Transitory/Transit Story is not a Love Story

    

It is always a privilege to dance a pas de deux. A dance between two people is precious because you share more than space. You share a moment in time. You breathe the same air, feel the same energy and hear the same rhythm. As you go through the motions of individual or synchronized movement, your connectedness tells a story.   Hence partnerships in dance are always exciting for me to witness because it's easy to recognize relationship through context of movement. Togetherness, is such a beautiful relatable  concept to explore right?! More so for a piece called "Transit" co-choreographed by Joelle Jacinto and Jack Kek.

I usually explain my visual experience simply through describing the work but a back story is essential (or rather value adding) to the discussion of the piece.  The collaborators' individual backgrounds demonstrate how two totally different cultural and emotional standpoints can meet in the middle and create a solid path together. Jacinto is heavily trained in  ballet and contemporary. She belonged to Philippine Ballet Theatre and Company of Dance Artists performing a wide range of repertoire . Schooled in no less than the University of the Philippines,  she belongs to our country's elite academe of dance having pursued different levels of studies in Philippine Culture. Kek in contrast is highly accomplished in the  traditional  classic Chinese and Malaysian folk dance. He graduated with a the degree of Master of Fine Arts majoring in Choreography from Taipei National University of the Arts. He danced professionally with Cloud Gate  and B. Dance Company as a contemporary artist allowing him to widen his dance genres.  Malaysia brought these two together and their friendship blossomed into a Nuryev-Fonteyn like partnership with both interchanging roles as choreographer, critique and dancer and friend.  After years of dancing and choreographing for each other, they finally embarked into a collaboration piece with both of them creating. 

                   

The piece began with just the sound of the waves crashing, Jacinto and Kek are found in stationary stillness. Jacinto began  to allow the trickling out of energy  starting with her fingers until she progressed silkily into  a series of signature vocabulary from  the neo-ethnic style of contemporary she is trained in. She evoked a strong yet feminine vibe as she transitioned into swaying  her hips  with every breath. Kek followed suit and in contrast created shapes that are similar but stylistically opposite from Jacinto's. Showing his classically trained Chinese port de bras, he established his space. They eventually found  the same rhythm dancing in their individual spaces.. They continued their contrasting sequences gravitating towards each other but like corporeal beings walking in a busy street, they did not lock their eyes.  Jacinto was eventually left alone and danced a solo establishing her own brand of movement, a combination of lyrical and quite  linear movements. Long arabesques( extension to the back), developpes devant and alasecondes (extensions to the front and side) characterized in a very pedestrian manner. Light-footed Jacinto looked as if she was searching for something. As she walked out,   Kek then launched into his pulsating solo with sharpness in his execution of static poses. With jerks here and there he also seemed to be looking for something but with an urgency that is more potent than Jacintos. They eventually found their way into each other's arms and the most interesting section of the piece commenced. As they launched into their pas de deux, they kept their differences of their movement and intertwine d themselves with complementary shapes in their signature styles. They melted into each other and in a very amazing-race like environment (and music)  dealt with the regular commute of life. The reference of daily transit was clearly seen. They established platonic friendship. This is not a love story. The sequences showed a developed dependency in their pursuit for something. Two people's fate cemented by destiny and a single goal to figure out life despite their  differences. This first part of the performance ended with both dancers dressing up presumably to leap into the next stage of their lives. 

The duo attempted to do a multi-level experience and so Kek  used the ground floor to tell his own story of exploration. He used the swing and the bench interchangeably. In this section, it's almost as if he transforms into a kid figuring out the most difficult mathematical question. How do you solve the problem of Jack Kek? His chosen music even spells the world " Maybe it's time for the old ways to die". Maybe it's time for him to go a different path? At this point, he led the audience to the second floor. 

The third section of the piece has Jacinto and Kek dancing on top of  a carpet of bubble wrap. Both dancers  go back and forth  as if preparing for a departure. It seemed like both were finally going on life changing trip , time for their old ways to die. However, the twist is that Kek brought out a luggage. and proceeded to wrap Jacinto and shove her inside the luggage. But he couldn't so left her in the middle of the room. Helpless, he walked towards us and said "One way ticket to Taiwan" . 

Transitory/Transit's story telling is glaring. It left me broken and vulnerable for a moment because of the universality of their theme. Finding someone to depend on is a beautiful thing but finding a soul mate to depend on is an ultimate blessing. When circumstances interfere, there is a choice to be made. From the mundane movement to the life changing moments, it is a continuous cycle of deciding to be part of a relationship.It is a decision to stay in each other's lives regardless if you are moving forward together or apart.  In this exploratory work, they chose to protect their blessing. The presence of a real connection was palpable making it difficult not to be emotionally invested on the dancers' performance journey. It felt very real and the goodbye truly  broke my heart. Quite ironically Kek left the day after the performance. 




Choreographically, the piece had it's moments. Memorable to me was the apparent weaving of different genres into a wonderful story of togetherness. I liked the contrasting textures. The unexpected lifts solidified their aesthetic. The piece however, had a few obstacles. The  content is quite emotional and to break the moments by the need to transfer to a different level diminished some of the magic. In between the sections, were verbal interactions with the audience that I found unnecessary because it breaks the fourth wall and the sensory experience. The length of the piece could also be reviewed for future staging because the material is strong enough. I look at this piece as one that would easily adapt to different types of staging because at it is dancer dependent more than anything. 

This collaboration was worth seeing.  I do hope as both artists grow where they are planted that they remember why they started it. At the very root of it is a search for answers, the search for possibility.  With their piece's apparent potential,  like the dancers they portrayed have a decision to make. Can they still collaborate despite distance and difficulty? Can they still  explore paths together while apart? I hope that the answer is yes because the world needs to remember how to feel again. See you soon Jacinto-Kek.