Where the Wild Things Are with Desiree Ho

​Desiree, tell us about your dance
Where the Wild Things Are is a combination of dance, art and biology, where dancers use their bodies to interpret different life forms and phenomena seen in living things. The beginning of the piece is inspired by the discovery of DNA, a microscopic double-helix strand made up of four basic building blocks, but capable of such infinite variety that it links all living things on earth. From there, the dance progresses into a biomorphic world inspired by organisms created through the imagination of the performers themselves.

What were your inspirations?
As part of the team that brainstormed the ideas for this year’s theme for Standard Chartered Arts in the Park Mardi Gras, I had a good idea of what we were looking for.

When I was assigned Where the Wild Things Are based on the style of 'biomorphism', the first image that came to mind was a world in which biotechnological advances and genetic engineering had taken over (yes—it is a little SCI-FI!!). I’m intrigued by the idea that you could take the DNA from different organisms, mix it up and possibly create a brand new organism. Hence, you’ll see a lot of references to cellular shapes and double-helix strands in the piece, as well as to the “new organisms” created by the performers themselves through rehearsal workshops!

Another concept that felt very relevant to me was that of ‘metamorphosis’—the idea that certain organisms are simply genetically programmed to change forms without undergoing artificial mutation. The most common example would be the butterfly—from larvae, to caterpillar, to cocoon and then somehow into a butterfly；Another example is certain types of fish that suddenly change from female to male—it is easy to just take it for granted that these things “just happen”, but if you dig a little deeper you’ll find that it’s actually a pretty magical process!

The dancers themselves also provided a great source of inspiration—by observing their dance vocabulary, styles and movement, they played a huge part in shaping the final dance performance.

How did you choose the music?
After browsing a ton of different playlists and tracks based on ‘nature’, ‘mutation’ and ‘metamorphosis’, I came up with a list of songs that I felt inspired by (so many songs that I want to choreograph!!) However, the list soon grew a bit out of hand and it was time to stop and make a decision. So after doing further research on the theme, and designing the concept of my piece, I chose the songs which I thought were most appropriate, somewhat by a process of elimination.

What were the major challenges of creating this work?
Time is always of essence when creating any YAF production!! On one hand you need to have dancers who are able to take on a lot of material in one session, on the other hand you also have to be really quick to decide what works and what doesn’t—that means I also spent a lot of time outside of rehearsals to prepare the material. While I’m still learning how to be more effective as a choreographer, I nevertheless feel like I’ve grown both as an artist and choreographer.

My dancers this year are very versatile, and while there is quite a varied level of experience in the team, they are no doubt skewed towards the more experienced side…so another challenge for me was making sure that the work was challenging enough to keep them engaged, whilst making sure that first-timers could still keep up.

​Most memorable moment
Well to our surprise, Lindsey, YAF’s Artistic Director, and Maria, YAF’s Head of Performing Arts, came to see our first rehearsal as they were going to use the studio right after (yep, no pressure at all!). Lindsey came in midway and asked if she could watch - and being the all-powerful director that she is, she grabbed a chair and made herself comfortable right in the middle of the studio facing all the new YAF dancers. I don’t know how my team felt, but I know if I was new to YAF I’d be pretty nervous! But they told me afterwards that they loved the choreography and were very pleased with what they saw, so that both me and the team a big boost of encouragement!   

What can audiences expect at Arts in the Park this year?
Many new talents join the YAF family this year!! This year’s theme is also super funky, we’re talking about steampunk, optical art, biomorphism, and fantastic art — this year’s Arts in the Park will take you from the tiniest particle right across the universe!