No Holds Barred

Strains of Bizet’s music waft through the studio as Yui Kyotani and Benjamin Cook rehearse their pas de deux sequence for the ballet Carmen. Choong Wan Chin, the co-founder and artistic director of Ballet Theatre Malaysia (BTM), watches the pair intently from the side, issuing some guidance from time to time as the two portraying the characters of Carmen and Jose work to ensnare the other in a complex arrest scene involving a piece of rope.

Adapted from the novella by French author Prosper Merímée, this portrayal is a dramatic tale of passion, jealousy, obsession and tragedy revolving around the free-spirited gypsy named Carmen, a factory girl who got