REVIEW: Searching Blue《寻蓝》
Review Date: 10th July @The Coronet Theatre
REVIEWS
Kassy Fang
7/14/20262 min read
Searching Blue by Kuik Swee Boon, ArtScience Museum (Singapore) ©️Photo by Bernie Ng (2024)
Before arriving at The Coronet Theatre, I wondered what the "blue" in Searching Blue referred to.
Conceived and directed by T.H.E Dance Company's founding Artistic Director, Kuik Swee Boon, Searching Blue spans two locations. The first half takes place inside The Coronet Theatre. Audiences then follow the performers on foot to Thorpe Lodge, a Victorian villa hidden within the grounds of Holland Park School, where the work continues among its gardens. The changing environment forms part of the performance's exploration of embodied perception and our relationship with the world around us.
The opening section establishes a clear visual language. Five dancers, dressed in deep blue, move across a stage edged with rings of blue pigment that resemble ripples spreading across water. As the choreography develops, the powder transfers onto hands and feet, leaving blue traces across bodies and floor. The image is simple and memorable, though some of the slower sequences test the audience's attention before the work gathers momentum again.
Kent Lee's live soundscape gives the performance much of its atmosphere. Percussion establishes a steady pulse, accompanying the dancers' movements with a strong sense of breath. He alternates between drums, electronic textures and a jaw harp, its buzzing resonance suggesting the sounds of wetlands. The score expands the performance's sensory world, drawing attention to rhythms that feel human, animal and environmental all at once. As the work moves into its new setting, those sounds seem to merge naturally with rustling leaves, birdsong and the wind moving through the trees.
The walk to Thorpe Lodge introduces a different rhythm. Stepping out of the theatre slows the audience's attention before the second half begins. The gardens, trees and old buildings become active elements in the work, opening possibilities that an indoor stage could never provide.
This outdoor section contains the performance's most compelling moments. Wind moves through branches in perfect time with the dancers. Leaves add their own texture to the live sound. Performers rest their hands against tree trunks, drawing attention to surfaces that usually disappear into the background. The choreography expands through these encounters with the landscape, creating images of immediacy and vitality.
Audience engagement comes through invitations to join, as performers use gestures and movement to create connections with spectators. The ideas explored in the work are conceptual, though its approach to landscape and audience relationship has become familiar within contemporary performance. Even so, the site-specific approach brings genuine freshness, especially once the natural environment begins shaping the work alongside the performers and musicians.
I remembered individual moments more vividly than the complete performance: blue pigment carried across skin, branches moving overhead, the sound of leaves folding into the score, the feeling of walking through nature with sharpened attention.
To become a better vessel for new blue things.
★★★ 1/2
For more information, please visit: https://www.thecoronettheatre.com/whats-on/t-h-e-dance-company-searching-blue/
Credits
Concept & Direction: Kuik Swee Boon
Choreography: Kuik Swee Boon in collaboration with the performers
Dancers: Carmelita Nuelle Buay, Priscilla Chan, Chang En, Klievert Jon Mendoza, Fiona Thng
Music Composition, Sound Design & Performance: Kent Lee
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