Last Saturday ,  I  , for the first time saw Marion D’Cruz perform in her solo performance lecture.  I am not part of  “the whole generation who have never seen her dance ” …err a bit over the age limit. I am part of  of the generation who never saw her dance but grew  up reading about her performances from my kampung while in school and later at  a local university wondering what it must have been like to be watching her performances in real life.I used to be amazed  at her daring and grew up wondering at the word “contemporary dance”. I used to perform in school and at university all the traditional dances she learnt and taught - like zapin, joget and  I just could not comprehend her performances which is a fusion of east and west.

It was a kind of awakening for me. I realized that I had lived by  the sidelines watching life  , to my chagrin. In fact ,I feel  regretful that I had not watched her on stage and been a part in her moment of contemplation and translating her thoughts into dance moves /choreography. A sense of loss pervaded my senses, for not having watched performances  that were meant to bring awareness to the people watching it whilst translating the cultures that she danced of. Listening to her talk ,   helped me realized not just her artistic brilliance and the beauty of her dance movements which she executed perfectly with the isolation of her every movement, what was probably equally if not more powerful because it was just telling it as it was and is- her ideals  and intentions.

GOSTAN FORWARD (at the The Annexe Gallery, produced by that “generation’s “  Mark Teh) was intended as  an excavation of memory,By the way, Marion is said to have perfect kinaesthetic memory. GF is meant to rekindle the  memories of those who have watched her before and for those who have not , like myself ; it is meant to invite a creation of future memories because “… memory is but an act of active imagination”…

Like everyone else , I love a story and none more than love stories. In essence , that is my interpretation of Marion D’Cruz’s life; a series of love stories with the dancing that she loves which became her career and  big part of her life; a career that also enabled her to meet  the love of  her life ( her critic and later , soul mate according to people who know them best), and then there is her love for the people and the country. Like all love stories , it takes a while to get to the end sometimes and in between- would be the love hate struggle  that sometimes arises when two loves grow apart and have different ideas about the “relationship”.

It is also about the the search for personal identity; about making  a stand and daring to voice that stand. After all , in order for a relationship to sustain , all parties involved must communicate their differences , sometimes provocatively  and hopefully somewhere along  they find the strength to agree to disagree or not.

And that is exactly what Marion did and still do, she told and educated with her stories through her notable works like Urn Piece (1988) , Malaysia Boleh!(2001) and Bunga Raya, Bunga Manggar (2007) , ISA (2008) and I especially like her interpretation of the love poetry by W.S. Rendra  (portraying a suffering  pelacur’s life and how in the end she became a bride) using the Terinai  court dance , a favorite dance  of hers.

So , last Saturday,  Marion D’Cruz, showed the new generation what it means to be a dancer of substance ; to dare to make a difference in the best way that she or anyone knows  how. And for the older generation, she already spoke for us before some of us were aware that there was anything to be spoken, she danced on our behalf. But I am grown, so Marion if you ever need one more person to fill in one of the 5000 urns in Dataran Merdeka to signify “the country’s” re-birth, it would be my greatest honour, even if it was just to pour hot water into the urns to warm the dancers up.

Marion D’Cruz currently teaches at ASWARA in her continuous and pivotal role as an educator. Marion D’Cruz is the Founder of Five Arts Centre.

The Five Arts Centre’s  next performance for their 25th Anniversary is Cuckoo Birds, featuring Anne James, Elaine Pedley, Jo Kukathas and Mohd Fared Jainal.

Dates: June 18-21 at The Annexe Gallery, Central Market

www.fiveartscentre.org.

Feature pix: courtesy of Soraya Yusoff Talismail’s  -Imaging Selfs exhibition

Possible related posts...

• Bought Up in a Blink of an Eye
• Eye Candy: WAM Bands
• Just who is Alexa Chung?
• Indulgence -Giclee Art and Photography Exhibition
• 100 Years -L’oreal