Daniel Kok
The Performer begins by asking the audience: What would you like to see?
This question seeks to, on the outset, replace the assumption that the spectator should be a passive member in a performance; one whose role is to accept and go along with whatever the performer instigates. In its place, our movement research restructures the choreographic process and grant the spectator greater authority: the viewer will clarify why he is in the theatre and what he expects of the performer.
Surely it is the audience’s prerogative to demand? In our world governed by economic logic, the consumer’s desires are usually prioritized. Would the relationship between the artist and the audience come up differently if studied through the lenses of economics?
The evaluation of the power dynamics between artist and viewer(s), subject and object, is a key concern in my work. Usually, I undertake such evaluation via an pseudo-poetic approach by fashioning the performer-viewer context as one about love and desire. Yet it is timely to re-look this relationship on socio-economic terms.
The project hence commences its process with the audience, examining this key stakeholder of a performance firstly as individuals with varied socio-economic status, secondly attempts to decipher their different expectations for a contemporary dance production, before finally using that evaluation as a resource for creating dance material. The resultant product goes by the hypothesis that a ‘perfect’ dance work that tries to satisfy different (even if, contradictory) demands using economical strategies is possible.
By partly relinquishing the choreographer’s authority, this cart-before-horse method echoes democratic principles and tries to reassess the success of its functions.
Choreographer / Performer Daniel KOK
Producer TANG Fu Kuen
Dramaturge LIM How Ngean
Consultant #1 (Economist) Chris HO
Consultant #1 (Sociology) Eddie KOH
Production Design Assembly Pte Ltd
Production & Stage Manager YAP Seok Hui
Commissioned by Singapore Arts Festival 2008