A new day. We just hope that this pulls through.
World Ballet Day, articles, videos
Here’s SDT’s video for World Ballet Day 2020 Live! Video commentary (not easy at all!) by Elaine Heng starts at 55:40 – it’s a bit soft but gets clearer soon after. Being part of World Ballet Day 2020 is cool (here’s the full list for World Ballet Day 2020 – 40 companies). A few years ago, SDT started with a guest spot on The Australian Ballet’s video, so it’s great they had a full class up for World Ballet Day 2020. I’m a layhuman, I like watching the grand allegro (1:04:26 – Elaine mentions it) part best – all the huge jumps.
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There are some lovely articles in Japanese and English by Ms Yasuko Yeung on the Japanese Association of Singapore website, here. They really make us feel like we’re back at the theatre again, and bring back the joy of watching Singapore Dance Theatre perform live 🙂 Lots of gorgeous pictures in the articles, too. At this time we can’t watch or review anything, so it’s always great to see new articles.
There are also lots of little snippets about ballet on her instagram – from what we can tell, her husband, Marcus Yeung, was the Lord Montague of Romeo and Juliet earlier this year! (We listen quite a bit to the R&J music right now, so we know exactly when he appears, dragging his giant broadsword, to face off against Lord Capulet (Mohamed Noor Sarman, the SDT ballet master.)
There are also interviews up on the Singapore Dance Theatre instagram page.
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A cheerful little piece by May Yen Cheah – to music by Nakamura Kiyora (Kenya and Chihiro’s little girl, who turns 1 today, hurray! happy birthday).
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and i was looking forward to the halloween videos from SDT, and here we are! this has great merit in costumes and in the dancing. you can’t help smiling when you watch it.
Reviews, or lack thereof (but otherwise humming along gently)
Eh..we must say that in these Covid times, and since I’m not made of steel (see the last part of the Swan Lake 2019 review) and I live with elderly people, even if there are performances (which I hope there are!) I don’t know when I’ll be seeing them. We must test the waters and see how things work out. I should like to make my own arrangements for this. We will see how this works out.
Right now where we are, I did miss From Here On, not just because of Covid, but because the day before, I went for an operation. That’s what this list of shows/books was for. None of which I have actually finished. That’s okay. I have a short attention span, anyway.
Yes, so what was I saying again…
Let’s see how the new year goes. We can quietly follow the instagram of Singapore Dance Theatre – they have nice videos like Meet Me on Monday (latest video being with Satoru) and various ballet / stretching/ etc videos (which I can’t do for now).
Since we cannot watch shows, here are 2 videos. The first is a piece choreographed and danced by Chihiro to music composed and performed by the Lorong Boys. It was released a while back, really. We just.. are slow…
The second is a rehearsal of Sync from 2018 (I think the first girl disappearing off front is May Yen Cheah and then Chihiro follows her, but honestly…it’s so fast I can’t say for sure; and the couple dancing in front are Shan Del Vecchio and Li Jie).
Things I’ve learnt – green papaya and fish soup (which I had at the hospital) is truly amazing and settles the tummy; not to watch very intense shows at all, because the effect of GA plus intense shows results in a sleepless hour before bed – that said, I did enjoy the Thai drama “The Gifted”, which I had managed to skim through previously, and ended up rewatching the last episodes of. It’s a show about equality and the education system, and the sequel is showing now. But Gordon Ramsay cooking fast food is probably better for the system. Oh! and TwoSetViolin, last night; I watch them in spurts and they are dreadfully addictive. This morning, I’m also watching Love on the Spectrum – when I’m better, maybe I’ll do some crafts (poorly, but it’s calming) and bake. No Chinese herbs until everything is put together again; only goji berries, red dates, and yummy dried longans. Had my first caffeine today, and I am pleased.
there is no title for this post
this puts the “et cetera” again in the URL – please excuse this non-ballet post again..
because once upon a time we were all young and ‘Be With You’ (the Japanese original – いま、会いにゆきます) remains one of the best movies I have ever watched.
there are things we can’t bring ourselves to write about yet in a year of passings, but this terrible news, it needs shouting from the rooftops because it was Takeuchi Yuko, the Takeuchi Yuko – to me a goddess, a legend (Strawberry Nights! Miss Sherlock! Batista! and most recently for us, Confidence Man JP…) – who passed away. She brought to mind those other screen goddesses Matsu Takako and Amami Yuki. An untouchable, brilliant actress who brought a spark of life and light to any screen.
Rest in peace, Takeuchi Yuko (1 Apr 1980 – 27 Sept 2020). Here’s the song from the movie. The original MV brings back too many memories. I can’t believe it still…
花びらのように散りゆく中で
夢みたいに 君に出逢えたキセキ
(now we remember that Be With You is possibly where we first saw Asari Yosuke, who is a fine and underrated actor now given more than sufficient airtime (I hope) on the magnificent, deeply generous and intelligent police drama Aibou, as “the man who is afraid of the police”.)
From Here On – 23 Sept 2020
Here’s a review from Bak Chor Mee Boy about the recent show by Singapore Dance Theatre. We’re so glad someone reviewed it! (There was a typo in the previous post, corrected – not sure why I typed Sleeping Beauty instead of Nutcracker, heh.)
Here, have some photographs from the official Singapore Dance Theatre instagram. Hopefully, there’ll be more official ones sometime. It’s good to see the dancers performing again, though only 6 got to dance this time.
Another one from Min Yi’s instagram. Ah, makes us miss being in the audience.
SDT with National Arts Council, STB and SSO
This is a supremely beautiful video – made with NAC, Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Tickets for the next show (50 seats for 2 performances) were apparently snapped up pretty fast when registration opened on 16 Sept. So far 3 of the 4 performances have been mentioned – Configurations pas de deux (Chihiro, Kenya); Nutcracker Sleeping Beauty Pas de deux (Akira, Etienne); Don Q pas de deux (Min Yi, Satoru). Excited – hope all goes well.
From Here On (SDT)
Hurrah – very cautious opening of live shows by SDT (for unfortunately, their shows have been cancelled up to Nov). See below. The tickets are free but folk are encouraged to donate.
50 people in the huge Esplanade Theatre – presumably the one where they hold the full-lengths. That’s a little terrifying because it reminds you of reality, but this is such a special and important performance.
4 pas de deux, 6 dancers. Ooh, Nutcracker.
A little late, but I liked this video! It made me kind of happy. I think I shall go watch something uplifting now. I like cold, rainy nights, but then when they bump into moody blues…Oh, I rather like two of Moody Blues’ songs – “Wildest Dreams” and “I know you’re out there somewhere (somewhere, somewhere)”.
Snippets
We don’t know if Ballet Under the Stars is going ahead – end of this month and start of next.
Meantime, I do rather like this snippet of R&J – watching it reminds me of the graceful charming R&J, of how intensely drenched with joy their pas de deux was…how one got completely swept up in their happiness and the lived happily ever after that they envisioned for themselves. Also I love very much that one instrument that we can hear very close-by the camera-person. It’s one of my favourite parts of the pas de deux, this instrument … something about it just adds the perfect finishing touch to the music.
Here’s another video… Chihiro’s unforgettable delightful, lovable, delicate, girlish Giselle.
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For my own reference…
List of chill things to complete/ gently binge
Don’t know what to make of the new WordPress format, but okay as long as it turns out looking like the usual.
- One Piece, stuck at Chapt 432 and then found the mangaka thinks he can go on for another five years. He’s up to Chapt 988, according to wiki.
- Haikyuu!! A volleyball anime / manga. I didn’t expect to start and to get hooked, but the humour is right up my alley, and it’s delightfully chill and exciting at the same time. Am on the anime, will read the manga where the anime finishes off. Too bad the manga has come to an end.
- Continue the Nureyev book (by Julie Kavanagh) if I can find it on the library app
- Nigel Slater: cosy and comforting food writing. I’m reading his Eating for England right now.
- Vanity Fair, by Tina Brown. Glossy with the gossip, beautifully-written. I can’t find my hardcover copy, to my dismay. I’ll have to borrow it on the app until I unearth it.
- Rita, on Netflix. Very enjoyable.
- Kissing Booth 2 – watch without the brain, just chill.
- To All the Boys 2 – very chill and quite impressive at parts.
- Restless Creature – encouraging.
Things that I’ll consider, if I have the energy to go through them
- Riverdale, if I’ve the stomach for it (crazy plot; ridiculously good-looking cast, etc)
- Peaky Blinders, if I’ve the stomach for it (very intense, most excellent)
- On My Block – stressful, but I love it.
- Romance is a Bonus Book – quite a chill show. I don’t really watch K-dramas, but since everyone is promised a happy ending here…
- The Half of It – not chill cos it’s essentially Cyrano de Bergerac
- Love on the Spectrum
- Never Have I Ever. Not chill, a bit stressful, but very fun.
- ETA: Starting Murder Mountain.
Farewells 2020: Yayoi Matches
A belated farewell to Yayoi Matches, who was with Singapore Dance Theatre in 2019.
You sit in the theatre and you watch the Dryads in Don Quixote and you watch the ladies in Serenade, and you get the sense that the music is speaking to her, and she is speaking to it; a love for the music that translates into joy, pure joy.
And in her dancing there is a raw untouched intensity that was at the inimitable intricate emotional core of Family Reunion. A flame irrepressible, a spirit unquenched, a wild impossible embrace of the music – a deep and intrinsic kinship with music; movement dance music as life life LIFE – life the unpredictable – a thousand emotions compressed and flaring through the tiniest of expressions, through flickering feet, controlled abandon, perfect freedom. Yayoi’s dancing is all that and more, and completely unforgettable.
We wish her all the best.
PS: Look for Lucia Joyce in a silver fish costume – saw it on the cover of a book that was never finished; and the image rose unbidden to the mind. Just the picture, not the history, obviously.
Phase 2 – Music and Dance
Here we are in Phase 2 of the circuit breaker, after an election and over a month.
This is late, of course. I like, so very much, this amazing video with snippets of the dancers of Singapore Dance Theatre. The timing and editing is something incredible. You get to see the dancers’ names in the clip (+ 1 special guest) and it’s humorous and beautiful.
There’s an event coming up — a virtual fundraiser, for the interested. It’s 30 minutes long. The last bit is particularly interesting – a premiere of a 5 minute piece called Celebration.
Here now is the music for the moment:
And another, the same song in English.
I am sort of on the lookout for a non-fiction book to read, maybe not about people, but about things. I did borrow Olivia Kitteridge (fiction) but after 2 stories (beautiful language), I feel a little down. I used to browse the shelves to get ideas – which reminds me, I have photographs of books to read in my phone. Shelves surprise you with things like the people who built this rocket; or a book about air and planes; and so on. Amazon is a nice place to go. I used to google books or rely on Guardian books but I lost my list of films and books. NLB does bring in things you request (a friend’s friend apparently requests the most obscure books); and I did ask for the book The Great Escape because I couldn’t find it in the library, and later it was there in the library, and it is worth a read. Years ago, I asked for another book I really wanted to read (was it about Nixon or the red era?) but I lost the list so I don’t know what it is …
Am watching the Wendy Whelan documentary on Netflix, for courage. Here’s the trailer.
