Nothing soft about a personal and hard-hitting performance

DOCUMENTARY and dance came together in surprising harmony in Choy Ka Fai's SoftMachine - where his interviews with contemporary dance artists done over the past three years were presented in a unique stage performance.

Choy is an associate artist at TheatreWorks, which initiated a massive contemporary dance documentation project that was presented at this year's Singapore International Festival of Arts. From 2012 to this year, Choy developed an independent archive of video interviews, done in 13 cities in five countries.

Last Sunday's afternoon performance featured Xiao Ke and Zi Han (Shanghai) and Yuya Tsukahara (Osaka), with Choy's SoftMachine demonstrating how documentation can be woven into a performance that is both personal and hard-hitting.