CONVERSATIONS

with Rachel Lum, Choreographer for No Corners
by Edwin Wee

Edwin: Is this your first full length work? 

Rachel: Yup! First ever.

E: What are the challenges in creating this as a full length work?

R: This is a little bit different as the original was a 20 mins piece. And now I’m reworking and extending. The shorter version felt choreographically completed and the challenge for me was to deconstruct and identify which part I would like to extend and why. I really had to dig deep and ask myself a lot of questions.

E: Out of all your other works, why choose No Corners to extend?

R: No Corners had the potential to add interest and layers to the previous choreography. The original choreography didn’t have much of a backstory and only had one focus conceptually. So now, with the opportunity to extend it, I could add dimensions and introduce characters, and elaborate on them, but still allowing these layers to zoom in on the main topic.

Also because I had no access to the videos of my other choreographic works, so it was very hard to recall and rework! Give me back my videos! You know who you are…. 

E: Give Rachel back her videos! #petition

E: How does the work connect with you on a personal level?

R: The previous piece was a more generic perspective of what I felt about comfort and discomfort. But now I get to dive into my life and my stories, and I also invite my dancers to input their personal connection to the theme into the work.

Going into this work, it forces me to open up myself to share my personal discomfort and fears, which is public speaking, like this interview now. 

E: Erm, this is not public speaking.

R: It is! I feel like someone is always listening. The birds are listening! 

E: … …

R: Anyways, in the previous edition, 99.99% (like hand sanitisers! #outofstock) of the movements are from me. I was a young choreographer who felt the urge to show my dance vocabulary. But now, I’m not so precious and protected about that, and I’m open to accepting movement materials from my dancers. This also helps the piece be more three dimensional through the process.

E: Someone’s getting old. Well, if you weren’t dancing, what would you be doing?

R: Recently, I have had a really strong respect for nurses but I don’t think I could go through the studies to become one! The other thing was to be an air stewardess for Singapore Airlines because I really loved the costume. I mean, uniform! I think I could be a musician because I could count off beat really well, because I play the French horn back in secondary school.

E: Yeah because you’re always playing the counter melody and not the main melody.

R: Hey! That’s an insult! But really, I can’t think of anything else. I can’t sing, I can’t draw. Oh, maybe a Youtuber! #current #ornot

Catch Rachel’s first ever full length work alongside her collaborator Khairulhakim at No Corners, 20 & 21 March 2020, 8pm, Design Orchard