liquidated. Simply having fair skin or wearing glasses was cause of execution.
Em Theay, often known as the tenth dancer - the one who survived, tells her story. Persecuted for being an artist, she never falters, a conscience, a memory of the gash which tore Cambodia apart after 25 years while Cambodia still waits for its war crimes trials to come to fruition.
Source: TheatreWorks
More information: www.theatreworks.org.sg
Sen, Ong Keng
Ong Keng Sen, is a Singaporean theatre director who is known around the world for his innovative approach to performance and theatre making. Often utilising his unique approach of combining both Eastern and Western performance traditions, he creates theatre that is truly multi-cultural, crossing boundaries and borders to reach the essence of what performance means today.
Ong's approach focuses on embracing differences whether that be artforms, people, nationalities or cultures, and he remains fascinated by how theatre-making can be combined with film, music, dance and visual arts to “combust together” and create a live work of art.
Ong's believes the true skills of a theatre director are not only to be a problem solver but also an expert in human communications, and he uses these skills to enable artists of different nationalities create new perspectives and experiences.
One example of this is his long-running Flying Circus Project, which brings together established artists from around the world for a residency programme to collaborate with the emerging, local artists in countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam. The project offers an opportunity for artists to think, exchange and challenge ideas, creating a unique and powerful environment for learning.
This expansive and welcoming approach, guided by the principles of human rights and justice, has placed him as one of the leading voices in the Singaporean art world. As the Artistic Director of TheatreWorks, Keng Sen was charged with developing Singaporean writing and theatre, and he guided the artists he was working with to confront the injustices of the past to create a new and independent vision of their own cultural identity and representation.
He then furthered this agenda by becoming the first artist to direct the Singapore International Festival of Arts, increasing audience numbers and participation in the festival, as well as raising awareness of Singaporean art through international partnerships.
Ong believes his greatest work is when a production goes beyond simply good theatre but also has a cultural, social or political impact. He says, “Of course the imperative if you are a theatre director or a fashion designer or a scientist, (is to) make good work…but to do something more than that is a great privilege and an opportunity.”
Source: University of the Arts - London
Picq, Charles
Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.
His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
- He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
- He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
- He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
- He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.
- He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.
His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.
He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).
Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon
TheatreWorks
Established in 1985 by Lim Siauw Chong, Lim Kay Tong, and Justin Hill, TheatreWorks (Singapore) is an independent and international performance company based in Singapore. It is an Institute of Public Character. It is currently led by Artistic Director, Ong Keng Sen.
TheatreWorks is an independent, non-profit Singaporean theatre company that develops and nurtures professional arts skills. It supports Singapore artists, and articulates the Singapore arts through its various productions and developmental programmes. It promotes and produces Singapore writing, interdisciplinary performances, collaborations with international artists. It also provides residencies for visual artists, documentary filmmakers or creatives working in contemporary visual culture and new media. The company recognises its responsibility in encouraging awareness of human and social issues, and is dedicated to sharing the transcendant potential of art with arts lovers and the Singapore community.
Since its establishment, TheatreWorks has staged over 200 productions and 2,500 performances in Singapore and overseas, and has reached an audienceship of over a million. TheatreWorks’ home is 72-13, a heritage building that was once a rice warehouse on Mohamed Sultan Road and next to the Singapore River.
TheatreWorks/72-13 is dedicated to the development of contemporary arts in Singapore and to the evolution of an Asian identity and aesthetics of the 21st Century through a culture of differences. It asks, what is Asian in this age of globalisation, internationalisation, modernisation and urbanisation? Its works exist on the tension between modernisation and tradition; local and global. Representing the continuum between tradition and contemporary, the works are unafraid to be exotic and yet conceptual. TheatreWorks’ projects present the hybrid identity of the contemporary Asian and embrace the multiple realities.
TheatreWorks is a multi-faceted arts company but always working intensively across languages, art forms, disciplines and socio-political borders. Rather than residing stably in the staid singularity of one Art or one Culture, TheatreWorks believes in the idea of leaving one’s own position, one’s locality, and locating oneself in the unknown – to co-work and co-create in a third space. This vision has made Theatreworks distinct and sets it apart from other performance companies in Singapore.
TheatreWorks has two main red lines in its work: the first is the creation and presentation of inter-disciplinary and intercultural productions/programmes that brings together artists from across disciplines and cultures and from both the traditional and contemporary worlds. The second being Docu-Performances which are performances created from historical instances and phenomenon, archival materials, real-life experiences and living persons.
TheatreWorks thrives on developing processes, creative partnerships and artistic risk-taking. One of these processes that has gained international influence is the Flying Circus Project (FCP) first conceived by Ong Keng Sen in 1996. The FCP is a long-term programme exploring creative expression in Asia. Its focal points are individual creative action, encountering difference and strategies of art practice, emphasizing the tenacity of local sites – with their artists, activists and public intellectuals. The FCP is curated around the central notion of “world creating”, how do we form new micro-worlds, which are responsible, articulated and ethically engaged? The 8th Edition of the FCP was in Dec 2012/Jan 2013 and was sited in Myanmar and Singapore.
TheatreWorks is committed to developing and nurturing professional arts skills by providing residencies to mid-career artists as well as Research and Development programmes to a variety of artists, creatives and cultural workers using 72-13 as an incubator and laboratory. In addition, TheatreWorks also encourages new writing through The Writer’s Laboratory (established in 1990) which organizes the annual and popular 24-Hour Playwriting Competition since 1998. TheatreWorks is distinctly the only performing arts company in Singapore involve in capacity building in Asia as well as steadfastly building a dialogue and bridge in Asia and Asia’s interface with the rest of the world.
Since 1999, TheatreWorks hosts and manages the Arts Network Asia (ANA). ANA has been a unique networking and grant-giving body for intra-Asia collaborations in multiple disciplines, encouraging mobility within Asia as well as developing managerial skills in Asia. It pays attention to the diverse perspectives of a global Asian urban metropolis and the multiple contexts of everyday life in Asia.
With The Continuum Asia Project and Mobilising Arts Communities, TheatreWorks capacity-build in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia respectively. The CAP helps to preserve the rich cultural heritage of Asia by reviving dying traditional art forms. TheatreWorks is assisting the Royal Ballet Theatre at Luang Prabang to revive the Laotian Ramayana. The MAC, on the other hand, serves to link artists and local communities through capacity building and harnessing skills of participating artists in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Source: TheatreWorks
More information: www.theatreworks.org.sg
The Continuum : Beyond the Killing Fields
Artistic direction / Conception : Ong Keng Sen
Choreography : Ong Keng Sen
Interpretation : Em Theay, Kim Bun Thom, Thong Kim Ann, Mann Kosal, Yen
Original music : Yen (Yutaka Fukuoka)
Video conception : Noorlinah Mohd
Lights : Scott Zielinski
Production / Coproduction of the video work : Biennale de la danse - Charles Picq, 2008
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Focus on the variety of bodies offered by contemporary dance and how to show these bodies: from complete nudity to the body completely hidden or covered.
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Presentation of Pantomimes in the different types of dance.
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The relationship between music and choreographic works varies throught dance history.
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