The Start of a Movement: Disruption, Reflection and the Art of Invitation in Choreographic Intrusion and Juggle and Hide
Natalie Rine*
BIPAM Festival, Bangkok, Thailand, March 2025. Choreographic Intrusion. Artistic direction and choreography: Olé Khamchanla. Music: Mathieu Vallet. Sound. design for BIPAM2025: Taratawan Krue-On Thai-Lao. Dancers: Vanthiva Xayxana, Silibang One Vongsa, Phatsaraporn Ongsiriwattana, Dittanun Dungdao, Saruda Chantrapnichkul, Tayida Watanachaturaporn. Production: Compagnie KHAM. Supports: Communauté de Communes de Porte DrômArdèche, Drac et Région Auvergne Rhône Alpes, Département de la Drôme, Pôle Pik à Bron, Lux SN Valence, Baron de Bayanne.
BIPAM Festival, Bangkok, Thailand, March 2025. Juggle and Hide. Concept and direction Wichaya Artamat. Pathipon (Miss Oat), text by Wichaya Artamat, Pornpan Arayaveerasid, Rueangrith Suntisuk. Art and technical direction by Yuya Tsukahara. Dramaturg Araki Masamitsu.Sound design and operation by Laphonphat Duongploy. Mechanics creation by Piti Boonsom, Monthira Jamsri. Technical operation by Surat Kaewseekarm. Object operation and stage management Toru Koda. Sound engineer Thongchai Pimapunsri. Project management Sasapin Siriwanij. Producer Carina Chotirawi. soi squad: English translation.
Choreographic Intrusion and Juggle and Hide are two strikingly different yet thematically entwined performance pieces that explore the notions of movement and mirroring as a catalyst for collective action. Though distinct in form, the two works share a resonant core: how individual expression ripples outward to collective transformation. They each stage an initiation of motion through bodies and locomotives, prompting reflection on how invitations—whether kinesthetic, immersive or political—can create entirely new situations.
In Choreographic Intrusion, the piece begins with a single singer, a mysterious yet emotional anchor, whose voice seems to populate the first lone male dancer’s world. Her repeated ending line, “the next station,” spoken in Thai, symbolizes a rhythmic signal of change, moving the lone man along his journey from solo to communal back to solitude. The phrase echoes across the park like a call to action, reflecting transit systems but also implying the movement from one emotional state to another. This linguistic prompt parallels the dancers who emerge individually and then coalesce into a collective body, evoking flash mob energy to join the man’s journey. Here, choreography is both structured and spontaneous in crowdwork, a metaphor for social mobilization where one gesture can inspire many to join.
Mirroring serves as a key theatrical device in both works, reinforcing the connection between individual and group. In Choreographic Intrusion, dancers and audience replicate movements in a copy-dance invitation. This technique transforms the stage into an immersive, participatory event—less about spectacle, more about synergy. The invitation is subtle but charged, implicating the audience in the unfolding transformation. The singer’s presence underscores the tension between voice and body, between intention and action. Her voice acts as an inner guide, animating the dancers and suggesting an animus-body duality reminiscent of a fragmented self, trying to re-integrate through movement.
Juggle and Hide, a multimedia theatrical experience, utilizes digital projection to explore similar themes with a more technological slant. Real-life object manipulation of toys and trinkets related to the historical political narrative overheard is filmed on toy trains, linking the metaphor of transit to sociopolitical movements moving through time. The footage is first presented straightforwardly, but in a brilliant moment of theatrical inversion, the camera turns on the audience in the final minutes. The mirrored image is jarring yet intimate, creating a moment of collective recognition: you are now part of the performance. It is a subtle, cinematic way of inviting participation, not through dance but through attention.
The title Juggle and Hide phonetically evokes Jekyll and Hyde, alluding to the duality of self—another nod to transformation and takeover. Just as Dr. Jekyll loses control to his alter ego, and just as the political situation changes in the march through history in act one, the toys on the tracks are overtaken by a need to assert control, collectively moving from human play to stunning autonomy in the second act. Thus the invitation to consider our own autonomy, and the tension between spectacle and self-reflection, becomes a dance of its own.
Ultimately, both works propose that starting a movement—whether kinesthetic or political—requires disruption. They mirror not only each other, but us, challenging audiences to ask: what if a single voice, a single motion, a single track, was enough to start a collective shift? In both performances, the invitation is extended. The movement has already begun.
*Natalie Rine is a New York City based theatre producer, critic and founder of Broadway DNA, an international theatrical producing and licensing agency committed to connecting theatrical work to a prosperous life through distribution across borders on global stages. Her work has been published in Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, Nová dráma (Slovakia) and Stage Natalie (Japan). She currently serves on the Membership and International Committees for the American Theatre Critics Association.
Copyright © 2025 Natalie Rine
Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, #31, June 2025
e-ISSN: 2409-7411
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Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
