PROGRAMME NOTE
Amazing Beasts & Botanicals 神木灵兽
26 - 27 July 2024 | 8:00pm - 9:00pm | Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre
Auditorium, Level 9新加坡华族文化中心表演厅，九楼
AMAZING BEASTS & BOTANICALS 神木灵兽
P R O G R A M M vE
1. Eternal Longing of the Bird-Man 吾乡何处
Choreography and Solo Performer:
Marveen Lozano with xun solo by Lee Jun Cheng
2. Sound of Stirring Earth 以音震土
Performer: Morse Percussion
3. Crumbling Opus I 颓垣断壁（之一）
Choreography: Angela Liong
Performer: Aisha Polestico, Andine Elaina, Adly Azizi, Marveen Lozano
4. Seeding in the Walled City I 芒种筑墙（上）
Choreography: Marveen Ely Lorenzo
Performer: Aisha Polestico, Andine Elaina, Adly Azizi, Marveen Lozano
5. Sound of Panting Leaves 以木生风
Performer: Morse Percussion
6. The Sacred Tree – paradox of fragility 古木新说
Choreography: Angela Liong
Choreographic Movement Collaborators:
Aisha Polestico, Andine Elaina
7. The Tall-Man’s Trick -- façade of reverence 倾耳伫立
Choreography and Solo Performer: Adly Azizi
8. Sound of Blazing Sun 以锣唤日
Performer: Morse Percussion
9. Crumbling Opus 2 颓垣断壁 （之二）
Choreography: Angela Liong
Performer: Aisha Polestico, Andine Elaina, Adly Azizi, Marveen Lozano
10. Seeding in the Walled City II 芒种筑墙（下）
Choreography: Marveen Ely Lozano
Performers: Aisha Polestico, Andine Elaina, Adly Azizi, Marveen Lozano
11. Crumbling Opus 3 颓垣断壁（之三 ）
Choreography: Angela Liong
Performers: Aisha Polestico, Andine Elaina, Adly Azizi, Marveen Lozano
12. Reprise: Eternal Longing of the Bird-Man 何处 吾乡
Choreography and Solo Performer:
Marveen Ely Lozano,
with xun solo by Lee Jun Cheng
P R O G R A M M E N O T E
BACKGROUND
When the Sanxingdui ruins (translated as three-star mound 三星堆) was first excavated in Sichuan China, it literally rocked the world! Some of the bronze masks and figures, bearing bulging eyes and huge ears, resembled more like outer space aliens than the traditional aesthetic of the han 汉Chinese artefacts.
The making of AMAZING BEASTS & BOTANICALS 神木灵兽 is pretty much like picking up archaeological fragments and piecing them together in a jigsaw puzzle. Many of the scenes are served up in broken parts with abrupt beginnings and endings. The intentional scrambling of parts are much like the remnants of ancient ruins.
The performance does not provide a linear story but opts to create heightened sense of theatre from the artefacts with mysterious origin. Hence the stunning bronze statues of the man-face with bird-body, the regal standing tall man, plus the sky-high Tree-of-Life and the delicate sacred bronze tree have all become compelling theatre making material for the creative team of collaborators.
SETTING THE STAGE
The performance imagines the Sanxingdui ruins as an ancient slumber jolted by the clamour of modern archaeological dig. During the unearthing process, lapse of time space is triggered, collision of light and darkness ensued, and undisturbed earth is turned into crumbling soil and dust, with fiction and reality merged into one.
The stage design presents the tri-level relationships of heaven/man/earth – an important Chinese metaphysical concept since ancient time. Four mandala brackets also marked the reference of the Sanxingdui ruins which was once a walled city.
In the performance, dancers and musicians are the contemporary intruders who stumbled into the realm of amazing bestial encounters. Banal as well as enigmatic episodes of sound and movement expressions collide and evolve. Some of the musical instruments like the bone flute with its shrieking pitch practically shoves the listeners into the mythical realm of unknown.
Just like the ancient ruins of Sanxingdui, the dance and music pieces in the performance are symbolic of remnants reminiscent of the once walled city. The performance served up intentional scrambled parts of abrupt dance and music segments. They are equivalent to excavated fragments for the audience to piece together at the end of the show.
AMAZING BEASTS & BOTANICALS 神木灵兽 wants people to retrieve the ancient sense of awe and mystery of nature that has been lost in modern progress.
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神木灵兽简介
创作背景
神木灵兽是由新加坡现代舞团 – 化生艺术团以三星堆出土文物为灵感的多元艺术创作。三星堆文物里的青铜突眼头像，青铜大立人和人头鸟身雕像，以及青铜神树等都成了艺术创作的素材，诠释出一场现代人对古老文物遐想的舞台演出。
新加坡的艺术工作者从东南亚文化背景的视角来接近探索三星堆给现代人的触发点。创意团队包括艺术总监及编舞梁佩贤，青年作曲家蔡宗玲，和雕刻家杨子强携手创作, 连同吹打独奏李浚诚与打击乐组 Morse Percussion，逞献一场充满当代张力与感性的艺术大汇合。
创作动力
一如三星堆出土文物历史由来的神秘，演出没有传统故事线引领的惯例，却采用现代艺术手法的非叙事形式，以个别文物的形象，在通常平铺直述的事件里，抽离出不一样的音响，动作，和舞台空间设计的精髓，来个艺术创作的考古式拼图。这样的演出可以提供观众更多想象和玩意的空间，跳过一般烦琐累赘的直接叙事式逞献。
神木灵兽的创作手法 和演出构思，也借镜考古学和地层学里的研究操作程序。把舞蹈，音乐，舞台设计等创作元素，有如个别出土的文物碎片，一件一件地去探索和把玩，最后才像拼图般把所有的元素粘贴起来。所以神木灵兽可以说是一场非叙事式，时空合拼的舞台实验创作。
演出亮点
舞蹈创作把青铜大立人和人头鸟身雕像变出两个截然不同的人物。可个别的两位男舞者却不约而同地跳出相似的失落和焦虑。那是一种只有当岁月空间相碰交错时才会发生的困惑。
由于三星堆出土的文物风格都非常阳刚，演出加进了一支极其阴柔纤细的双人舞以作对比。此舞创作受三星堆出土的青铜圣树（第三号）启发，由两位女舞者各自提着一梗插着羽毛的幼竹，来回奔驰地挥动竹子在空中。迁幼的竹子便忽然展现出隐藏着的无限动力与意象。那是长生圣树朝暮所见的万物生灵周而复返 的自然景象。
音乐创作以五行为作曲概念主轴，塑造各舞蹈片段中的音响色彩。 譬如：
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人头鸟身雕像独舞，单用一个陶埙去加强孤寂荒凉的气氛，也用黏土做的乐器以示五行之土。
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圣树双人舞则引用木制琴键的马林巴琴、竹制的洞箫、木梆子、木鱼、竹筒风铃、枯叶等乐器来表现五行之木，象征着阴柔之美。
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青铜大立人以五行之金采用了乐器如云锣、铙钹、颤音琴、钟琴、碰铃等等来加深铮铮作响的金属之声，表现出响亮阳刚的气质。
舞台装置设计用四个括号标明方形的 ‘曼荼罗’ 在台中开劈出 ‘田’ 字空间给舞者活动。一棵以青铜突眼头像重叠而成的生命之树，还有舞台上垂钓着的三片网状铁线里藏着的幼光纤，表现了生命之树的簇叶。这设计是以舞台空间来表达出远古时代之天地人的概念。
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PRODUCTION PERSONNEL
Concept, Artistic Direction,
and Chief Choreographer Angela Liong
Composer Chua Jon Lin
Stage Design and Art Installation Yeo Chee Kiong
Assistant Choreographer Marveen Lozano
Rehearsal Assistant Aisha Polestico
ARTS FISSION Dancers and
Movement Collaborators Aisha Polestico, Andine Elaina, Adly Azizi, Marveen Lozano
Soloist Wind/Percussion Lee Jun Cheng
Morse Percussion Performers Joachim Lim, Cheong Kah Yiong, Yuru Lee
Lighting Designer Alberta Wileo
Sound Engineer Brandon Wong
Production and Stage Manager Lee Xinzhi
Assistant Production & Stage Manager Sammi Chia
Costume Atelier Fission
Videographer Interfilm
Photographer Koh Beng Chye
EDM Visual Design Atelier Fission
Company General Manager Aqidah Othman
Project Management Assistants Aisha Polestico, Andine Elaina
Production Intern Muhammad Syahmie Bin Muhammad Faddly
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Arts Fission Company Ltd is supported by the National Arts Council under the Major
Company Scheme for the period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026.
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ABOUT ARTS FISSION
The Arts Fission Company is a non-profit performing arts company with IPC charity status. It is also the earliest incorporated contemporary dance company (1994) in Singapore. The company has presented dance work regionally and internationally.
Under the artistic direction of Cultural Medallion Recipient Angela Liong, ARTS FISSION has evolved into a dynamic dance hybrid with a diverse and groundbreaking dance track record to enrich the everyday life. The hallmark of ARTS FISSION’s work is complex in concept with multi-disciplinary collaborations that often references the Asian cultures in contemporary context.
ARTS FISSION not only delves into inquisitive dance work with creative fervour, but it also applies equal innovation to turn community outreach projects into richly human experiences. The company shifted its focus into dance film-making during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020-2023). One of the dance films, Imagine Ocean, conceived by artistic director Angela Liong and directed by filmmaker Liao Jiekai, was shot on the Ise-Shima coast, Japan. The film was selected for screening at the prestigious 42nd Festival International du Film sur I'Art in Montreal, Canada in March, 2024.
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BRIEF BIO OF COLLABORATORS
Angela is a prolific dance-maker with a large body of works that reflect on the sensibilities of contemporary Asia. She extracts the rawness of arts from the everyday and often appropriates form and methodology from cross-disciplinary sources to innovate new ways of dance making.
Spanning a dance career of more than 35 years, Angela set up the first dance diploma program at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and later became the Dean of Performing Arts at LaSalle College of the Arts, both during the 1990s.
She left dance education in early 2000 and focused her professional dance practice with ARTS FISSION on creating hybrid movement work that went beyond traditional dance presentation. She pioneered site-specific dance in Singapore in the late 90s and continues till present time to create site-specific works in public places. Her site works has covered iconic urban locations from commercial high-rise like the Centennial Tower rooftop, to the former Supreme Court grand staircase in the National Gallery, and all the ways to the historic Cavanagh Bridge.
Angela Liong, Artistic Director, Co-Founder, and Chief Choreographer 梁佩贤
Angela’s dance works have been presented regionally and internationally. Just to name a few: her work Shadowhouses was opened the 2003 Kampnagel festival in Hamburg, Germany. One of her site-specific works Borrowed Scenery was presented at Jorcks Passage in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2002. The 2016 and 2018 multidisciplinary work Fire Monkey, in collaborations with Australian choreographer Victoria Chiu and longtime music collaborator Joyce Beetuan Koh was featured in 2016 under the Mapping Melbourne festival of Multicultural Arts Victoria. Fire Monkey was restaged as a site-specific work in 2018 at the historic Northcote Town Hall in Melbourne, Australia.
Angela also applies the dance art through designing movement-based projects to enrich the everyday. She believes in the empowerment of the arts for the wellbeing of people and the communities. Her foray into research and development by using dance as intervention has resulted in an original wellness program, Everyday Waltzes for Active Ageing®. The program aims to reinforce kinetic memory with creative movement for frail seniors and people-living-with-dementia. It also included a facilitation module commissioned by Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) to train eldercare professionals in delivering the curriculum at various senior facilities.
Angela is the recipient of the 2009 Cultural Medallion -- Singapore’s highest arts and cultural accolade. She continues to create new works with ARTS FISSION on diverse issues that impact life in modern Asia.
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Composer CHUA JON LIN 蔡宗玲
Singapore-born composer Jon Lin Chua credits her versatility in traversing musical cultures and genres to her eclectic musical background. Currently the Vice President of the Composers Society of Singapore, she has had works premiered and performed in numerous concerts and festivals in the United States, Singapore, Canada, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Malaysia, also with groups such as the Ding Yi Music Company (Singapore), the Ju Percussion Group (Taiwan), Singapore Symphony Orchestra, amongst many others. She has also served as Composer-in-Residence for the Ding Yi Music Company as well as the Toronto Chinese Orchestra and was a former Composition Fellow with the MusicaNova Orchestra (Phoenix, Arizona)
In 2021, she was commissioned to compose a piece in honour of the 100th year anniversary of the Eastman School of Music, her alma mater, featuring the award-winning American mezzo soprano Katherine Ciesinski as well as American violinist Renée Jolles, a concertmaster of the world-renowned, Grammy Award-winning, conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Composition awards also include the Outstanding Works Award on the 2021 Dunhuang Award, and the First Prize (large ensemble category) as well as the Young Singaporean Composer award on the 3rd Singapore International Composition Competition for Chinese Chamber Music, "Composium 2018," organised by the Ding Yi Music Company (Singapore). Jon Lin studied composition and music theory at the Eastman School of Music, where she graduated with highest distinction as a recipient of numerous scholarships, including the prestigious Presser Scholar Award and the National Arts Council of Singapore Arts Scholarship. She also holds a degree in Philosophy from the National University of Singapore, and is currently also a doctoral researcher in composition at the University of Birmingham.
For more information, please visit jonlinchua.com.
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Sculptor Yeo Chee Kiong 杨子强
Founder of Sculpture 2052
Yeo Chee Kiong (b. 1970) is a contemporary sculptor who examines the human sensory experiences through the construction of an extended surreal world. Exploring VR in the context of the internet age and constructing a tangible platform of digital memories allows him to search for the lost "baseline" of our collective sensory experiences amid the constant "upgrades" of our daily new normal. Through the multiple layers of ‘object making’ process in both the virtual and physical 3D forms, and by entering the scene as an “object maker”, he intends to intervene in the countless “reality” one encounters on the interactive interface.
As an alumnus of the Glasgow School of Art (UK) and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore), his list of conferred awards and commendations include the NAFA Distinguished Alumni Medal for his outstanding achievement in Singapore art scene (2016), SG50 Commemorative Public Sculpture Competition, National Museum of Singapore (2015), LTA Downtown Line Art Competition, Expo Station (2012), Legacy Sculpture for Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Village Sculpture Competition, Grand prize for the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize (2008), NAC Young Artist Award (2006), 14th Asian Artists Award, VSC Fellowships (2006 – 2007), Grand prize for the 2nd CDL Singapore Sculpture Award (2005).
Visual Artist / Sculptor
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Soloist Wind/Percussion， Lee Jun Cheng 李浚诚
Lee Jun Cheng started playing dizi at the age of 9 when he joined the Chinese Orchestra in his primary school. At the age of 13, he began learning under the tutelage of Zou Bo Qiang. He had also received guidance from various dizi masters like Li Zhen, Liu Sen and Qu Xiang. He joined the People's Association Youth Chinese Orchestra in 2008 and the Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra (SYCO) in 2011. At SYCO, he was under the tutelage of Singapore Chinese Orchestra Dizi Musician, Lim Sin Yeo.
In 2012, Jun Cheng was admitted into the China Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of Professor Zhang Wei Liang. In the same year and the next, he became a musician at the Hua Xia Chinese Orchestra and the Chinese Bamboo Flute Orchestra. As of 2014, he is the Dizi Principal Player at the Toa Payoh West Community Club Chinese Orchestra and also recorded an album with the Hua Xia Chinese Orchestra as a Dizi musician. In 2017, he participated in The 6th International Chinese Instrumental Competition and attained the highest Award given, the Premium Gold Award. In 2018, he joined the Singapore Chinese Orchestra as a Qudi Musician. In 2021, he has completed his Master’s degree.
During his time at the music conservatory, Jun Cheng represented the school to perform in countries such as France, Germany, England, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and around China. He participated in big event concerts like "SOUND OF HEAVEN New Era of Zhang Wei-Liang's Chinese Music" and "Call of the Ancient". He has also collaborated with the musicians of the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. In addition, Jun Cheng has worked with renowned musicians, conductors, composers such as David Murphy, Joel Hoffman, Fukuda Teruhisa and Kohei Nishikawa.
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MORSE PERCUSSION
Founded in 2020 by Derek Koh and Joachim Lim, Morse Percussion also comprised two other members, Percussionists Cheong Kah Yiong and Yuru Lee.
Morse Percussion has quickly established itself as a prominent figure in Singapore's contemporary classical music scene. With a shared passion for adventurous and eclectic percussive music, they are dedicated to inspiring and engaging audiences through innovative practices and compelling productions, showcasing a steadfast commitment to musical diversity and artistic excellence.
Notable highlights include their sold-out performance at the Singapore Festival of Arts 2021 at the Esplanade Concert Hall, opening act at the Singapore Chinese Music Festival 2023, where they blended Western and Chinese percussion traditions through a lecture-recital, and participated in the Soundislands Re: Sound festival, hosted alongside the ArtScience Museum's acclaimed Orchestral Manoeuvres exhibition. They have been featured as Visiting Artists at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST), showcasing chamber music by Bartok and a premiere by local luminary Dr. Jonathan Shin in 2021, and collaborated with students of the percussion department for an all-Reich program at YST's Performers' Present 2023: Flowing Resonances festival.
As advocates for Singaporean compositions, Morse Percussion has collaborated with esteemed local composers such as Dr. Tony Makarome, Jon Lin Chua, Dr. Jonathan Shin, Phang Kokjun, Chengjin Koh, August Lum, and Avik Chari. Upcoming premieres include works by Dr. Robert Casteels and Dr. Jonathan Shin, further enriching their diverse repertoire.
In addition to their artistic endeavors, Morse Percussion actively contributes to percussion education, engaging with students from YST, Lasalle College of the Arts, and Tanglin Trust School through performances and educational lectures, nurturing the future generation of percussionists.
Morse Percussion continues to lead the way in contemporary percussion, seamlessly blending artistic innovation with educational outreach to cultivate a deeper appreciation for percussion music in Singapore and beyond.
