Artist highlights Penang's environmental issues through dance

Fluid dancers trace the memory of the shoreline along Beach Street, Penang, pulling and struggling with sandbags as if toiling at a construction site.

When the dancers move from street to stage, they start to express their concerns over the island's changing sea and landscape.

A poem by Penang Forum's Khoo Salma I dream of life, you dream of money read by Lawrence Chin with music performed by Su Kheng Kang plus a video featuring the seas and hills of Penang by Andrew Han runs as a backdrop.

Aida Redza has once again captivated her audience by being the voice of Mother Earth.

At one point during the performance, Aida sits on the street, cross-legged with hands on her knees, body upright as if meditating for peace in this chaotic world.

There was also a monologue in Hokkien which spoke of the horrifying deaths of four Burmese workers due to a landslide in Tanjung Bungah last month.

Titled Reclaim, the dance was presented on the last day of the annual two-week George Town Festival on July 28 by WindRiver Productions which was founded by Aida this year.

Aida said the dance served as a call-to-action on "how we must first recover and protect the past before making forced changes to create the new future."

Comprising actors and dancers, the performance created "waves" on stage like the angry sea as it called for people to rise and to take action to protect their environment.

"When George Town Festival organisers invited me to create a piece for their closing extravaganza on Sunday, I was a little reluctant as I am not the kind of choreographer who performs spectacular acts like the other events they have on their list of programmes, " Aida told Malaysiakini.

"What they have on their list include international aerial dances, cultural and drum ensembles and fashion shows, " she added.

"But I said to myself that if I wanted to do anything to present a dance at the closing of George Town Festival, then it should be something meaningful, that I feel strongly about and that will give a voice to our island, " she explained.

As an artist, Aida is worried over the current environmental issues in Penang, from hill slope disasters to landslides and the soon to be implemented reclamation exercise at the island's southern post, Bayan Lepas.

However, she said Reclaim was not meant to "provoke or insult" but to raise public awareness on the treatment of nature and landscape.

"So to close the festival, I wanted to dedicate a dance for our troubled nature, caused by the fast development that is happening so aggressively.

"Of course, I am also following closely all the protests against the reclamation project, the Penang Transport Master Plan and the Pan Island Link highway, which are bound to affect nature, human lives and livelihood," Aida said.

"As an artist, I prefer to express the struggles of the marginalised and the displaced communities, and also for the environment which is being destroyed due to lack of care and concern," she said.

In 2016, Aida dazzled her audience with her performance Moved by Padi which paid homage to the spirits of the fields and was a tribute to farmers who provide us with rice, our staple food. - Mkini