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Dancing to Connect

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Dancing to Connect

‘Dancing to Connect’ is a five-day dance workshop program that Battery Dance Company, New York, has been introducing all around the world as a mean to provide teenagers with the tools for getting in touch with the dancer within and choreographing their own performances. It aims to engage international youth in creativity and team building through the American art form of modern dance. DtC was launched in Europe in 2006, Asia in 2008 and Africa in 2009.

At the end of September 2011, five teams of teachers combining members of Battery Dance Company and dance students fom Malaysia’s national arts academy ASWARA ran Dancing to Connect workshops in Malaysia. One of these teams was centered at Rimbun Dahan, and was attended by students from Harvest School in Sentul and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Batu Arang.

The students from Harvest School stayed in accommodation at Rimbun Dahan, accompanied by Jade Ong from Lotuspond Outreach. Led by Bafana Matea of Battery Dance Company, and Murni Omar from ASWARA, the students rehearsed for six hours every day to prepare for their final showcase performance which took place at Mong Kiara International School.

Support for Battery Dance Company and for meals for the Dancing to Connect participants was provided by the American Embassy, Kuala Lumpur.

Melanie Fulton

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Melanie Fulton

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Melanie Fulton was in residence at Hotel Penaga in Georgetown, Penang, from September to November 2011, in a joint residency with her partner John Foubister. Some of the work which Melanie created during her residency was exhibited in the joint exhibition ‘Cultivating the Garden’.

Bio

mel2Melanie graduated from the South Australian School of Art in the late 1980’s. Since then she has maintained her art practice while also working in visual arts related areas. These have included Artist-in-Schools programs, numerous Community Arts programs and Diversional Therapy in Aged Care. Since 2005 Melanie has Coordinated the Tutti Visual Arts and Design Program, a professional program for Artists with Disabilities. Tutti Inc. is a leading Multi-Arts Disability and Community organization in South Australia.

Melanie’s own work has included the themes of “Home” and the duality of sanctuary and prison; Fairytale and Myth; “Exotic” cultures through the decorative arts and associated natural motifs. Currently Melanie is exploring plant and tree motifs with multiple view-points. Melanie works in a variety of mediums, with a special interest in watercolour painting.

Melanie has exhibited in private and civic galleries since graduation and has work in private collections in Australia, Britain, Sweden and Belgium.

 

Opening of APIDC 2011

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Opening of APIDC 2011

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Rimbun Dahan hosted the participants of the Asia-Pacific International Dance Conference 2011 for a welcome dinner in the Underground Gallery on 21 September 2011.

Dancers from the KESUMA Ensemble from University of Malaya provided a post-dinner show in the Dance Studio at Rimbun Dahan for the assembled guests, displaying the grace and diversity of classical and folk Malay dances to live musical accompaniment. The evening closed with an impromptu joget party, with audience members joining in!

The Asia-Pacific International Dance Conference brought more than 200 local and international dance academics together to discuss the theme of hybridity in dance, and how it is transmitted, performed, researched and written. The conference was organised by the Cultural Centre, University of Malaya, and Jabatan Kebudayaan & Kesenian Negara, and was held at the Royale Bintang Hotel from 22 to 25 September.

All photos by Syaffiq Hambali.

Rob McHaffie

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Rob McHaffie
Pave Paradise and Put Up A Pavilion. 2011, oil on board, 31 x 23cm. Contributed to the fundraising event Art for Nature 2011.

Australian artist Rob McHaffie undertook a 3-month Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2011.

“Each day at Rimbun Dahan I am making a drawing that responds to a verse in the Tao te Ching, Lao Tsu’s book of wisdom. The Tao could be said to be the way of nature and is a guide for people to live in harmony with the universe. Drawing inspiration form Malaysia’s fantastic but depleting wildlife and the spirituality of people living here I hope to find some interesting imagery and stories that will illuminate where we are heading and the possibility of living sustainable peaceful lives.”

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Biography

Rob McHaffie is a Melbourne based artist, having graduated from Victorian College of the Arts drawing department in 2002.The images in McHaffie’s paintings are often derived from shapes formed from roughly assembled and seemingly mismatched objects. Rather than paint from life, McHaffie chooses what could be described as the poor man’s life model, sculpting characters from modeling compound and adding scraps of fabric, discarded clothes and bric-a-brac to create imagined portraits and tableaus. This method contributes to an unusual mixture of pathos and amusement in the paintings. The scenes depicted might simply be laughable, if it were not for the fact that the artist has captured within each scene (and echoed within each title) certain life truths.

Rob’s daily practice consists of diary and journal work, and collecting found and personal imagery to form the basis of his drawing, painting and sculpture. Rob participated in exhibitions and residencies in Australia, New Zealand, France, and the USA and is represented by Darren Knight Gallery in Sydney, and Brett McDowell Gallery in Dunedin.

Rob Gutteridge

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Rob Gutteridge

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Rob Gutteridge was the Australian Artist for the Malaysia-Australia Visual Arts Residency 2011. In addition to pursuing his own practice, he spent some time during his residency conducting figure drawing classes for interested staff members at Hijjas Kasturi Associates Sdn.

Biography

Born in England in 1954, Rob Gutteridge is now based in South Australia. With a Diploma in Fine Art (Painting) and a Graduate Diploma in adult education, Rob teaches in tertiary education throughout South Australia. His work has been featured in Adelaide Central Gallery, are included in the Art Gallery of South Australia, South Australian Museum and Artbank, as well as in private collections in France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, England and the U.S.A.

Artist’s Statement

“Coming from Adelaide, South Australia, with its sharp, hard, bright Mediterranean light, my first impression of Malaysia seen through the windows of KLIA, was of a pale milky wash over the landscape, softening the contrasts and bringing distant colours closer together. In paintings and drawings made at Rimbun Dahan, these close values provide challenging technical problems to explore, as the modulation of colour, tone, saturation and temperature is finely tuned. I have travelled to paint and study art, in New York, and Provence in southern France, and similarly, my initial understanding of place registered at a fundamental, pre-cognitive visual level. It happens long before particularities come into focus. If one is alert, the ambient has a character, providing a starting point and a foundation. Works flowing from such a sensibility inevitably display a kind of environmental portraiture.

Iconographically, I continue a long-standing investigation of the human figure, and clouds. Each represents a fascinating visual topography of the effects of forces acting on matter in space. The human body’s anatomy of skeleton and muscle, conditioned by gravity, reimagines hinge and joint, lever and pulley in slippery darkness beneath the skin. Clouds of vapor deceptively solid from our earthly standpoint, change, grow and collapse, providing a ready metaphor of the human condition.

In anthropomorphic cloud paintings, reflecting on what connects rather than divides, I have become interested in what constitutes the conditions for visual suggestion, or resemblance. In painting, what is the threshold of recognition for an image to be recognized as a cloud or a body? If an image were to suggest a cloud and a body, would it look like both, or for a moment, would it look like itself?”

In-Process Update

I have recently been in the process of completing the 4 largest paintings I will do during my residency. The paintings are 180cm x 220cm and continue the cloud and figure theme I have been exploring during my time here. Each painting is a response to the one that has gone before, and so they form a dialogue of interests and a conversation between issues. They alternately respond and react to each other – complexity in one provokes simplicity in another, subtle colour values give way to strong contrasts. Doing a simple thing on a large scale is deceptively difficult, but the enjoyment is in the challenge of going where you haven’t been before. Its a bit like coming to live at Rimbun Dahan from Australia.

— Rob Gutteridge, November 2011

Dance Film ‘I Want to Remember’

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Dance Film ‘I Want to Remember’

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Singaporean director Sherman Ong shot some of the material for his short dance film, I Want to Remember, at Rimbun Dahan in April 2011.

sherman2A man in an interrogation room remembers his time with his lover when the two countries were one. When the countries separated in 1965, his lover ended their relationship to follow her family. He remembers his carefree past with laughter and tenderness, disappointments and sadness, but never with regret.

I Want to Remember is a dance film premiering at the Singapore Arts Festival 2011, supported by Rimbun Dahan.
Dancers: Mohd Hanafi Bin Rosdi, Ng Xin Ying.
Actors: Dato Rahim Razali, Foo Fei Ling.
DOP: Lesly Leon Lee
Editor/Sound: Azharr Rudin
Music: John Chua http://www.johncgh.com/
and Lena by Azmyl Yunor https://myspace.com/azmylyunor

With thanks to Yuni Hadi, Lim How Ngean, Marion D’Cruz, Bilqis Hijjas & ASWARA.

Dance Shorts III: I Want to Remember

28 May 6.45pm | 80mins (Post show dialogue after the screening)
4 June 6.45pm | 70 mins
Venue: Cinema Europa, Golden Village VivoCity, Singapore

Haslin bin Ismail

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Haslin bin Ismail

Malaysian Artist for the Malaysia-Australia Visual Arts Residency 2011

Artist’s statement:

Haslin Ismail in his studio at Rimbun Dahan, with his work for the 2011 Art for Nature exhibition.
Haslin Ismail in his studio at Rimbun Dahan, with his work for the 2011 Art for Nature exhibition.

“I call the new body of artworks done at Rimbun Dahan ‘Ghost in the Shell’. Taking the same title from the work of Masamune Shirow’s manga and anime adaptation from director Mamoru Oshii, it is an experiment of two main components: the flesh and the machine. The clash between these two elements is highlighted by the creation of robots, machines and human anatomy. They relate to each other and give rise to an expression of function and technology. Visually, both the science fiction and fantasy world that dominate the atmosphere of my artworks present a wide range of routes and exciting explorations. I am a fan of the works of science fiction and fantasy visions such as Jules Verne, HG Wells and the great silent movie “Metropolis” by Fritz Lang. The amazing world of Osamu Tezuka, the super-galactic Star Wars trilogy, the genius of Hayao Miyazaki and Katsuhiro Otomo and so many more great masterpieces from the great masters of sci-fi and fantasy are my stimulation. When drawing, painting or creating works, I feel as if I am in their world, fighting with monsters on/from planet Mars or at war with damaged robot(s).”

Artist’s Biography

Haslin Ismail (b. 1984) from Johor graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in 2007. He has been creating and exhibiting his fantastical art pieces in various exhibitions since 2000. He was winner of the grand prize for In-Print: Contemporary British Art from the Paragon Press held at National Art Gallery in 2006. His first solo exhibition ‘Exorcismus Persona: Windows Into Fantasy Worlds of Haslin Ismail’ was at the RA Fine Arts Gallery in 2009. He was also the grand prize winner for the prestigious Young Contemporary Award (2010) at National Art Gallery with his entry of a complex and intricate paper/book art installation.He has also participated in group shows at National Art Gallery, Petronas Gallery, Taksu, Zinc, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Wei-Ling Gallery and the Annexe at Central Market.

Natalie Kim Kyungmi

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Natalie Kim Kyungmi

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Korean artist Natalie Kim Kyungmi began to explore her interests in contemporary dance during a stay in Malaysia in 2010. She performed in Dancing in Place in August 2010, followed by a brief mentorship at Rimbun Dahan with Japanese-Australian butoh dancer Yumi Umiumare and an appearance at the Melaka Art & Performance (MAP) Festival in November 2010. Natalie moved back to Korea in 2011.

Here Natalie discusses her experience of the mentorship and the festival, accompanied by photos by Anthony Pelchen.

n4“Just before the festival, I was privileged to have a personal mentoring workshop with Yumi, supported by Rimbun Dahan. We started the workshop by previewing my work and it was a truly valuable and thought-provoking process with lots of mutual brainstorming and discussion. Her methodology was inspiring as she never imposed any answers or theory but just threw questions at me to look into and explore. Her tremendous mentoring helped me focus on natural strength and emotion while understanding the virtues of dance performance.

Personally we’ve became very close friends with extra gin and tonic sessions every night during festival and her enthusiastic mentoring has never had a break since the festival till now!”

n2“Here I am performing ‘Mapping’ with Agung Gunawan (Indonesia) in one of the site-specific performances around Melaka town.

Each performer performed twice a day in different sites, either solo or in collaboration. I was lucky to get to perform with performers from diverse backgrounds such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia and Indonesia. It was a valuable learning collaboration process, seeing how my emotion and body could react and tune into all the different energies and movements, and, finally, with the audience.”

n3“Before the festival, I had come across news about a women executed in public in Iran by stoning to death. This piece was dedicated to her and all women who are still oppressed in many ways. It also reflects my personal experiences encountering different cultures which have different values and perceptions of gender.”

 

prophecy“Here I am performing my solo ‘Prophecy’, as part of the Cerita Pendek (Short Works) program. In this performance dance work I explore the hope of transformation across the passage of time.”

“This picture, and the one at the top left of this page, shows Eulogy for the Living, the group performance at the finale of the festival. I am with with Ikko (Japan), Agung (Indonesia) and Tho (Laos-France).

n1The process of creating this work was very inspiring as each performer had his or her own solo, yet needed to tune into others’ independent parts in an improvisational way until the final group encounter. During every rehearsal there was lots of discussion and experimentation to make this finale a ‘community-like’ performance.”

Daniel Jaber

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Daniel Jaber

danieljaberAustralian choreographer Daniel Jaber undertook an Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2010, with Australian dancers Jessie Mckinlay and Madeline Edwards. He created two works during the residency: WG-Spiel, with Jessie and Madeline, and Poetic Structure, with Malaysian dancers Lau Beh Chin, Hii Ing Fung, Stephanie Lim and Darius Lim Chee Wei. The works were presented at Fonteyn Studio Theatre in Petaling Jaya, from 19-20 November 2010.

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WG-Spiel (50 minutes)

WG Spiel delves into the lives and living habits of 3 housemates coexisting in close living quarters. Set to a vibrant and energetic electronic soundtrack, the work charges forth through images of domestic duties, working life, claustrophobia and relationships.

Performed by: Daniel Jaber, Jessie Mckinlay and Madeline Edwards.

poeticPoetic Structure (20 minutes)

Poetic structure redefines traditional choreography in the context of a modern world. Cyberspace, chartrooms and MSN form the communicative dialogues of the performers as they engage in wickedly abstract choreography created by CSS and HTML coding formulas. Commenting on communication, technology and digital engulfment in the 21st century – Poetic Structure is a sophisticatedly structured short dance work created by Daniel Jaber and featuring four outstanding Malaysian dancers.

Performed by: Beh Chin, Hii Ing Fung, Stephanie Lim and Darius Lim Chee Wei.

This program was made possible through an Asialink – performing arts residency and funded by The Government of South Australia through Arts SA, The Australia – Malaysia Institute, Carclew Youth Arts and Rimbun Dahan.