RiverGrass Dance Theathre and Academy

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Bangkok | Sunway Pyramid | Kuala Lumpur
Shah Alam | Hong Kong | Ipoh | Premiere

Bangkok

RiverGrass Dance Theatre was invited by Patravadi Theatre in Bangkok to participate the “Fringe Festival 2001” with the dance drama of “Re: Lady White Snake”. This performance featured Mew Chang Tsing as White Snake, Lee Swee Keong as Green Snake, Jack Kek as Monk and Brian Chua as the Scholar.

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Sunway Pyramid

In conjunction with Chinese New Year festive celebration at Sunway Pyramid, RiverGrass Dance Theatre have been invited to perform a short version of “Re: Lady White Snake” because of the "Year of Snake" 2001. Featuring Mew Chang Tsing, Lee Swee Keong, Jack Kek and Brian Chua.

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Kuala Lumpur

RiverGrass Dance Theatre restaged the renowned repertoire “Re: Lady White Snake” with new look and fresh casts in Kuala Lumpur. This epic Chinese tale of human stereotypes with a local twist had successfully aroused the attention of difference races audience with the multi-cultural elements of this outstanding artwork.

For contemporary interpretation of Re: Lady White Snake, RiverGrass Dance Theatre sought award-winning couturier Melinda Looi to design the costume and Bernard Goh of Hands Percussion Group with Deborah Tee to compose the original music. Two talented new casts, Jack Kek as the Monk and Syed Mustapha as the scholar had performed just as splendidly and was ensemble the dance drama at its most effective.

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Shah Alam

First premiered in March 1996 under the Selangor Kwangsi Association Youth Division Dance Troupe. Second performance (at The Actors Studio Theatre in July '96) and the beginning of many reruns, this dance drama was choreographed by Mew Chang Tsing and Lee Swee Keong. Based on a traditional Chinese legend, Re: Lady White Snake is a dance drama about humanity. Its four characters: White Snake, Green Snake, Monk and Scholar, dance a fusion of Balinese, Chinese, Classical Indian, Buto, Contemporary Dances and Classical Ballet.

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Hong Kong

Showcased at Dance On '97, Hong Kong's International Dance Festival. During this festival, Mew Chang Tsing was also a panel speaker on "Crossing Cultures, Defining Identity" together with panelists from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Hawaii.

"...Two strong but contrasting theatrical works demonstrated how traditional aesthetics are being reinterpreted. From Malaysia, Mew Chang Tsing and Lee Swee Keong's Re: Lady White Snake adapted a Chinese legend in terms of contemporary theatricality. Taiwanese choreographer Tao Fu-Lann's The Jars created an atmosphere of reflective sensuality that fused techniques of postmodern movement exploration and Eastern meditation.
Mew Chang Tsing's RiverGrass Dance Company and the piece they showed in Hong Kong represent a wide spectrum of training. Mew herself, a graduate of the Hong Kong Academy, exemplifies the intercultural Asian artist, not only choreographing but writing and teaching with a consciously eclectic set of resources. In Mew and Lee's reinterpretation the white snake who takes the form of a woman has a double identity, Mew as the White Snake and Lee as the male Green Snake.

I don't know the original myth, but the dance seemed to draw on Jungian ideas about the divided psyche. Green and White Snake encountered a Scholar and a Monk, perhaps representing the intellectual and spiritual sides of the male/female persona. After symbolic seductions and struggles, the four seemed to reach an understanding where they accepted each other on equal terms. The movement included gestures, steps and body postures from Balinese, Indian, Chinese and Western modern dance, but all the characters were allowed a more naturalistic basic stance than any of the antecedent forms. The Scholar, for instance, would beckon to the White Snake with codified gestures from Bharata Natyam, released both rhythmically and spatially from the prescribed formatting of the original context. White Snake would angle and sidestep like a Hindu temle dancer but smile flirtatiously, against the rules for the Thai, Burmese, Cambodian or Balinese dancers she was evoking. So the dance as a whole with music that sounded like a New-Age movie score, looked moody and exotic rather than severely didactic as traditional forms often do to the modern audience. It didn't preach or instruct, but evoked themes known throughout time."

- Marcia B. Siegel, The Hudson Preview (Spring '98)

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Ipoh

Choreographed by Mew Chang Tsing and Lee Swee Keong, this dance drama made its way to Perak, a Malaysian state. Organised by the Perak Society of Performing Arts, this production also features dancers Guna and Loi Chin Yu.

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Premiere

Jointly choreographed and performed by Mew Chang Tsing and Lee Swee Keong, this legendary tale was put into dance in March 1996. Focusing on the multilayered personalities and the intricate relationships between the four characters, this dance drama deals with the complex nature of humanities in many facets. Due to the different dance background of the performers, Guna (Scholar) in Bharatanatyam, Loi Chin Yu (Monk) in Kong Fu, Mew (White Snake) in Chinese and S.E.A. Dance and Keong (Green Snake) in Butoh, the dance drama encoded dance vocabularies from various Asian traditional forms as well as contemporary dance. Re:Lady White Snake marks a style that is new and yet familiar to local audience.

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