Collaboration on staging and performance of two large-scale public performances: Eulogy for the Living and Mapping, Leader of Artist's Forum on Trance Performance Methods

BACKGROUND My practice-led research into theatre production methods focuses the performer's physical "embodiment" as a key aspect of narrative structure. Theorist practitioners like Abramovic and Grotowski emphasize trance as a key mode of embodiment within performance structure. They suggest the performer may enter a trance to drop the masque of theatrical convention. Trance may thus produce raw encounters between performer and audience where the flesh itself communicates an authentic message. How may we define and understand trance dance forms, as an "embodied" performance method that can engage audiences in large-scale, public spaces? CONTRIBUTION I collaborated with festival director Tony Yap staging two public theatre works (Mapping and Eulogy) and led an international artists forum on Trance Form in theatre. I worked with a cast of 35 performers from a variety of Asian backgrounds. We employed traditional Asiatic Temple dance, community-based, and shamanic modes of trance performance. We updated and transformed traditional rituals in a contemporary context; inviting audiences to wander, witness and share close encounters with performers inside a large, public, UNESCO world heritage site in Melaka. These projects contribute to theatre scholarship and practice by defining trance forms of embodiment as culturally significant forms of "embodiment" for performers who work with audiences in large public spaces. SIGNIFICANCE This research has international significance as a focal point of the Melaka Art and Performance Festival; a prize-winning event held on a UNESCO World Heritage site with major stakeholders: the Melaka City Authority and Malaysia Government department for Tourism and the Arts. The work was staged with support from Australian High Commission; the embassies of Japan, Indonesia, Ireland, Thailand, Italy, Colombia, France, the NZ High Commission, Alliance Française de Kuala Lumpur.