‘Switchblade Operation: The Longing’: creative adventure from the start

LATELY, the Kuala Lumpur dance scene has seen an incredible spate of dance performances. In the last two months, dance groups seemed to be vying with one another to produce works even though most clearly did not have sufficient funding support.

Instead, they were mostly backed collectively by individuals or supported by friends and groupies. With almost a desperate plunge, these dance-makers committed themselves anyway, throwing themselves into the fray – sacrificing time, energy and money to present the do-or-die performances of their lives.

These performances then created a ripple effect, igniting the dormant passion in other creators before them who had, for perhaps personal or financial reasons, gone into hiatus over the last few years.

Out of this ripple, suddenly and quite out of the blue, I received an invitation from Malaysian dancer-choreographer Loke Soh Kim of KongsiKL (Persatuan Seni Klang Lama) to attend her production, ‘Switchblade Operation: The Longing’. The enigmatic title intrigued me instantly.

I first got to know of Loke as one of the interesting Malaysian Chinese dance choreographers who had flourished briefly in the 90s. She was part of the generation of artists who decided to return to Malaysia after an intense period of exposure to modern dance overseas – New York, London or closer home, in Hong Kong or Taiwan.

More than three decades ago, they had come home to explore their own creativity in the dance world here. Many started their own groups in KL or as in Loke’s case, she and her dancer-husband, Choo Tee Kuang, started the Penang Dance Station in 1992. Loke was also an award-winning lighting designer. Mostly now in their fifties, many are scattered everywhere and nowhere; and have stopped their creative activities altogether.

It always seemed clear from the start that Loke was a ‘thinking’ creative artist. But neither Malaysia nor Penang was ready for a talent like Loke, who was very much ahead of her time.

‘Switchblade Operation: The Longing’ was a restaging of two of Loke’s previous works ‘Gui Qu Lai Xi’ (’94) and ‘A World in a City’ (‘95), re-imagined in a different art space – a warehouse, formerly a stainless steel factory somewhere in Old Klang Road. This ‘makeshift’ unconventional ‘Kongsi space’ turned out to be a most stunning and revelatory contemporary modern dance experience for me.

The night of the performance, the air was light and cool after an early evening drizzle. As I walked towards the unusual venue situated among the Old Klang Road warehouses, I was suddenly taken into a vibrant magical space that morphed into an adventurous passage of sorts.

It reminded me of the nostalgic Soho trek that some of us took during our New York days, back when The Big Apple was the playground of experimental modern dance. Those were the heydays when dance-makers took risks and NY was a ‘darker’ mecca of modern dance. Soho then, was a thrilling quest of discovery.

The Switchblade experience was that creative adventure right from the start: the lighting, choreography, dancing and music formed an unreservedly ‘complete’ experience. The audience's anticipation was palpable as they entered the mysterious space, sensing something special was about to happen. They were not disappointed!

While I vaguely remembered the two separate works performed nearly three decades ago, it did not deter me from enjoying them as completely new creations this time round.

The opening work titled ‘Gui Qu Lai Xi’, a technically difficult duet was sensitively performed. Augmented by the melodious voice of Vietnamese folk songs, the work invoked the intense longing of couples caught in the traditional mould of a patriarchal society. Perhaps they were a peasant ‘frontier’ duo, a pair who had sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to survive in a foreign land. Inhibited from the freedom to express the subtle feeling of love or even passion, they were driven by the internal landscapes of emotions and frustrations of the stalemate they were thrown into.

A battered sleeping mat became the ‘enraged’ and fragile metaphor of their frustrated and complex conjugal relationship.

I noticed in this revisiting of her previous work, Loke was careful not to be obviously sentimental and addressed the issues with maturity. This new adaptation, a more seasoned reworking, was performed by two compelling and experienced dancers. The pace was lyrically measured, avoiding sentimentality and layered with of complexities of culture and destiny that plagued the couple. It was a gripping performance.

The sensibility of the genre brought back fond memories of the formative period exemplified by the days of Malaysian Kwang Tung Dance Troupe of the 90s, when this work was premiered. Many Chinese Malaysian choreographers were coached within this environment and era. The works presented then tended to be romantic, even sentimental.

References to nostalgic imaginings of the pioneering lives of their forefathers and their sacrifices were a common theme.

In the next major work ‘The World in the City’, Loke unleashed an entirely different energy. Loke not only changed track but shifted to a completely Dionysian gear! A matured Loke assisted by her creative team used the space, movement, soundscapes and lights to their maximum effectiveness.

A stray voice could be heard live in the audience prompting the confusion further adding the most beguiling accents to the soundscapes and to the drama unfolding before us. The work was superbly choreographed and animated by 11 experienced dancers in a drastically different manner from the previous performance.

‘The World in the City’ painted a chaotic life of a materialistic and technologically-driven metropolitan jungle that we could feel in our concrete urban-maze backyards. Besides the choreography in which Loke gave free rein to amazingly orchestrated primal energies, the lighting design also triumphed in creating complementary moods, without resorting to the crass LED ‘bling’ (and expensive) lights, that seem to plague lighting designs of late. It would have been out of place in the makeshift venue, anyway.

Instead, the KongsiKL warehouse space became a dramatic psychological battleground where the conflicts and confrontations of metropolitan denizens achieved a monumental aura of mystical and cosmic manifestation. One could feel the proximity of individuals being pitted against each other. Augmented by the soundscapes, you could sense that even the skirmishes were the eventuality orchestrated by robotics, digital technologies and culture of their environment.

In it were several epiphanic moments where one realised the futility of the individuals, eventually sucked into the flotsam and jetsam of the materialistic current of the times. You could feel the audience, there and then, come to the collective realization of the dilemma and source of their own troubled lives! The protagonists/dancers hardly had any choice but to behave the way they did!

Danced by a motley of 13 superb contemporary dancers from various dance backgrounds, the two works looked even better now than they did then. The production endorsed my own conviction of the timelessness of good dance theatre and the reaffirmation that we were making some really creative and original stuff back in the ’90s and early 2000s.

The production re-launched Loke’s relevance and aura as a major contemporary choreographer amidst us.

It struck me that genuine artists have always charted their own paths and are still doing so. We lived to see another day for Creativity. Hopefully, it will continue to thrive through the efforts of artists, supported by like-minded teams and a perceptive, mature audience. Support that is otherwise dismal or lacking, stems from the chasm of divide between artistes and bureaucrats.

While the latter is consumed by KPIs, and the quantitative value of big-scale commercialised spectaculars, they will continue to pass by genuine talents and creative impulses right in front of their noses especially when they don’t ‘turun padang’ to partake in the creative feast.

Genuine artists are effectively shamans who are seers of their times. Yet often, they are martyred by a cannibalistic and materialistic society.

As they contribute to the social sustainability of our community and to our nation-building, must they endure and be expected to always fend for themselves?

How long can this go on for? – The Vibes, July 30, 2023

Switchblade Operation: The Longing (Contemporary Modern Dance)

July 2023 KongsiKL

Presenter – Kongsi Petak & Cake Project

Choreography – Loke Soh Kim

Creative team

Producer – Low Pey Sien

Lighting design – Bryan Chang/Loke Soh Kim

Set design – Liew Chee Heai

Costume design – Ix Wong

Stage Management – Armanzaki Amirolzakri

Performers – Alfren Salgado, Amelia Feroz, Anthony Lee, Audrey Chua, Chloe Tan, Gabriel Wong, Hang Wen Chin, Hoi Cheng Sim, Isaac Lim, James Kan, Jessie Jing, Kathyn Tan, Winnie Xuan

Datuk Ramli Ibrahim is the Sutra Dance Theatre artistic director