Public on the show “Dan Ada Sebuah Kotak …”

Dan Ada Sebuah Kotak: Captivity, oppression, freedom.

The above three themes were central for me in the show Dan Ada Sebuah Kotak. These themes I saw both back in the relationships between the dancers themselves and within the individual body of the dancer.

In the first part of the performance is the space of the dancers very limited. Through the exposure we see as a spectator only small parts of the body. The focus is on the detailed movements of the hands and feet of the dancers. Not the dancer as a person, but the body centraal.Door is small, detailed movements, the voltage is generated in a fairly dark room. What and whom do I see exactly, are questions that I pose here as a spectator. Because I perceive no complete bodies, but only feet and toes wriggle together, this gives me the impression of a large crowd of people in a small space. This is emphasized by the music that supports the small movements in rhythm and dynamics. My curiosity is aroused not only by what I see, but by what remains is invisible.

In a smooth transition, we get the audience to see more of the dancers. The bodies are visible and the movements are bigger and more physical. The dancers sometimes move along in the musical flow, but appear on a number of occasions the wish to break away from the leading rhythm in music. As a spectator, I get the feeling that stuck the dancers do in a certain straitjacket and attempts to break free from it. At the moments when the dancers take the lead and even seem to make their choices, the movement is sharp, powerful and fast. The dancers move to the tempo of the music. At other times the dancers are driven by outside influences. For example, this was for me obvious, when the dancers fell one by one backward on the ground. Here they seemed to have no control over their body and to be controlled from outside. The movement here is also softer and less powerful than the dancers themselves take the lead. Because the dancers stand with their backs to the audience as a spectator I still very much focused on the body and the group. I recognize no individuals, but see that there is a general trend going on within a group of people.

From the next scene is shifting the focus of the group to the individual dancers. The theme of oppression moves from macro to micro level. I get into the duct a more personal interpretation of the theme. This is initially visible in the costumes. The group has the whole piece the same black suits, making them form a whole. In the duet, the woman is immediately a personage, the heels, the dress and the female moves that they make. The relationship between her and her partner becomes clear by the oppressive movements she makes. The woman initiates the movement and the man follows. She puts her partner in motion. Her partner itself seems to have no ability to take initiative, creating the feeling of oppression.

During the rest of the performance is play a clear role for the group and the individual. In my view, all duets in the show deeper and more specific in various (often dissimilar) relations between individuals. They were for me short stories amid a general theme, which was translated by the group. The group made a very clear evolution for me by. They started in a very limited space, where only limbs were visible. Slowly but surely these restrictions are increasingly lifted. I got to see the whole body, a little later to emerge the faces of the dancers and the movement seemed more and more freedom. The hairs went loose and the movement was freer, bigger, smoother and theatraler.-

Annelies Oosterloo
Dramaturg, Master Theatre Utrecht University