Is there space to dance here? For whom? – A Chinese Female Dancer’s Walk in an Urban Neighborhood

“Saya suka dancing, tapi tak baiklah kalau orang tengok.” are among many of the responses Lee Ren Xin, Malaysian dance artist gathered in her daily-walk-ritual research in 2018-2019.

The final video below shares what came out of this sustained practice – the people she encountered and what they found to do together. Her advocacy to be more present in the neighbourhoods that we live in was featured in Kongsi KL - Low Pey Sien’s curation, Di Situ: An Exhibition. Below are Ren Xin's words dancing you through her process.

1.  PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH (dancing in the neighbourhood) PROCESS EXPLAINED 

As a dance artist, I am drawn to bodies in relation to space i.e. the physical design and the socio-political.

I spend time, to inhabit. To sense, what next and how. Working in public and common spaces, through repetition and over a long time, and embodying desired futures e.g. how can bodies be and be with each other in this place.

“Neighborhood” is a concept I was interested in, as a place of grounding; and of action and staying with.

2.  SETTING UP A DAILY RITUAL (in your neighbourhood) TO FIND OUT  

I set up a daily ritual, to walk out from my house every single day for one to two hours, once or twice a day, and journal after every walk. To get to know this place, who lives here, what's going on, see what comes up, what I might do next, and with whom.

Over time, I started dancing in spaces around the neighborhood. Not as a performance to be watched—like the work I do onstage or in festivals. This time, using my body and movement to sense the place and people, while being aware of myself: what is coming up, any responses, sense-making, what to propose into the space, how, etc.

Over time, repeated encounters led to conversations led to exchanges led to relationship building. I also made it a point to spend as much time doing things in the smaller neighborhood on foot: eating, buying, working (reading/working/practicing) in common spaces (e.g. warungs, shops, corridors).

What does it mean to inhabit this place?  What am I being a part of, and how am I a part of?

3.  MAPPING THE NEIGHBOURHOOD USING DANCE

Initially, the title stemmed from my response toward the local-migrant gap. Later, it asked what sense of community and sense of agency is in this fast-developing, very dense, urban neighborhood. So it is a play of questioning territorializing claims, versus actually taking ownership or sense of agency. 

4.  MOVING AROUND LIKE THAT IN PUBLIC SPACE 

This video essay is a collage of episodes and vignettes. It is a journey and not a visit. Like taking a walk, and spending time in a place: how everything comes together, or negotiates and entangles into a mess.

I invite you on this journey with me.

 
As a Malaysian dance artist, I wonder if more women are seen moving and dancing in the corridors (and men joining in the sessions), what might shift in this place?

 

A new member of Five Arts Centre, Lee Ren Xin is a dance artist who is interested in how the body carries, reflects, embodies, and co-creates with place and time. An overarching theme in Ren Xin’s work is how to share a space, or how (we want) to live together. Her works explore ways of inhabiting, as well as the spaces inhabited - how one shapes the other, momentarily or slowly over a long time. At other times, she works with ritual and repetition in public space.

Ren Xin's process described above unfolded over 2018-2020, and was supported by the Krishen Jit Astro Fund and the INXO Arts Fund.  You can also find out more about her past performances - onstage, offstage, and onsite - at MY Art Memory Project.

This article is edited by Rupa Subramaniam, a fellow Malaysian creative professional who believes every woman deserves to feel comfortable and safe in their own skin. Her documentary, ANTIDOTE: Skin & Soul Art addresses female body politics by painting on 30 diverse urban women’s bodies.