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Radiohead choreographer, pole dancing at da:ns Fest 2014

SINGAPORE — For now, da:ns Fest 2014 is probably the closest you’ll get to seeing Thom Yorke convulse onstage live. In a manner of speaking.

SINGAPORE — For now, da:ns Fest 2014 is probably the closest you’ll get to seeing Thom Yorke convulse onstage live. In a manner of speaking.

Tickets for this year’s edition, which runs from Oct 9 to 19, will be available beginning tomorrow (July 16) and aside from the celebrated Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake and its all-male corps de ballet (Oct 9 to 12) and flamenco legend Maria Pages’ I, Carmen (Oct 17 and 18), her take on the Bizet opera and her third da:ns Fest show after 2007’s Sevilla and 2009’s Dunas, you’ve also got Wayne McGregor presenting Far.

Shown on Oct 14 and 15, the piece from McGregor’s Random Dance company — the resident company at Sadler’s Wells — will supposedly combine dance, science and technology and is inspired by the Age of Enlightenment.

You may also be familiar with his choreography on Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire and, yes, Radiohead’s Lotus Flower music video (see above). Not sure which part is McGregor and which is Yorke just doing his Yorke thing but we’ll take this as an example of what we *could* expect. Minus Thom, of course.

Or you could just compare it with this short preview of Far (http://bit.ly/We4GFg).

Other shows to expect at the festival? You’ve got the black box shows under the experimental Shift programe, beginning with pole dancing!

Yes, our very own Daniel Kok, the Philippines’ Eisa Jocson and Belgium’s Arco Renz will be presenting the pole dancing-inspired Alpha (Oct 10 and 11).

YouTube videos are the basis for France’s Giuseppe Chico and Barbara Matijevic’s Forecasting (Oct 12). From we’ve been told, it’s basically Matijevic using her own body as an extension of excerpts of amateur videos (if the video is if a gun, she’s holding the laptop and basically look like she’s the one holding the weapon). Sounds like my quirky (or is it QWERTY?) type of show…

The two other Shift shows include 4 & 5 by Tao Dance Theatre from China (Oct 14 and 15) and Intermezzo (Oct 18 and 19) by Singapore Dance Theatre.

The former is the latest from the group led by hotshot choreographer Tao Ye, who returns to Singapore after performing 2 at the 2011 Singapore Arts Festival (the titles are based on the number of dancers performing the piece).

Meanwhile, SDT’s will be a triple bill, featuring new works by Toru Shimazaki, Ma Cong and Frontier Danceland dancer Christina Chan.

And then, of course, you’ve got your slew of free dance showcases, the student presentations by the NAFA (Oct 10 and 11) and LASALLE (Oct 17 and 18), and an exhibition at the Esplanade Tunnel — Choy Ka Fai showcase of contemporary dance documentaries and archives under the title of SoftMachine: The Trailer Show (Sept 27 to Jan 5). A work-in-progress of SoftMachine was recently presented at TheatreWorks and the full performance series will be shown at TW after da:ns Fest.

 

da:ns Fest 2014 runs from Oct 9 to 19 at the Esplanade. Tickets available from July 16 at Sistic. For more information, visit http://www.dansfestival.com.

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