After 4 days of nocturnal activities over 2 weekends, the 5th Singapore Night Festival drew to a close on 1 Sep 2012. This was the first time I attended the festival and though I did not have time to cover all the events, I concentrated on a few and had fun.
The most impressive of them all has got to be Fuerzabruta by Ozono Producciones from Argentina. This is a set of 3 performances titled Corredoras, Mylar and La Argentina. I had the opportunity to watch and shoot La Argentina during the media preview which I was invited to (thanks Belinda!)
La Argentina features a female dancer standing, and at some points of time hanging by a cable at the end of a crane’s boom. The human-operated crane swings around to a very upbeat and catchy sound track while moving along Armenian Street. Accompanying the sound track and performance are a group of drummers providing the beats to the music “live”. Without the presence of the public audience, we were able to get up close to shoot this impressive feat.
Here’s a short excerpt of the performance shot during the media preview.
Corredoras
In Corredoras, 2 ladies are suspended from cables while they perform athletic feats across a silver curtain shimmering in blue, red and yellow lights. Right after Corredoras is a performance by local band Shelves. Not being a rock music fan and with Mylar supposedly starting in 15 minutes, I make my way to the stage where it’ll be performed. I was disappointed that Shelves’ performance went on until 9pm, all while blasting their music over the horridly loud sound system with a nauseating bass, I couldn’t wait for them to finish so Mylar can start. I can tell that the audience isn’t very keen on their music either, as on the 2nd night which I attended the performance, the emcee asked the audience if they wanted more when Shelves finished. The answer was an ubiquitous “NO”. 🙂
Here’s a video recording of Corredoras.
Mylar
Mylar features a 15-meter pool suspended high overhead the audience. Four dancers slosh around in the pool which slowly descend, creating ripples and patterns in the water while the pool slowly descends till it’s inches above. Combined with the electronic music and coloured lights, it makes for a rather surreal experience.
I had lots of fun watching and shooting the performances at the festival. It’s a pity it only lasted 4 days. Now I am looking forward to next year’s event. Hopefully it’ll be even better and span over a longer period too.
2 comments