BIRDS caught the attention of butoh dancer-choreographer Yeow Lai Chee when undergoing a meditation retreat a few years ago.
"What was the significance when I meditated and saw a dead bird in a heart? It was surrounded by a blue light. Then at a retreat in Pulau Kapas, an owl kept following me. I felt scared, and I turned back,” says Yeow animatedly.
She adds: “It flew in front of me and grabbed my shoulder. I wondered about any significance and read about birds. It may have been a message of loss. Two weeks later, my butoh master in Japan, Yukio Waguri, died."
The practitioner of the Japanese dance theatre form explains that she didn't know how to continue dancing without her master. Although she confesses an initial feeling to just quit the dance she adds: “But something grabbed me back. Butoh is about searching yourself, and body through dance."
Before taking up butoh in 2009, under Nyoba Kan, Yeow admits that she had no prior formal training in dance. She first saw her master Waguri perform at the PJ Live Arts centre.
STRONG IMPRESSION OF DEATH
"He stood still on the stage with a fierce expression. It created a strong and mysterious atmosphere. He was only standing and not moving. But it was so powerful. It totally changed my perception of dance. I asked to be his student, and he said, ‘why not’," recalls the 39-year-old during a chat on her upcoming production called The Dead Bird.
After leaving Nyoba Kan, Yeow established Soubi Sha with Waguri as her mentor. The Dead Bird, funded by MyDance Alliance, will combine the butoh and contemporary dance genres. In a fitting gesture, the work is dedicated to Waguri.
All the incidents and thoughts about birds led Yeow to much research.
"Then I came across Ibn Arabica's text dealing with birds. It spoke to me, it's about four birds, which I believe represent personality and character traits. To me, it is about element of duality," says the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College lecturer.
For example, she explains that the crow is about intellect and the opposite of that is the ego. The Dead Bird will adopt the structure and the existence of the four birds from Ibn Arabi's The Universal Tree and The Four Birds.
Ibn Arabi's text in question is: "From my incompleteness to my completeness, and from my inclination to my equilibrium. From my grandeur to my beauty, and from my splendour to my majesty. From my scattering to my gathering, and from my exclusion to my reunion. From my baseness to my preciousness, and from my stones to my pearls. So that I might bring to light what lies hidden in night's core."
OF SEARCHING AND REDEFINING
Yeow hopes to explore in The Dead Bird the universal concept of death with the audience. The four birds in the upcoming dance show are the ringed dove, performed by Lee Ren Xin), the eagle (by Boyz Chew), the crow (by Foo Chiwei) and the anqa/phoenix (by Lee Choy Wan). Dancer-choreographer J.S. Wong serves as the dramaturg.
For Yeow, butoh is a path to go on a search to find who she really is. "What is it to be human, what is life? What is death? I keep searching for answers to these perennial questions through butoh. Butoh is real and honest. With butoh, I see dance differently, the presence of the body,” says.
Yeow adds: "Dance is not about movement, but the dance itself — from the body's memory and dancer's experience, the relationship between the space and the dance body that creates the depth and speed, and the different materials of the body that the dancer can transform to."
She eschews the typical use of white powder, as Waguri himself did not use it in 2014. "I want to try and try some more, to find out what new butoh can be. I am at that stage of redefining butoh for myself. The body itself is butoh skin. Butoh uncovered. Butoh naked. It's a process," she says.
The Dead Bird
When: Dec 14-15, 8.30pm
Where: Pentas 2, KLPaC, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Sentul, KL
Admission: RM58 (normal), RM30 (students, disabled, seniors)
Call 03-4047 9000 or 010-4289 528
Talk: The Meeting Point Between Butoh & Contemporary Dance
When: Dec 15, 2pm-4pm
Where: Pentas 2, KLPaC
Speakers: Yeow Lai Chee and Lau Beh Chin
Moderator: Foo Chiwei
For details, call 010-4289 528 or email to beelin.ong@gmail.com soubisharose@gmail.com