Site-specific dance basically involves artists bringing themselves out into the real world, where they use the location and its fixed set as an important component of their dance piece. Literally, the dance is specific to the site where the dancers performed, and the site becomes part of the dance itself.
This trend has been practiced in the Philippines as well as in Europe and the US, specifically in Agnes Locsin's improvisation and composition classes at the Cultural Center of the Philippines dance school workshops, beginning the early 1990s. Students were taken out of the vast rehearsal hall of the CCP and were dancing on the bleachers of the Folk Arts Theater, by the seawall with the Manila Bay as backdrop, up and down the exterior side stairs of the CCP building, on plain fields around the complex. They were also dancing in the halls of the CCP, in the lobby of the main theater, and up and down the escalators that brought theater patrons to the parterre boxes and the two balconies.
Site-Specific Dance Dangers
At one point, one dancer, Dwight Rodrigazo, then a particularly exuberant new company member, one of several who lived to please Locsin, failed to be careful while dancing improvised steps up the escalator and momentarily got his foot caught in the scary escalator ridges. There was blood and, of course, the dancing stopped as first aid was administered and the rest of the class gathered around to ooh and aah over their pained classmate.
Then, Locsin declared the class over and the students all gave a collective whine – they wanted to get up on that escalator again and try more things, including the boy who was having his foot bandaged. But that was all for that day, as the most important lesson had already surfaced – be careful while dancing on escalators and other specific sites that were not intended for dancing.
Dance in Alternative Performance Spaces
A few years later, the dancers from that class, and from other improvisation classes of that nature, did learn another important lesson, and that is to dance wherever you can. This was handy for when the companies they eventually joined would dance in provinces and rural areas, and they would dance in basketball courts and even on the street, with just a mat of linoleum protecting their shoes from friction and dirt. They learned to adapt.
A decade and a half later, site-specific improvisation was also handy for dancers who wanted to continue dancing but didn't want to dance for these ballet companies any longer. They did improvisations in their studios, with the audience sitting around on the floor, their backs against the wall. They also danced in spaces that were not much bigger, such as art galleries, weaving dance in that small space that was usually just enough viewing distance from the oils and watercolors that hung on walls.
This was also handy for dancers who made extra money dancing for product launchings of corporations, sometimes dancing on hotel ballroom carpets or even on grassy outdoor gardens. Sometimes, they danced down sturdy drapes that hung from the ceiling and spun around wildly in the cloth, because the client specified that they want their guests to be amazed.
The site specific improvisation exercises of Agnes Locsin was definitely the training ground for what was to become the independent contemporary dance scene in the Philippines. Groups and companies such as Airdance, The Lovegangsters, Chameleon Dance Theater, Transitopia, among others, are carving their niche wherever they can, and in the process, keeping Philippine contemporary dance alive.
Joelle Jacinto - I once applied for a job and the boss interviewing me asked, "So when did you start writing?" I fumbled with my reply, really ...
