Rochor revisited through dance
Alumnus choreographer Michael Wong's piece titled Rochor - Through The Decades shows dancers portraying the four coloured housing blocks and tracing the history of the estate
Singapore’s fast evolving urban landscape sometimes requires difficult decisions to be made in the name of progress. However, new developments can also bring untold stories to the fore. Such tales are what the NUS Chinese Dance group sought to capture in their latest production titled Muted Colours of Rochor held on 14 September at the University Cultural Centre.
Inspired by the colourful public housing flats which define Rochor Centre, the piece conveyed the memories and stories of long-time residents through traditional dance infused with a modern flavour. These 40-year-old flats will soon be demolished to make way for the construction of the North-South Expressway.
The novel production, part of the ExxonMobil Campus Concert series, led the 36 student and alumni dancers into unexplored terrain — the first time they chose to focus on everyday social issues as a source of inspiration instead of traditional and abstract sources. “The ExxonMobil Campus Concert series presented us with an experimental platform to attempt to use a traditional art form to tell real-life stories…to draw out the personality of the area and document these real-life stories before the community drastically changed,” said NUS Chinese Dance President Choo Wee-Lin. With an uphill challenge of delivering a coherent piece while ensuring each resident’s story was done justice, choreographers conducted extensive fieldwork and ethnographic research prior to the show, which also brought them closer to society.
Presented as six individual items, Muted Colours of Rochor compiled different interpretations of the central theme, each with a personal story, from tales of generations who lived within a family home, to long and changing friendships. Exploring ideas of identity, memory and separation, the dancers played a host of characters to stage the collective experiences of an entire community in a vibrant display of celebration and bittersweet recollection. “We felt that commemorating [Rochor Centre] through dance would be a unique way to pay tribute to such an integral part of Singapore's history," said Wee-Lin.
The ExxonMobil Campus Concerts continue throughout upcoming weeks with shows by guest performers Kulcha, Dapheny Chen’s new show #thumbtoofat and the Inter-varsity Contemporary Dance Celebration: Body Electric.
By NUS Centre For the Arts
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Year 3 NUS Psychology student Yong Yoke Kay’s piece titled Home incorporates her interviews with elderly residents into the dance
