There were lots of graceful curls, side twists and leg swings during the modern dance performance on September 26,2008 at the HCMC Conservatory of Performing Arts on Cong Quynh street. For three consecutive nights, contemporary dance occupied the front row in a fully dedicated show. The audience was amazed and surprised by the unconventional choregraphies they were facing and they could have lacked some keys to really grab the meaning of some pieces.
Modern dance is gradually finding its solid ground in Vietnam
Vice Director of the HCMC Dance School Ha The Dung, has put up the show and designed the choregraphies. “I am proud to bring to the public such a show about modern dance, he says. I hope that the audience will be even more receptive in the future”. Mr Ha The Dung studied dance in the USSR and was the first Vietnamese dancer to have received in 2003 the French Diploma of Dance Teacher, majoring in contemporary dance. He now runs the HCMC dance school and he aims at promoting contemporary dance more and more. “Times are changing, he explains. At the last audition we made, we had around fifty pieces to evaluate and ninety percent of them were contemporary dance performances. Ballets or classical dance are no more appealling for the young generation. They have a thirst for new moves, new techniques, new sensation as well. Especially for those who studied abroad.”
Mai Anh is one of the young talent studying abroad. She is a talented young 24 year-old dancer. She has been studying dance since the age of 10 in HCMC. But at 20, thanks to the visit of a French dance troop to the HCMC Dance School, she discovered modern dance. “That was completely amazing”, Mai Anh recalls. “In general, there are scarcely any regular show or permanent troop in modern dance in Vietnam. But when I saw the French dancers performing this modern dance show, I immediately fell in love with it and I knew that was it.” For her, everything was great: the new approach, the techniques of polyrythmic movements, the narrative structure, the interaction of the body in space, the floor work. It was all new but also a continuation of what classical dance is about. Mai Anh is very excited when she talks about her passion. She cannot describe only in words, she also demonstrates her words with movement.
Last August, Mai Anh was invited in by the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information to perform at the HCMC Conservatory of music. For the occasion, Mai Anh was asked to perform a choregraphy of her creation. “It was very exciting”, she says. “I was also quite scared at the same time. Modern dance choregraphy is very different because you have to include and give room to improvisation. In my opinion, that is crucial. You have to give the dancers the opportunity and freedom to improvise, that is the essence of this dance style. As a dancer, that is what I love. But as a choregrapher, I was confronted with quite a big challenge”, she laughs. Her choregraphy was called “Twins”. It described two sisters, two dancers. One of them is French and the other is Vietnamese (interpreted by Mai Anh). Even though they grew up in different countries and different cultures, in the realm of dance, they are like sisters.
Modern dance requires a whole new approach of art
For John Huy Tran, a Canadian dance teacher at Dancenter, located at 46/2 Nguyen Cuu Van in HCMC, one of the challenge for contemporary dance in Vietnam lies in the technique but above all in the passion you have to put in the balance. As he has been teaching modern dance to a Vietnamese troop called Hoang Thong, he noticed that if his students can identify the moves he teached, they still don’t undestrand it. “Sometimes I just tell them to be natural and not too “dancy””, John explains. “A plié does not look like a nice plié and when I ask them to simplify the gestures, they just cannot do it. Even if they don’t have the technique, they try to overplay the movement. And it is true that you need to be strong in ballet teachniques to perform well in contemporary dance. And among the 30 dancers in the troop, only 3 have studied dance properly.” But it can be balanced with passion. “But somehow, I can feel that they are surpised by the amount of yourself that you have to put in this dance”, he says. The troop would be learning modern dance to enlarge their scope of activities. “It is quite hard, Mr Ha The Dung explains. All troops would perform ballet, classical dance, traditional dance cheo for instance, or even hip hop. They have to make money to survive in a way, so they have to be able to perform in all kinds of show. Modern dance would just be another skill and an additional opportunity for a troupe.”
But modern dance also requires a different approach of art. As it has no rules, no code, many different “schools” and trends, students and audience alike are confronted with a new kind of freedom. “Modern dance is open to interpretation, Linh Rateau says. It appeals to your own senses and individual opinion. You are free to have your opinion. It can be different form what your neighbour thinks. But noone is here to tell you what you should think of this or that show”. Linh Rateau is the co-founder of Dancenter. As she is a French Viet Kieu, she studied contemporary dance overseas. People may not have the tools to forge their own opinion about a piece of contemporary dance. Even overseas, critics and specialists cannot define precisely what is contemporary dance. It is here but the outlines are blur.
If the structure is existing to grow modern dance, it may also needs to emerge from alternative sources. “Overseas, numerous contemporary dance styles have emerged from the streets, Linh explains. In Vietnam, it is not present as the urban culture has quite yet to emerge. In the long run, it will poses a problem in creativity because the risk is that we may see a lot of imitation of foreign styles. But I am confident that it will not happen this way”.
Mr Ha The Dung is also optimistic for the future of modern dance in Vietnam. “Thanks to all the cooperation with foreign troupes, more and more modern dance show are organised. In 2000, at the festival Hue, we had a show with the French troupe ballet La Rochelle. Since 2001, our contacts with troupes in France, Australia and Holland among others are now paying off. All these influences help us a lot. But I always think that these foreign influences help us build our own Vietnamese style of contemporary dance. The way we learn, the way we interprete these moves is definitely Vietnamese!” (Photos by Mai Anh)
