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Writer's pictureThe Night Owl
May 9, 20172 min read

Shall we dance?

Updated: Sep 15, 2020


"We dance from the moment our feet touch the Earth" - Sharon Chaiklin

Creative movement is any improvisational and spontaneous movement generated by inner resources rather than a set routine or formal technique (smauff2, 2010). All movement is correct and the process of moving takes precedence over the product. Each individual and her own mind and body influence the result. The teacher may guide this impetus to move using suggestions, forms, and exercises. There are no levels, competition, or necessary abilities. [Authentic Movement, Children, and Autism - Marie Abaya].

It is my dream to live in this beautiful island and run a dance movement group which benefits to community, especially for the children and the elders. This is an low income, low socio but good community. I find dance movement practice is a great form to introduce to the islanders. "Move for connection. Dance for community."

The first dance movement workshop in Great Barrier Island were held in 07 July 2016. I was so grateful to move with others brave lovely beautiful movers. Since then, there are adult and children monthly Dance Movement classes for community; class for seniors; class in school setting. It is supported by the Aotea Family Support Group along with Aotea Claris Art Gallery and local community.

Working in Dance Movement Therapy field is a privilege and a deeply gratifying experience. In my two and a half years since I got introduced to the practice, I gain so much trust and love from clients and their caregivers and build up my confidence to work in such a challenging field. I have grown in the practice mentally and physically. It brings me friends, colleagues, mentors and a new purpose of life while living in a new foreign country. I am proud to be a part of this.

When I was visiting Vietnam in May 2015, I have organized a workshop in HCMC to see if there are possibilities/ opportunities that Vietnamese parents want to experience the move and the dance. I saw the children enjoys our time together and the adults were pleased with its outcomes. Thank you all for your attendance and your brave contributions to the program. This is another dream to bring Dance Movement to Vietnam. Some of my dance colleagues already started some introduction workshops. I want to be a part of it.

May.2017

Writer's pictureThe Night Owl
Jun 25, 20163 min read

Urban-ese and urban-ian

Updated: Sep 15, 2020


I grew up in an impoverished district of Ho Chi Minh City, although I have wonderful memories from childhood. In 2003, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City began a social program to destroy the slums in my old neighborhood and replace them with low-income housing. The work commenced in the summer of 2005, giving rise to my inspiration. The slums are now gone and new buildings are being completed in order to relocate thousands of people. But somehow, the buildings are as ugly as prisons and the people in them are even more miserable than before. This drove me to create my “Slum and Sunshine Life Series,” to depict both the present and the past, in order to retain the images that have lasted in my mind for twenty years.

At noted earlier, the series springs from a dream I have had since childhood. At this time, everyone in my country was desperately poor. The Vietnamese had a saying then: “No one is richer, no one is poorer.” We all lived in the same situation, in the same kind of houses—some, like mine, made of cardboard—that are known as “slums.” Since that time, some of my childhood friends have become wealthy, some not, but all of us have retained unforgettable good memories of our childhood. We played under the rain, swam in green rivers, ran through the noisy markets... I want to keep our wonderful childhood memories alive through my slum series as a gift for all the people who were there with me, showing our wonderful life amidst the squalor that surrounded us. I also want those who were never there and never knew it to know it, feel and understand it.

Utilizing an array of materials, some of them “found” and others carefully designed, the first two selections in the series are “DAY” and “NIGHT,” as these are the two more important terms during the 24 hours of a day. The new modern buildings and the old poor paper slums are mixed together. They have shown their “beauties” under the light and dark and the beauty of the souls that inhabit them—not of the place where they are located or the materials of which they are constructed.

The purpose of reality creates the power of transformation.

Went to England for postgraduate study in 2006 and then travelled around the globe from 2008 to 2012, I have witnessed and been affected by the rapid and massive changes in my birthplace, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam as well as every cities I had set my foot on. It has been far from beautiful and encouraging for the future, as the emphasis has been on speed and utility, rather than on respect for the individual, the society, the past or the future—not to mention aesthetics! I had examined the beauty of the slum life, the ugliness of urban “renewal” that is bereft of soul, and how they exist within the elements of nature that always surround them.

It has always being a good and global question of how to get the right balance? How to keep the green space for both economic and environment? How to keep your life and your planet safe? Global warming. Climate change. Unhealthy ocean. Political conflict. We suffer because we encounter a world of harshness and suspicion, caused by ourselves who do not realize there has a secret connection of lives and places. This connected idealization lay between the profit of jobs for local residents, profit of economic plus finance and the harmful impact on the environment and society.

Auckland and New Zealand soon will join to Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai series. It had been said 'in a country that prides itself on living the easy life, Auckland’s cultural upheaval and rapid growth puts it at odds with many other parts of the country.' 'Auckland’s booming population has meant a very large increase in housing prices for Auckland residents which has put house ownership out of reach for many lower-income city workers.' [https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/posts/auckland-a-city-often-at-odds-with-new-zealand]

Watch this space!

@nighowlart 2016

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