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| Buddha
my Body - A palimpsest |
An international collaboration
Tony Yap Company (Australia)
Theatre Nottle (Sth Korea)
Surya Kencana (Indonesia) |
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"Without desire, there is no going and coming. Without going and coming, there is no death and birth. Without death and birth, there is no this world and the other world or the world between them. All the sadness ends at this moment."
- Theatre Nottle Won Young-Oh |
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Director's
Note
" The Buddha My Body - a Palimpsest" is an oriental subject about
body and memory. What is the body without any memory? This work is also
a research about the body with memory and the body without memory.
The space on stage is of daily lives and of memories, and of thought at
the same time. The characters float in the memories, or wander in the daily
lives. They all waft in and out of the memories. My memories, her memories,
mother's memories, and the man's memories, engaging with one another, try
to find the origin of existence.
This work is not a play or aesthetic exercise. This work is just a question
about the existence that was forgotten in the daily lives and the things
beyond the existence. The dramatic text of the author Hyun-Woo Kim transforms
into a spatial language of body and sound. - Won Young-Oh
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Buddha
my Body - A palimpsest
Performance at fortyfivedownstairs,
Melbourne, Australia August 2009 |
| Supported
by Australia Council of the Arts, City of Melbourne, Korean Arts Council,
Korea Foundation and Multicultural Arts Victoria. |
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tyc
emphasises a continuity of engagement throughthe evolution of our
collaborative process. We are independent artists committed to the
creation of a form that is multi-modal and Eastern-focussed at its
heart. We are a theatre of the small that is constantly readdressing
the intricate and detailed works of the body, the eye and the ear
and foster and continue artistic and creative collaborations in
the Asian region.
Tony Yap remains committed to the exploration and creation of an
individual dance theatre language that is informed by psycho-physical
research, Asian shamanistic trance dance and Butoh. There is a constant
theme of a search to bridge the gap between body and mind, man and
world, presented as abstractions of 'presence'.
Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey's music for this production arises
from the particularity of the voice and remnants of observed ritual
in Munmak, Yoyga and Melbourne, appropriations that are inseparable
from the
companies' process in this project. We have imagined a musical language
which reflects the distance and intimacy of sound in environments.
With our thanks to the team for their inspiration.
Naomi Ota creates spatial installation to visualise the sense of
an in- between world that performers can inhabit. Locally-collected
plants are utilised as a symbolic "tree", contextual for
three different places. |
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The Creative Team:
Director: Won Young-Oh
Performers: Lee Jee-Hyun, Agung Gunawan, Lim So-Young, Lee Eun-A,
Yun Sang-Don, Eom Ju-Young, Tony Yap
Composers/Musicians: Madeleine Flynn, Tim Humphrey
Installation Artist: Naomi Ota
Writer: Kim Hyun-Woo
Lighting Designer: Yoon Kwang-Duk |
Review
A palimpsest refers to a parchment or the like in which
the marks of earlier writing on it is still legible. Playing
with layers of memory and existentialist questions, The
Buddha My Body - A Palimpsest is a beautifully constructed
exploration of birth and death which revolves around the
death of a mother figure. A three-way international dance
collaboration, The Buddha My Body is the work of South Korean
based Nottle Theatre Company, Melbourne based tyc (Tony
Yap Company) and Indonesian based Surya Kencana.
Fortyfivedownstairs provided the perfect venue for the performance.
The last time we were in there the space revealed a carnivalesque
cabaret set-up for The Burlesque Hour. This time we descended
into the stark, sparse wintry grounds envisioned by visual
artist Naomi Ota; an excellent setting for the performance
which was magnified by the clever lighting design by Yoon
Kwang-Duk and the sensitive soundscape by Madeleine Flynne
and Tim Humphreys.
The artists in the performance - Lee Jee-Hyun, Agung Gunawan,
Lim So-Young, Lee Eun-A, Yun Sang-Don, Eom Ju-Young and
Tony Yap demonstrated remarkable technical finesse and extraordinary
talent. The lean and sinewy Agung Gunawan from Surya Kencana
was captivating as he contorted into beautiful shapes with
an embodied intensity. Tony Yap exuded excellent mastery
and control in his dance; from playing a man in mourning,
to a baby in and out of the womb, Yap was a mesmerizing
dancer. As an ensemble, the performers' relationship to
the space and one another was cohesive, energetic and magnetic,
and there was a sense of profound intimacy in the performance
space. The ensemble as a whole moved with a subtlety and
intensity which was breathtaking, while the performance
itself unraveled with moments of alarming beauty and penetrating
insight.
In exploring mortality in the performance, The Buddha My
Body eschewed conventional narrative in favour of abstraction,
surreality and the absurd. A forest spirit dances in the
outskirts of a forest, a cacophony of pregnant men and women
go into labour pains and scream in agony as the group of
them give birth, a woman gives birth to a fully grown man
and dies. The images created were bizarre, occupying a space
of symbols and dreams. There were times, however, when the
narrative of the performance was difficult to follow, especially
in reference to the synopsis provided in the program. This
could have had the potential to alienate the audience from
the performance, however it seemed to be a quality of the
performance that the audience could connect with the events
on stage however and wherever there was resonance.
We did however feel somewhat alienated from the performance
during the recital of the spoken word piece entitles 'The
Tree'. The delivery of the text in Korean by the two performers
in this scene was intense and captivating, however, the
indistinct English voice-over sat awkwardly with the dramatic
delivery by the artists and was difficult to hear. The lack
of clarity of the audio alienated us from what would otherwise
have been a beautiful spoken word piece - fortunately, the
words for 'The Tree' were provided in both Korean and English
in the program. Furthermore, the translation from dance
to spoken word was abrupt; a continuing flow of physical
movement in responding to the text would have made the segment
more fluid and compelling.
Whilst questions about mortality have obsessed artists for
generations, The Buddha My Body is a dance work which offers
fresh and new perspective in this exciting international
collaboration.
Lian Low & Raina Peterson The Australian Arts Portal - ArtsHub
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All
Photos: Jave Lee |
Photo
above: Julie Bowyer >> Back to Top |
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Buddha
my Body - A palimpsest
Performance at ARKO Arts Theatre,
Seoul, Korea, December 2008 |
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Stage
2 development & Showing
Miroto,
Sutudio Tari Banjar Mili, Yogyakarta, Indonesia November 2008
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Translation
of the review- "Kedaulatan Rakyat" Halaman 12 November
2008
Collaboration of three countries at the Studio Banjarmili
Spirit of 'Javanese Dance' in 'Buddha my Body'
That night, not only did Ray Sri Kadaryati Ywanjono sing the Dhandhanggula
song through a recording, but she also danced at the beginning
of the show. "It has been a long time since I danced, so
I dance only what I can." said the 65-year old Kraton dancer.
Naturally this performance is far from complete just as they stated
that this is a work-in-progress and it is certain sure when they
can achieve as they hoped. It is clear the director Wong Young-oh
of Nottle Theatre (South Korea) together with artists from Tony
Yap Company (Australia) as well as Paguyuban Kesenian Surya Kencana
will do proceed with the process of investigation. In fact, they
will premier the performance at the Arko Theatre, Seoul South
Korea, 11-14 December, Kadaryati, however, will not join them
for this.
Besides Won and Kadaryati, The Buddha My Body was also realized
by artists, like dancer Tony Yap, Agung Gunawan, Lee Jee Hyun,
Lim So Young, Lee Eun-A, Yung Sang Don, Eom Ju Young. music composers
by Tim Humphrey and Madelene Flynn, artistic installation Naomi
Ota, and many more.
It is not easy to understand meaning of the performing The Buddha
My Body. They come to result in a form of contemporary theatre
or to be more accurate, physical theater.
The performers consist mostly of dancers, however, they are not
satisfied only with movement. So their voices are audible, like
their presense of tembang, so flexible in their use of these mixed
elements that it presents a theatre that is on deed contemporary.
Director Won Young-oh said, the Buddha that is used for the title
is the inspiration for the themes of life and death, the human
condition, or even as an art of living. In its finality, the subject
Buddha is not longer there.
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Stage-one
Development & Showing in Korea
Hooyong
Performing Arts Centre Artist-In-Residency, Sth Korea, December 2007
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| Supported
by The Australia International Cultural Council an initiativeof the Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade. |
Tony Yap Company (tyc) comprising choreographer/dancer
Tony Yap, composers/musicians Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey, and visual
artist Naomi Ota worked on stage-one creative development of a new work
with the Hooyong Performing Arts Centre Resident Company, Theatre Nottle
and Indonesian choreographer/dancer Agung Gunawan.
The intensive creative period finished with a successful development showing
at the centre. |
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>> Back to Top
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