Dance and Theatre
Previews, Interviews, and Reviews (yes, and Photos) of Dance and Theatre in Thailand (well, and elsewhere) written by "The Nation" dance and theatre critics
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Wednesday , December 31 , 2008
STEPPING into JAPAN
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 Bangkok theatregoers moved to the graceful rhythms of Kabuki this month, then met the modern madness of Butoh.The Japan Foundation Bangkok in co-operation with the National Discovery Museum Institute hosted the “Kabuki Demonstration and Nishiki-e Exhibition” at Museum Siam. And for a few hundred audiences who were quick enough to call the organizers and book their free tickets for the afternoon and e....
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Sunday , December 21 , 2008
THEATRE in a time of TROUBLE
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 While thousands of audiences enjoyed a wide-variety of outdoors free-admission theatrical performances at Santi Chaiprakarn Park, officially the hub of Bangkok Theatre Festival 2008, the attendance at other venues, city-wide, was pretty disappointing. On the festival’s opening day (November 22), the number of audiences at Naked Masks Playhouse, a new small venue at Phyathai Plaza, was even less than ....
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Monday , December 8 , 2008
BUTOH: LIVE (plus photographed) in Bangkok
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 Two arts centres in Bangkok play host to Butoh masters this month. Butoh, a contemporary theatrical performance art originated in post-Hiroshima Japan born out of despair and confusion and hence the nickname “dance of darkness”, has come a long way. Since its beginning in 1959, this amalgam of dance, theatre, and improvisation with influences from traditional Japanese dance theatre and German Express....
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Friday , December 5 , 2008
KABUKI: LIVE (plus engraved) in Bangkok
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
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 The Japan Foundation, Bangkok teams up with the National Discovery Museum Institute, or Museum Siam, in presenting a unique visual arts and theatre event "Kabuki Demonstration and Nishiki-e Exhibition".Featuring stars of Kabuki today, this 90-minute programme starts with Sanbasou("Mai" Dance) by Mr. Bando Kotoji, followed by "What is Kabuki?", a lecture by Ms. Yoshiko Ta....
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Wednesday , December 3 , 2008
RENDEZVOUS with my ALTER
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, 15:22:39
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
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 “Rendezvous with My ALTER…Come Dance with Us” is a new English-language musical play about an aspiring dancer whose look doesn’t fit in with the norm of the dance world, and featuring the multinational cast of six actors and eight dancers.“The story is not from real life although it could be,” says playwright and director Sunaina Gulati. “It is perhaps sub-consciously influenced from my interactions ....
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Monday , December 1 , 2008
VENUS rises again
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Reader : 869
, 10:11:21
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 Five years on, the social issues explored in "Venus Party" remain unresolved. Sineenadh Keitprapai, actress, playwright, director and artistic director of Crescent Moon Theatre, is the latest recipient of Ministry of Culture’s Silpathorn Award in performing arts—and the first woman. It’s quite fitting then that Bangkok Theatre Festival 2008 will next week revive one of her most critically a....
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Friday , November 14 , 2008
DHARMA in the DANCE
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
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 Komonlagoon’s Thai contemporary dance aims to prove that Buddhist teachings are more relevant to us than we’ve ever thought. “Whenever someone speak of Buddhist teachings their friends would say something like, ‘You should enter monkhood’ and I wonder whether Dharma is really that remote from our way of living today,” says choreographer and director Thongchai Hannarong of his inspiration to stage “T....
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watching WORLDS COLLIDE
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Reader : 845
, 22:17:42
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
Melbourne, October 2008
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 Most dance and theatre audiences seem to prefer the classics to the avant garde and that’s probably why “Swan Lake” and Shakespeare plays are included in many regular season programs of dance and theatre companies around the world—and of course nothing’s wrong with that because seats need to be filled.Nevertheless, when it’s time for international arts festivals, organizers look to present some genr....
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Wednesday , November 12 , 2008
swing 'SHIFT'
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
da:ns 2008, Esplanade
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 Singapore’s “da:ns” festival lets Asian companies “stretch” and “challenge”. Apart from celebrating the gathering of the world’s renowned dance companies from Europe in its “Centrestage” series, dancemakers from Singapore and the region were given chances to demonstrate their creativity and prove their artistic expertise in the “Shift” series of the “da:ns 2008” festival at the Esplanade. Kuik Swee B....
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Friday , November 7 , 2008
all the CITY is a STAGE
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Reader : 1154
, 10:49:24
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 Recently, you may have already found a bi-lingual free newsletter titled “Theatre Sparks Life” at your favorite coffee shop. Quite obviously, the organizing team for the year’s largest showcase of Thai theatre—traditional and modern, conventional and experimental, new works and revivals—is more prepared than ever. Well, the program schedule is also announced. It seems like the last piece of this spa....
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Tuesday , November 4 , 2008
among the BEST of EUROPE
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Reader : 1087
, 23:40:01
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
da:ns 2008, Esplanade
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 Of all the programmes in Singapore’s “da:ns 2008” festival, the two highlights dance aficionados had been awaiting most eagerly for were undeniably the Russian Ballet Gala and a double bill by one the world’s most acclaimed companies, the Nederlands Dans Theater I (NDT1). Bringing the classical finesse to the sold-out crowd at the Esplanade Theatre first were the five couples from the two ballet pow....
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Sunday , November 2 , 2008
CHATTING and DANCING across cultures
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Reader : 1026
, 23:14:10
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
da:ns 2008, Esplanade
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 Evidently, dance dialogue—in which skillful dancers, frequently from different backgrounds, not only create new physical movements together, but also talk to each other, and to us the audience—has become a hot trend in international performing arts. This is probably not because the dancers want to move their limbs less and their jaws more. Rather, there are more secrets and stories, both behind the m....
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Wednesday , October 22 , 2008
Are you ELIGIBLE for any CONCESSION?
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Reader : 864
, 01:36:03
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
da:ns 2008, Esplanade
Melbourne, October 2008
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 "Are you eligible for any concession?”, the box office person at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre asked me on the phone last Monday morning when I was purchasing a ticket to watch a play, whose allocation for media tickets had run out. Admittedly, I was stunned. Usually, it’s the other way around: we audiences have to ask—or, in many cases, beg for discounts, and, in some cases, drink a certain b....
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unFulFilling Fest
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Reader : 852
, 00:59:33
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Dance 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 Bangkok’s 10th International Festival of Dance and Music has drawn its curtain, yet scoring far from 10 out of 10, despite the fact that, like in the previous years, it has breathed much life into the performing arts scene here. After an unfulfilling classical ballet weekend, contemporary productions as well as traditional showcases were also not real treats to the eyes and minds. Although the perfor....
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AWED in OZ
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, 00:28:51
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
Melbourne, October 2008
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 “Melbourne International Arts Festival 2008” kicked off on Thursday, October 9 evening with a free outdoor concert at Federation Square in the middle of the city, featuring diverse Melbourne-based musicians with various cultural backgrounds, such as the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, a collective of local African, jazz, and hip hop artists; a Middle Eastern group Unified Gecko and a Middle Eastern ....
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Monday , October 13 , 2008
PATTI SMITH and MORE in MELBOURNE International Arts Festival 2008
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
Melbourne, October 2008
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 With a wide variety of arts, ranging from dance, theatre, music, etc, the profoundly curated “Melbourne International Arts Festival 2008” is making this Australia’s Garden City a contemporary arts hub and transporting us to ecstatic states of being once again, at least for 17 days. “Rather than going around the world and looking at finished works that are on the stage, in the museum, or in the galler....
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Wednesday , October 8 , 2008
FESTs FINALEs
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Reader : 836
, 10:06:38
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Dance 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 Bangkok’s 10th International Festival of Dance and Music is coming to the end, and you would not want to miss these two dance productions.Spain’s top award “Premio Nacional de Danza” recipient and internationally acclaimed star Sara Baras is back with a new production “Sabores” (“Falvours”), in which she blends myriads of styles—tango, seguiriya, martinete, zambra, taranto, burelia, and more—with pas....
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Tuesday , October 7 , 2008
get up and DA:NS
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Reader : 902
, 07:52:52
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Dance 2008
da:ns 2008, Esplanade
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 Esplanade: Theatres on the Bay proves again that it’s much more than a venue for hire hosting touring productions of musicals. They organize their own performing arts events and festivals year-round, and one of the must-not-misses every October is da:ns—that’s the spelling, and obviously not Singlish. Back in 2006, The Nation was the first Thai media to cover this unique event, now we’re continuing o....
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Tuesday , September 30 , 2008
1ST week @ the 10TH FEST
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Reader : 956
, 21:49:54
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 Despite less media buzz and lower ticket sales than previous years, partly due to the current political and economic situations, Bangkok’s 10th International Festival kicked off in grand style and, with a wide variety of programmes, is running at its full strength. On Monday 15th September at Thailand Cultural Centre, HRH Princess Somsawalee graciously presided over the symphony concert by the Russia....
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Friday , September 26 , 2008
BREAK OUT!
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Reader : 1273
, 21:08:42
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
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 Hip, hectic and hilarious, 'Break Out' is where you land after you 'Jump'.K-Fever strikes Bangkok again next week. And this epidemic goes beyond music, television dramas, and films that we’re also familiar with.Back in 1997, a new trend of non-verbal comic stage performance started with “Nanta” (or “Cookin'”), which spiced up choreographed cooking routines with simple plot, recognizable characters wh....
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Thursday , September 25 , 2008
CONTEMPORARY fortnight
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Reader : 1052
, 00:38:25
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Dance 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 Three of the world’s most renowned dance companies are here; let’s spend some of our evenings at Thailand Cultural Centre in the next 10 days.Interestingly enough, it’s none of these three companies’ Bangkok debut. It’s the 10th anniversary of Bangkok’s International Festival of Dance and Music, and that’s why the organizers have invited three of our favourite dance companies back again. Five years a....
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Sunday , September 21 , 2008
CLASSICAL weekend
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Reader : 1124
, 01:47:17
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Dance 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 Two classical ballets and one symphony concert for local performing arts aficionados this weekend. The second part of Bangkok’s 10th International Festival of Dance and Music, a dedication to the memory of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana, opened on Monday (September 15) with a mesmerizing world premiere of “Requiem Aeternam for Princess Galyani”, performed by the Russian Symphony Orchestra. The event w....
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Thursday , September 18 , 2008
Bangkoks 10th International Festival of Dance and Music
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Reader : 1270
, 08:29:47
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Dance 2008
Bangkok Festivals 2008
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 One month from this Monday (September 15) onwards, it's world class performing arts as usual at Thailand Cultural Centre. Despite the current political unrest and economic woes, Bangkok’s 10th International Festival of Dance and Music, raised the curtain of its second part on Monday and will continue as scheduled. The tenth edition of Thailand’s largest, and most diverse, annual showcase of internati....
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Sunday , September 7 , 2008
contemporary dance theatre comments on MEDIA and TECHNOLOGY
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Reader : 1040
, 23:52:49
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
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 Contemporary dance theatre “In Tune” was such a one-of-a-kind that it should not have been a once-off. While artists around the world are breaking free from the limitations of their disciplines and creating works that could not be pigeon-holed into any category and thus increasing the number and widening the expectation of their audiences, most Thai artists, and audiences, seem to sit and work comfo....
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Wednesday , August 20 , 2008
getting IN TUNE
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Reader : 1075
, 01:25:16
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Dance 2008
Theatre 2008
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 Drama, song, film and more are channelled together for a powerful picture of our tech-savvy times. When globe-trotting dancers and choreographers Jitti Chompee and Sarawanee Tanatanit, award-winning NYU-educated film director Tanon Sattarujawong and renowned glass-harpist Weeraphong Thaweesak collaborated for the first time last August, Bangkok audiences got one of the year's most memorable performan....
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