Front Row

An unscheduled meeting, a happy second meeting, some conversations, a demonstration of skills, a rehearsal. All mostly behind closed doors. Then the performance. But before the eyes of many. And in that moment, improvise with the imagined music, improvise with the choreography. With the dancer listening to the musician, the musician watching the dancer. They communicate to create. Together they listen to and watch the audience to incorporate what it brings to the final live performance.

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The Japanese choreographer tells about Co. Un Yamada’s version of the influential ballet and orchestral classic which premiered in Chigasaki, Japan in 2013 to commemorate the centenary of  Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’. Also on the table for exploration is Yamada’s seminal work which has since toured internationally. It will be performed  by an all-male cast of Malaysians selected through auditions in October 2015. 

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At seven year old, the conductor, before he became one, discovered that Mahler’s music resonated with him. At 18, he founded the International Mahler Orchestra (IMO), which comprised of hand-picked members from over 25 countries. In the interview, he reveals why this music matters so much to him. 

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Lim Soon Heng drove to an out-of-town dance studio in Kuang to observe Daniel Bear Davis, the instructor-facilitator, lead the workshop participants to create site-specific performances. Soon Heng watched the participants experiment, take risks; he talked to Daniel Bear Davis to get a view into the process and how he marries Contact Improvisation and Axis Syllabus into his own practice.

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Gathered around a coffee table, some folks who caught the opening performance of "Marble Hearts" ponder their respective responses to an original play based on Shakespeare’s King Lear.

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We caught the artist working one afternoon. The sun beating down on her while she stood on a platform some 15 feet above the ground. Next to her a bucket full of plastic clothespins, colors of the rainbow and other plastic household items.  Ru Yi Tan, a Malaysian artist based in Japan, is back for an exhibition of installations with stuff she got from Daiso over there.

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Nearly four years ago, shy only of a few weeks, Whitney Houston passed away. But she remains the 4th biggest selling female artist in history, the most awarded female act of all time (in 2009 Guinness World Records cited her thus)  and the voice in ‘The Bodyguard’--the soundtrack to the movie of the same name, in which she also starred. ‘The Bodyguard’ original soundtrack album, in 1992, stayed for 20 weeks as the top album on Billboard. The singers Poova and Dasha Logan (missing their third, Rozz) tell why this tribute and their personal connection to the diva.

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The musician and organizer of the 3rd Malaysian Jazz Piano Festival discusses improvisation as practiced by musicians, especially those playing jazz. He will detail how a music instructor like himself imparts to his students creativity and the improvisational impulse. Together, we will explore how this creativity in musicians and artists can be taught to others in the workaday world in banks, law and IT firms.

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We take a look at Zac Lee’s works collectively called ‘Knotted Nests’.  His works are often described as “humorous, amazing, odd, intriguing, inspiring.” But they are also “dark, irrational, disharmonious, nonsensical.” 

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The artist is interviewed in the gallery where his exhibition ‘Homeland’ is being held. He talks specifically about a few of the works on the walls, revealing stories behind them and how these shared tales find their shades and shapes on canvas. He also shares why the dark theme is painted with such lively bright warm colours.

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