Wednesday July 29, 2009
Rhythm and blues
By SHEELA CHANDRAN
KLPac’s light-hearted musical Kaki Blue – about Malaysian youth and their National Service experiences – features vibrant songs and dances.
IT has been code-named Kaki Blue and nope, it has no relations to Blues fans. It is, in fact, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre’s (KLPac) latest offering – Kaki Blue The Musical – about the life of youth undergoing National Service (NS) training.
Kaki Blue, which opens on Friday, is about the many uniforms and roles one puts on, and sheds, as one grows up in Malaysia. The show revolves around three characters – Lin, Nee and Ah Shan – who think it’s time to celebrate after completing their final year of secondary school. Just as they sink into a mellow routine of nothingness, watching TV non-stop and sleeping, they are unexpectedly summoned in the form of an SMS for service at Kem Bina Negara in Butterworth, Penang.
The musical follows the trio as they trade their blue and white secondary school uniform to don their new uniforms as wira and wirawati in the new camp under the guidance of no-nonsense Major Sabar. Leading the cast of Kaki Blue are Lim Miaw Fen, Leah Sams, Edmund Wong and Tria Aziz.
With theatre thespian Joe Hasham as director and script written by Mark Beau De Silva (remember Stories For Amah, Bottom Top, Oh My God and Belacan, Geragok And Other Prawns?), audiences can expect an entertaining and thought-provoking performance.
High-energy show: Kaki Blue, about the life of youths undergoing National Service training, promises to be a strong and vibrant performance with great music, says its choreographer Lakshman Balakrishnan (pic below). This is De Silva’s first attempt at musicals and he has tried to capture the essence of modern Malaysian youth and the problems and frustrations that come with having to grow up. The musical looks at life via issues such as gender identity, growing up in a single parent family and ... the popularity of reality TV!
While it explores many subjects, Kaki Blue is a musical at heart. And as such you can expect a lot of singing and dancing.
“It sounds very serious but it is presented in a very humourous and musical manner,” De Silva said.
Lakshman Balakrishnan and Nick Davis serve as choreographer and musical director, respectively. Featured songs from yesteryear including It’s My Party, She Bop, Monday Monday, Walk Like A Man and Silence Is Golden are given an indie-rock twist.
Balakrishnan, fondly known as Lex, said the musical features 17 dances and a 40-ensemble cast. Audiences can expect high-energy traditional Malaysian dances with a contemporary feel.
“Imagine the impact as 40 dancers run and stamp their feet (wearing army boots) on stage. Dance-wise, it’s going to be a strong and vibrant performance with great music,” said the Odissi- and bharatanatyam-trained dancer who is pursuing his final year studies at Akademi Seni Kebangsaan (ASK) in Kuala Lumpur.
For the show, Lex, 25, studied one of NS’ modules called Nation Building in which students are taught traditional dances. For the musical, he deconstructed several traditional dances and reconstructed them with creative movements, giving them a more contemporary feel.
As far as dance genres go, Lex said this music features contemporary, with a fusion of Malay, Indian and Chinese, styles.
Reconstructing the dances to suit the music was a challenge for the choreographer, who had to acquaint himself with the elements of each dance.
“Zapin, for example, has five components (takzim, les, ragam, kopak dan wainab). I deconstructed it by featuring only three components – takzim, bunga and wainab. I’ve also added more hand and foot movements,” said Lex.
According to Lex, the musical features various dance styles including dikir barat, zapin, joget, Chinese fan dance and bharatanatyam. He hopes the performance will help youth appreciate different Malaysian dance forms.
“These days, some youngsters don’t know how to differentiate between joget and zapin. Malaysia is a melting pot of various cultures and sadly, Malaysians are more interested in learning modern dances like hip hop, Latin and pop. If we don’t highlight local dances, there will come a time when the future generation will not know any traditional dance.”
> Kaki Blue runs from Friday till Aug 16 at Pentas 1, KLPac at Jalan Strachan, Sentul Park in Kuala Lumpur. Tickets are priced at RM100, RM80, RM60, RM40 and RM30 (students, senior citizens, the disabled and ex-NS trainees). Cheap weekday (Tues till Thurs) tickets at RM30. For details, call 03-4047 9000 or visit klpac.org.
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