Document Type
Article
Abstract
The recent proliferation of the Hollywood dance film-Step Up (2006), Black Swan (2010) and School Dance (2014), for example-has triggered a regional interest in the genre. On the one hand, dance film festivals in Hong Kong (Jumping Frames) and Tokyo (Dance and Media Japan) to name but two Asian proponents of the genre have mushroomed. The interest in dance film in Singapore on the other hand suffered a short‐lived history with the programing of a dance film section within the Singapore Arts Festival for a mere three years between 2010 and 2012. The film that I will discuss in this essay belongs to this cultural trend, where the production and reception of this niche genre remain appreciated by a relatively small viewership. Nevertheless, the particular dance documentary analyzed in this essay highlights several important issues of gender, genre and social realism within and beyond the Singaporean context. At their intersection lie the salient questions of enframement and revelation vis‐à‐vis the subject and its technological objectification. I will deliberate upon these structural topics before providing a close reading of the short film.
Repository Citation
Zubillaga‐Pow, Jun. "Trans Reality: A Singaporean Malay Muslim in/as a Dance Documentary." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 16, no. 2, 2016, pp. 1–9. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol16/iss2/8