Critical Stages (Jun 2021)
Mutations in Crisis: Generic Engineering in Contemporary Southeast Asian Dance
Abstract
This article analyzes two recent works of contemporary Southeast Asian dance staged in Singapore: Indonesian dancer Rianto’s Medium (2018) and Behalf (2018) by Thai Dancer Pichet Klunchun and Taiwanese Dancer Chen-Wu Kang. I identify an emerging epoch of intense, cross-generic experimentation, as traditional cultural practices negotiate with lapsed identifications with the postcolonial nation as well as the overwhelming demands of the neoliberal art market. Highlighting the conditions of dance-making in the region, I offer “generic engineering” as a conceptual container for experiments that interweave traditional Asian dance forms with Western contemporary art practices to consolidate new, transnational spectatorial communities.
