Compared to other art forms, contemporary dance showcases don't come by these shores all that often. Luckily for Bangkokians, from tomorrow until Sunday, local audiences will be treated with a spectacle performance created by a group of Australian and Thai dancers.
Ersatz will be held at Infinity Hall, Paragon Cineplex, Siam Paragon, at 8pm tomorrow, 2pm, 4pm and 8pm on Saturday and 11am and 2pm on Sunday.
Presented by the Australian embassy and Dance Arts Foundation, six professional artists from Australia and Thailand will perform an eclectic contemporary dance combined with a multimedia installation that is entitled Ersatz.
Choreographer and creative director James Batchelor said: "This work is about the body's relationship to the environment. It encourages the audiences to reflect on their place in the environment and how we interact with the space around us."
The show promises to bridge performing and visual arts to examine human relationships with the world and the role of technology in our ability to manipulate space. Adding to the unconventional style, Batchelor said that the audience will be allowed to move freely among the performers, creating a more intimate and intricate experience for both parties.
"However, the show is quite abstract so the message is not the same for everyone. It could be a sense of questioning or a sense of feeling or any element of that idea. It is up to the audiences to take from it," Batchelor said.
Originally, Ersatz was a series of works by Batchelor, an Australian dancer who graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in Melbourne. The showcase in Thailand is his latest development of the series. Batchelor revealed that most of the choreography was created in Australia, but this iteration includes elements created in Bangkok for the show.
"Part of our mission is to initiate the scene for contemporary dance in Bangkok because this type of art is quite new here,"said Batchelor during a rehearsal at Bangkok Dance Studio, the school which has offered the troupe space to practise for free before the performance.
"We are trying to establish a kind of model where emerging or established artists can make work and present it to the public for free and really get their creative production out there rather than the commercial projects.
"Some of the choreography is based on the previous shows, but we also have new pieces that were created here in Bangkok specifically for this show."
The Thais participating in this project are contemporary dance artist Navinda Vadtanakovint Pachimsawat and visual artist Pongpassakorn Kulthirathum, who will bring digital projection and animation elements to the performance.
"As a Thai dancer, chances like this are limited. So this is really good for me to experience something different and not just what we have seen commercially," said Navinda, a dancer and teacher who graduated from the VCA.
"This is really exciting and I know that Thai dancers are hungry for this. We're very lucky to have this project in town."
