Devi in Absolution dance to premiere in Kuala Lumpur

[Guest guest]

A beautiful tension

By R. Gowri

New Straits Times Press

2008/04/22

 

'Mavin Khoo will exemplify [...] blurring of gender in his

upcoming solo production " Devi In Absolution " , scheduled

to premiere in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 23 and 24.

 

Mavin will play three Hindu goddesses: Meenakshi, the

Child Goddess; Durga the Warrior, and Kali. " " Being a

Devi bhakta (a worshipper of the Goddess in all her forms),

it's quite a personal subject matter to me, " Mavin

explained.'

 

-----------------

Much of Mavin Khoo's productions have been staged

abroad, but Malaysian dance lovers will be in for a rare treat

when " Devi In Absolution " premieres in Kuala Lumpur in

late August. [Journalist] R. Gowri hears from Mavin about

his upcoming work, and more. Dance observers outside

Malaysia have heaped eclectic labels on Mavin.

 

" Wee golden god " , cooed one major broadsheet in Britain;

" Khoo de Theatre " , exclaimed a popular tabloid.

 

The Guardian, rather amusingly, proclaimed him " A

gorgeous alien " with surreal qualities, " ...blazing a trail of

energy... with exquisite, edgy grace... "

 

Sadly, Mavin Khoo, in Malaysia, his country of birth, is

mostly known simply as a " bharatanatyam dancer " , though

undisputedly acknowledged as an excellent one.

 

Much of Mavin's dance life has played out abroad, before

audiences less familiar with traditional Indian dance forms

but pretty open to adventurism in dance concepts.

 

Trained in ballet under some of the most respected in the

art, including Marian St Claire and Michael Beare of

Britain, and schooled in bharatanatyam by India's celestial

Padmashri Adyar K. Lakshman, Mavin is a channeller of

both classical disciplines.

 

He also excels in contemporary dance, which he studied at

the famed Merce Cunningham studio in New York, and

later, with Anne Went in London.

 

The intrigue in Mavin's shows lies in the hybrid nature of

his dance presentations.

 

In " Gemini " , for instance, choreographed for him in 2002

for the gala opening performance of the Madrid en Danza at

the Teatro Alberniz in Madrid, Spain, juxtaposed were

ballet variations and bharatanatyam, but the latter was

limited by choreographer Beare to mainly bharatanatyam

poses.

 

Though the sequences in Gemini called for immense

stamina, Mavin describes the overall concept as " simple " . In

his personal growth as a choreographer, he ventured to

explore more complex conceptual repertoires. It wasn't

easy.

 

" The discipline in maintaining the classicism of genre is one

that became more of a challenge as I started to break the

rules " , he says.

 

He began to focus on the evolution of classicism to neo-

classicism, using ballet and bharatanatyam together in many

of his productions, and even ballet and contemporary dance.

 

The scores for his pieces also left the beaten path. Classical

airs were reworked and infused with new rhythms.

 

An aria from Dvorak's opera, Rusalska, for instance, was

given new treatment by club DJ Per QX for the ensemble

piece Intoxicant Soma which premiered in Torino, Italy in

2004.

 

Does Mavin represent the current verve in dance abroad?

 

" I am a part of the electric energy that's happening, " he told

Life & Times recently.

 

" There are some French artistes who are 'multi-lingual' too,

juxtaposing things like hip-hop with modern ballet.

 

" One of the things I would like to see young Malaysian

artistes doing is becoming more involved in this

'international dialogue' because dance changes so fast, it's

like the fashion world. If one wants to be part of this

industry, you must be so up with it, if not ahead of it. "

 

Mavin feels a realistic view of the arts world is essential.

 

" Sometimes it's not even about talent - it's about how you

look. I'm being very blunt. You can't get too absorbed in

'I'm an artiste and I'm just going to emote by myself

somewhere.' You have to understand that art is also an

industry and you also have to work as an artiste and

businessman. "

 

Mavin has worked on sufficient acclaimed productions to

have the temerity to say this.

 

In 2005, he involved 30 dancers, 20 collaborators and

London's Trafalgar Square in a DTPM production called

Giselle.

 

Some of the best dancers from the Royal Ballet Company

worked alongside reputed DJs. Ballet partnered with

contemporary club culture before a crowd of 2,500. The

gratifying consequence of this was " an interesting crossover

of audiences " .

 

Explains Mavin: " Royal Opera House (at which the Royal

Ballet Company is based) noted a significant 41 per cent

increase in new audiences and the DTPM events suddenly

had ballet lovers queuing outside to watch. "

 

" Androgynous creature " is another tag commonly applied to

Mavin.

 

In the solo ballet dance " Dying Swan " , famously danced by

Anna Pavlova, Mavin took on a traditionally female ballet

role, skimming the floor en pointe much of the time. The

female was central too in " Devi: The Female Principle " ,

which premiered at the Biennale Festival, Venice in 2006.

 

Mavin makes an important distinction. " It's about being

more sensitive as an artiste... not being more effeminate. I

have a problem seeing a male dancer being effeminate,

because then you're trying to prove a gender, you're trying

to 'assume' the woman. I'm talking about being in the

middle line where there's ambiguity. One needs to see the

contradictory tension on stage and one can achieve that by

being completely genderless. "

 

He will exemplify this blurring of gender in his upcoming

solo production " Devi In Absolution " , scheduled to

premiere in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 23 and 24.

 

Mavin will play three Hindu goddesses: Meenakshi, the

Child Goddess; Durga the Warrior, and Kali. The three

goddesses will portray the journey from adolescence to

womanhood to mother.

 

Fundamentally a bharatanatyam work, the production would

be " classical in vocabulary, but contemporary in concept " .

 

" Being a Devi bhakta (a worshipper of the Goddess in all

her forms), it's quite a personal subject matter to me, "

Mavin explained. " It took me five years of research, and the

choreography is mine. "

 

He feels it is going to be interesting for Malaysian

audiences.

 

" Devi in Absolution involves film work and live music.

Film is able to project what you can't show on stage. You're

able to develop abstract ideas. In a production like Devi,

you have a lot of Sanskrit texts, concepts which are

metaphysical, ...and film really enables this abstraction. "

 

Mavin feels there might be a slight generation gap here in

terms of exposure and acceptance and mindset. As an

artiste, he believes it's important to be in tune with the

younger generation.

 

But perhaps there is a better climate abroad to express

oneself in the arts?

 

" There are usually no boundaries overseas in terms of

censorship, " agrees Mavin, " but sometimes, to an artiste

who is very creative, it's good to have censorship.

Sometimes when you are so creative it can go to the point

where the work has no coherence, and you need the

boundaries to make a work that is solid and says one thing.

Liberalism, sometimes, doesn't become anything after a

point. "

 

His advice to the young generation of dancers in Malaysia is

to " use the boundaries to your advantage. As an artiste you

need something to rebel against. "

 

Malaysian artistes, are very creative, he observes.

 

" They may not use their potential to the fullest but they are

very creative because there's always a tension, ... and in the

arts, it's always important to embrace the underdog. "

 

For 32-year-old Mavin, apart from coming home to rest sans

tours and commissions abroad (there's the Canada Dance

Festival in June and the possibility of his first tour of South

Africa this year which he's quite excited about), there's

much to look forward to, though the lifespan of a dancer's

career means there's only so much time to do it all.

 

" I will be spending the next few years having a ball, " said

Mavin; with a smile, " the last few years of my career as a

dancer. "

 

Visit Mavin's dance company's website at

http://www.mavinkhoodance.co.uk

 

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/Fe

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