District 14 Bah Rehearsal
| Documentation by Syarifuddin Sahari |
17 October 2020, 10:30am - 1:30pm
Rumah P7:1SMA
This rehearsal included the youths from Atrika and Azpirasi as well as the elderly from MKAC, and it was the first time they rehearsed together along with the associates. Before the elderly arrived, the youth and associates broke the ice by playing a game of passing the ‘kain’ around without using their hands or letting it touch the floorbefore warming up together through Last Breath.
Getting to know and coming together for the final Bah.
When the MKAC elderly arrived, Haizad decided to speak in Malay for ease of understanding (to the majority, at least. Perhaps a manifestation of Geylang in Rumah?). Everyone then took turns to share their names with everyone present. He then continued to share about the project as well as the idea behind the Bah video, and that the rehearsal was towards the recording of it. He shared that the location will be the big space outside Joo Chiat Complex, where the taxi stand is along Joo Chiat Road, and it will be recorded from a birds-eye view perspective off one of the higher levels. The final video is envisioned to be about 15 – 20 minutes long, and the costumes will be confirmed at a later date (except for the associates, as they will be wearing the same costumes they wore for their videos and Rasa).
Haizad explained / clarified on the type of dance / movement that P7:1SMA does, as well as his vision for Bah with regards to the intentions of those appearing in the video. He went through the associates’ and youths’ involvement first, and that each group will be featured in allocated segments in the video.
He went through the “plan” / flow of the video:
The invited artists will come in and ‘bentang’ (spread) their white cloths in a flower-like layout in the center of the space.
P7:1SMA associates will come in with their dumplings (the same way as how they exited in Rasa), place their dumplings on the floor and start the phrase they learnt previously.
The youths will each hold a white cloth from one side and pull them apart / separate them, dragging them on the floor.
The MKAC elderly will approach the P7:1SMA associates, receive the dumplings and place them on the dragging end of the white cloth that is being pulled by the youths, before coming into the center of the space (where the white cloths used to be).
After a certain point / distance, the youths will stop dragging the cloths and join the elderly and associates in the center.
Everyone will do the phrase together.
Will then transition to a ‘joget lambak’ where everyone will groove and have fun.
