A journey of self-discovery through lindy hop

WHEN artist Loo Zihan picked up lindy hop in junior college, it never occurred to him that the dance would take him on a decade-long journey of self-investigation into his ethnic Chinese identity and what it means to perform a dance that evolved with jazz music in Harlem during a traumatic period in African-American history.

But when he began taking part in international competitions, where teams from all over the world congregate to show their moves, he started to look at the performers and the nature of the competition and ask himself: "What is considered beautiful? Who gets to set these standards of beauty? Why am I, an ethnically Chinese person, doing this dance?"

These questions obsessed him enough to create a new work titled 50/50 for TheatreWorks in which he invites members of the audience to take part in lindy hop dancing and consequently embark on their own journey of self-interrogation - not just of their ethnic identity but also of their gender and sexuality.