Presents of performance

Photo: Ridwan Adid Rupon

Thomas Lehmen, traveling through Asia and Europe since April 2013 on his motorcycle has been on a quest rather intriguing: utilising the communications and the act of human beings which reflect themselves in their surroundings and the simple gesture of showing love and affection towards others into his work. Being a dance teacher and director, he made his way to Bangladesh to continue his project he earlier took to other countries - creating a 'Piece' for everyone; for every one of the audience and performers. From December 2-17, Lehmen conducted a workshop in collaboration with Shadhona's dancers where he elasticised the perimeter of thoughts a performer adheres to, stretching it out and reeling pure emotions into it. He used elements as simple as presenting a speech verbally and dancing it out, using imaginary characters in front and communicating with them in an emotional note, inheriting family bonds for each and every performer and letting them show it, all were techniques that were induced in the dancers to really broaden their perception. And it showed all through in the performance they held on December 18 at Goethe Institute.
Seated in the audience, the performers greeted everyone and attained such casualty that it was almost hard to notice out they were performers. There was not a trace of music in their whole 45 minutes of presentation, but rather their playful and cheerful ambiance was the muse to the ears for the audience. Starting off with claps in different rhythms, performers in pairs made it to the stage with their own choreographed phrases of dance. And one by one, they had the microphone to their mouth and casually conversed about things they like - sometimes also portraying that through dance gestures.
Giving this distinct hint to the audience, they joyously all through the presentation involved with the audience with their speeches and acts, sometimes role-playing and adding humour to the scene. And afterwards to wrap up the show, they finished with the unusual ability of returning to the phrases each performer presented at the starting, leaving the audience to bask in an almost baffling yet tantalising aura that could race through your mind for countless hours.
It was a performance hard to describe to those people who didn't watch it.  It was something so deeply involved emphasising on art that it had to be experienced firsthand. The show was closed with a few words from Lehmen. He said “I wanted to give presents to human beings in a special human interaction”, summing up the core idea of his workshop. He also termed his stay in Dhaka as “very interesting”, and said he would cherish the memories.
 

The writer is a young dancer.