Penang, Malaysia

Penang, Malaysia
September 2011

Battery Dance worked and performed in Penang, Malaysia, September 2011


Dates

  • September 19 - October 2 2011

    Sponsors

    • U.S. Embassy Kuala Lumpur
    • ECA Bureau
    • Fulbright Specialist Program

    Partners

    • Sutra Dance Theatre, Ramli Ibrahim, Artistic Director
    • Watson’s Malaysia
    • Fulbright Alumni Association of Malaysia (FAAM)
    • Malaysian-American Alumni Partnership (MAAP)
    • Nadayu Properties Berhad
    • Bernard Chandran
    • Astro

    Malaysia Program Specifics

    • 4 performances of Into the Centre, Auditorium DBKL
    • 1 performance of Dancing to Connect, Mt. Kiara International School
    • 1 performance of Dancing to Connect, Penang Town Hall
    • 1 performance of Dancing to Connect, UMS, Kota Kinabalu
    • 5 Dancing to Connect workshops with approximately 20 students each of 5.5 hours x 4 days each
    • 2 lighting workshops by BDC Production Designer Barry Steele
    • 1 Keynote Address for Asia Pacific International Dance Conference by BDC Artistic Director Jonathan Hollander
    • 1 Video/dance exhibition and talk by BDC teaching artist Robin Cantrell
  • During BDC's 2011 Malaysian tour, Hollander left Kuala Lumpur for 24 hours to visit the workshop that was taking place at Penang, with BDC’s Sean Scantlebury and ASWARA’s Lorna Hoong at the helm.

    Again, the students were doing outstanding work, discovering their inner dancer while building their teamwork skills and self-esteem. It was extraordinary to see these young dancers leave the studio at Whiteaways Arcade (a part of Penang’s World Heritage Site), presumably to take a break, and then to step outside into the hallway and see them coaching each other and rehearsing their moves over and over again.

    Hollander assisted in guiding arrangements for the final performance with Joe Sidek, Director of the George Town Festival, and Aida Redza, a Malaysian dancer and dance teacher, educated at the Rotterdam Dans Academy, who had spent months publicizing the workshops, gathering interested students from many different walks of life and socio-economic backgrounds, and negotiating space for the rehearsals. Joe managed to secure the historic Penang Town Hall for the performance and brought in lighting, sound and stage crews to support the show which, from all reports was well-attended and equally well-received.

    Malaysia 2011

    Penang, Malaysia
    Kuang (Rimbun Dahan), Malaysia
    Sabah, Malaysia
    Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia