7 DEC 2019

Tactility Studies:
Soft Bodies


Incubated at and supported by Dance Nucleus (2018-2021)
Work-in-progress showing powered by
National Youth Council, Singapore


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A grinning performer holds a colourful blanket up high above his head, as if in a festive Lion Dance. Someone is standing very closely behind him under the blanket, almost hidden by the performer, with their eyes closed. In the background, people sit on the floor, smiling. IMAGE DESCRIPTION: There are pillows and people and plenty of colours and texture. Looking more closely, on one side there are 4 people touching each other’s limbs and bodies gently, seemingly forming one larger connected body through having their hands on someone else’s ankle or knee. On the other side, a person hugs a pillow tightly while watching the other 4. IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Three performers seem to be puzzled by something they are seeing diagonally above them, and two of them have their eyebrows furrowed as well as their lips pursed. Dressed in a vibrant mix of colours and cosy textures, they stand close to each other - one is tilting to allow another’s forearm to rest on their shoulder.

Photos from Tactility Studies: Soft Bodies (2019). Credit: Joseph Nair.



SYNOPSIS

If we think of ‘The Body-as-Theatre’, the body as a shapeshifting archive of memory and sensation, what languages do our muscles and limbs speak? What kind of fluency exists in decoding the gestures and caresses of others?

Tactility Studies: Soft Bodies proposes that tactility is a language we can all build sensitivity and fluency in, through experience and practice. In this cozy piece that builds relationships between 3 performers and audience members through touch, sound, voice and text, our skin isn’t what contains our bodies – it’s what opens out our bodies to other bodies and other encounters.






CO-DIRECTORS

Chong Gua Khee 
Bernice Lee

DRAMATURG

Corrie Tan


CREATIVE PRESENCE

Joseph Nair


SET/PROP DESIGNER

Sheryll Goh


PERFORMERS

Julius Foo
Adele Goh
Myra Loke


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