It's mid-morning on a hot, humid Sunday in Saigon's Botanical Gardens, and the audience in front of the main stage represents an eclectic cross-section of Vietnamese society. Parents field phone conversations while watching their kids, teens and university students gather in groups, chatting and gossipping and taking pictures. A few artsy types loiter around the edges, as do a handful of foreigners.
Equally unexpected is the location; the city zoo is an unusual setting for a contemporary dance performance. In Vietnam, where modern art is often restricted to galleries or particularly artsy cafes, this makes for an unlikely performance space, but for dancer and choreographer Emmanuelle Vincent, the folks seated in the Botanical Gardens are exactly the kind of audience she wishes to reach.
“We believe art is for everybody,” she tells Saigoneer just before joining the rest of t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e, a Brussels-based dance company, on stage. Founded in 2003 in Hong Kong, Vincent and architect-director Pierre Larauza are the cofounders of the company, whose primary goal is to erase boundaries across both artistic media and world cultures.
In Urban Distortions, the members of t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e attempt to transcend the boundaries which exist between dance, song and territory. Using a collaboration of both traditional and contemporary dance, music and performance, Urban Distortions endeavors to decipher various global cities with its abstract performance.
First performed in 2010, t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e's Urban Distortions has since reached audiences all over the world. The company's Vietnam debut last weekend, which took place as part of the city's International Francophonie Day celebrations, was yet another reinterpretation of t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e's original concept.
Video via t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e.
“It's never the same performance. We always change,” says Vincent. “It's always a new vision because it depends where we are working.”
Set to an original score by French-Vietnamese singer and musician Matthieu Ha, t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e's Saigon performance was accompanied by two dancers and a musician from local troupe Bong Sen. Vincent refers to the accompaniment of these local performers as “added value”, an element which broadens each individual performance of Urban Distortions in terms of both diversity and complexity.
In their Sunday performance, t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e and their Bong Sen collaborators showcased an altogether different side of contemporary dance performance, one which is often lacking in the city's cultural offerings. Vincent acknowledges that the reach of dance performance in Saigon is relatively limited at the moment, however she remains optimistic about the future.
“We can feel that since a few years it's the beginning of something,” she explains. “It's like when the fire starts.”
This is, at least in part, the reason behind La Centriffugeuse, the mixed media arts center which Vincent hopes to establish here in Saigon. Based in the southern hub for the next two months, t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e is participating in an artist residency program through the Institut Francais which will aim to foster an environment of cultural and artistic collaboration. Through this program, Vincent hopes to draw upon both traditional and contemporary art from Europe and Vietnam, creating an in-between space where local artists can transcend boundaries in both media and cultural identity.
“I believe that we can have one unit with a lot of diversity,” Vincent explains. “Tradition is important because you [learn] where you are from, and because of that you know where you go.”
Vincent, who studied traditional Vietnamese dance in Belgium for six years under the Truong Son organization, looks forward to connecting with the eclectic artistic community in Saigon and tapping into the city's young talent.
“For me, it's very good time to take the temperature of [the Saigon art world],” she says.
[Photo courtesy of t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e]
