Dance at Dusk, The Human Expression Dance Company (T.H.E) 2026
My biggest flex of last weekend is that I attended a free event more limited edition than the CJ Hendry flower exhibition, and I did not have to queue for it. (How’d you like that, Carousell scalpers.)
Dance at Dusk, staged by The Human Expression, was a series of free performances that ran over 3 nights. It featured works by budding choreographers and T.H.E alumni Nah Jieying and Kwek Yixuan, performed by T.H.E’s second company.
Common Ground by Nah and Apart, Within, Together by Kwek explored ideas of community and individuality in their own ways.
The circularity of movement, flow broken by repetition, triangles and linearity, and sensible, dynamic stillness (for instance, dancer holding distinct poses in a clear formation), set to pulsating beats (although Nah’s was overlaid with spoken dialogue) – it was clear, conventional delivery of a certain style of contemporary dance, almost to the point of textbook.
It was like looking at 2 of CJ Hendry’s Singapore special plush flowers – different flowers crafted in the same vein; new works that grew because they were grafted from the same tree.
Contrast this to Sascha Waltz and Pina Bausch, the two pioneers of Tanztheater, each with their own language of movement. Watch their reinterpretations of Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring, and you’d see the same flower, crafted by different artists.
Or closer to home, T.H.E’s recent triple bill where Fiona Thng and Anthea Seah each explored feminine rage, joy and motherhood in starkly different ways still rooted in T.H.E’s movement philosophy.
But here’s the thing about flowers – they are still nice to look at regardless.
Nah, Kwek and their company of very hardworking dancers delivered performances perfectly watchable, and deserving of a passing grade. What they lacked was fresh perspectives and freedom; almost hemmed in by wanting to create good dance, danced well.
In a run of free shows whose key aim is accessibility1, that is not a bad thing.
Many audience members were not dance aficionados, but passers-by who decided, ‘ok la free show just watch.’
These were pieces that sowed seeds of intrigue in their minds, without being so wildly different from preconceptions of contemporary dance that it was intimidating.
Aside from a lady whose young son needed to pee very badly, most people stayed for the entire 45 minute duration – an admirable accomplishment for the company given the Singapore heat (and perhaps a reflection of the local determination to Take Free Things™).
Yet contemporary dance has always been about rebellion – largely by women. To break free from strictures, to experiment. It can be simultaneously weird and wonderful, ugly and beautiful, challenging yet mesmerising, evocative without resorting to the provocative.
I recognise I’m saying this behind the safety of words – I’m not a young choreographer presented with an opportunity to create a full length piece, hoping to God/Allah/Guan Yin Ma/Deity Of Your Choice that people will like it. I can barely turn the right way in a contemporary class on a good day.
I also recognise that straying outside the neatly manicured lawns of convention is an especially tall order in Singapore.
I saw this in the Singapore skyline that was the backdrop of this show – deliberately built, shaped and pruned to capitalist perfection, as a few hundred of us watched the ephemerality of bodies in motion.
I glimpsed the helix bridge in the distance, immobile stainless steel lit up for maximum tourist huatness, while the dancers stood in a row holding hands, links in a chain of DNA as they moved and breathed together in Nah’s Common Ground.
There were small buds of connection that sprouted – when the artists waved to an unseen someone in Kwek’s piece, audiences merrily, spontaneously waved back. Community and individuality became concepts not limited to what was onstage, but around us.
Meanwhile the rest of the nation were on the opposite side of the river, fighting each other over cloth flowers because eh very popular dunno who CJ Hendry is but must get so I can post on my instagram, resell on Carousell.
In a society where we cling to safety, cleave to convention, and turn creativity into formula, to dance and create is rebellion.
Nah and Kwek should feel assured that their roots are firm. But when you let the weeds grow, that’s where the wildflowers bloom.
- I would like to shoutout the sign language guy, I’m sorry I forgot your name but we always gotta shoutout the sign language guys. ↩︎
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