This article first appeared in Options, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 9, 2019 - December 15, 2019

One of the country’s dance pioneers, Joseph Gonzales has seen the industry’s shifts and changes in a career spanning four decades. He tells Mae Chan about the realities of life as a dancer, his new book and his hopes for the future of Malaysian dance.

Joseph Gonzales is a man of many thoughts. The professor recently shared some of these insights during a keynote speech at TARI’19, the annual international dance festival organised by the National Arts Academy, better known as Aswara (Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan).

He sits down with Options in the lobby of the academy — located in a quiet area in Jalan Tun Ismail, Kuala Lumpur — after the festival’s opening and recaps some of what he shared in his speech. “I spoke about empowering the artist, and how that possibly can empower society as well,” he summarises.

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