Over three public sessions Choy Ka Fai will present his project SoftMachine, a dance research project exploring the epistemology of contemporary dance in Asia. Driven by his personal desire to study the choreographic process of contemporary dance developed over the last decade, and to seek out the possible futures of contemporary dance in Asia, the project seeks to carry out research, preservation and experiments across various Asian cities.
OCT SATURDAY 11 | 5–6.30pm
Choy Ka Fai will give an overview on the SoftMachine project and its encounters with eighty-seven dance makers in thirteen Asian cities from 2012–2013. This project is part of a trilogy of work on the technological and neurological narratives of contemporary dance. In this event, Ka Fai will discuss the various choreographic experiments over the last four years that have contextualised the SoftMachine motivations and his research methodology.
OCT SUNDAY 12 | 5–6.30pm
In this session, Ka Fai will focus on his collaborative performances and documentaries of the SoftMachine project, presenting a collection of fragmented encounters, conversational choreography and discussions about contemporary dance in specific Asian cultures. He will present the choreographic portraits of three unique dance makers: Surjit Nongmeikapam (India), Yuya Tsukahara (Japan) and Norisham Osman (Singapore).
OCT MONDAY 13 | 5–6.30pm
The SoftMachine documentary performance series presents Rianto, a Tokyo-based Indonesian choreographer. Rianto has developed a unique choreographic process both deriving and departing from his traditional dance beginnings. This performance explores the choreographic ideas around gender, tradition and contemporary life within the dancing body.
Choy Ka Fai is an artist, performance maker and speculative designer. His research springs from a desire to understand the conditioning of the human body, its intangible memories and the forces shaping its expressions. Ka Fai has presented internationally, notably at Festival Tokyo (2011), Singapore Arts Festival (2012) and Tanz Im August, Berlin (2013).
Rianto is the artistic director of Dewandaru Dance Company in Tokyo. He graduated from the Academy of Dance (ISI) Surakarta. He mastered the traditional dance of Lengger Banyumas at a very young age, and has performed internationally with choreographer and director, including Akiko Kitamura (Japan), Sen Hea Ha(Korea) and Chen Shi Zheng (China).
Photo: Leon Csernohlavek