Residency week 10 / 2024

This week we have choreographer and performer Hwa Wei-An in residence with his project A Reason for Falling. This work is an exploration and reconsideration of verticality and balance, and of what it means to commit to a fall and give in to gravity. Drawing inspiration from the practice of freeriding and Wei-An’s recent experiences with snowboarding, this piece is also a way of searching for the possibilities that lie beyond a surrender to gravity and in embracing of the fear of falling.

 

Visual description: Colored photograph of Hwa Wei-An on a stage where the floor and wall are black. On the left of the picture, Wei-An is on his knees with his head, arms and feet on the floor. He wears a black headdress, light t-shirt and dark pants. The feet are bare. He appears to be in motion, as if he is about to start to lift himself up on his head or spin his body around. On the black back wall we see a black-and-white shot from above of Wei-An and the stage area he is on. In various places around him in the picture, the numbers from 1 - 7 are drawn in white with a white circle around them.

 

About the artist

Wei-An has spent his whole life falling down; it’s a by-product of perpetually thinking he can do more than he actually can, whether that meant trying to spin on his head or backflip before he was ready, or learning how to snowboard on his own. And though he may not be the best at those activities, he’s become quite good at falling. He has, in fact, built his contemporary practice around his love-hate relationship with gravity, and the connections this relationship has with the psychological state of flow.

 

Contributors

Hwa Wei-An – Choreographer and performer
Arco Renz – Dramaturg
Lee Ren Xin – Performance Coach
Kent Lee – Composer
Liu Yong Huay – Light Designer
A Reason for Falling is commissioned by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. The work is also supported Dance Nucleus (Singapore) and Rimbun Dahan (Malaysia).