DANCE IN THEATER: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CHOREOGRAPHY CONCEPTS IN TWO MALAY MUSICAL THEATRES

Musical theater is a form of stage performances that embodies several elements such as acting, dancing, singing, music, sets and pros. This musical theater derives from the western theater. The musical theater is a commercial entertainment theater that portrays new or old stories and has appearance of popular artists. This article is intended to compare choreography concept in two selected Malay musical theaters, Ibu Zain Musical Theater (2008) and Tun Abdul Razak Musical Theater (2008). This comparison refers to the theory and concept of choreography, motion and movement analysis, the design and floor pattern in both musical theaters. This discussion covers the form and concept of choreography in a musical theater. Thus, the data analysis in this article is based on choreography theory and terminology to study the choreography concept in both Musical Theater of Ibu Zain and Tun Abdul Razak Musical Theater. This article also discusses the concept of dance in the context of Malay dance characteristics and functions in both of the selected theaters. The contribution of this article is the theory and concept of choreography that has been employed as an analysis tool to study Malay musical theater. It can also be a guide and provide suggestion on comparative choreography in dance and theater in general, specifically the Malay musical theater.