In Direct from Broadway (1985), the documentary of the one-woman show that catapulted Whoopi Goldberg to fame, the actor and comedian brings to life a collection of wildly diverse characters, from a storytelling petty criminal to a teenage surfer to a physically disabled woman, in a series of five tragicomic monologues. Yuri Ng Yue-lit, artistic director of the City Contemporary Dance Company, tells Richard Lord how it changed his life. I think I bought it on VHS. It was because I was a fan of Whoopi Goldberg, after seeing her in (the 1986 comedy thriller) Jumpin’ Jack Flash . I found her fascinating: her sense of movement and timing, and her ever-changing personality – she embodies the characters. Beyond her voice, she uses her body to express and embody. I laughed so hard and then I cried so hard. I didn’t expect that. I was expecting comedy, but I cried so hard, and I couldn’t understand why at that point, so I kept watching. I didn’t know why it got to me. It was very emotional. Usually people expect, because I am a choreographer, that I will work without words. But actually, I work a lot with text and lyrics; I need to interpret text with movement. I’ve realised I’m very sensitive to spoken words. I treat the text like music. How A Passage to India changed arts academy director Gillian Choa’s life There’s something about comedy; I’m very impressed by stand-up comics. My father was a merchant by profession, but he was also an actor who specialised in comedy. When we were kids and had family gatherings, he would always make people laugh. I loved the way he talked; the content of the jokes I can’t remember, but there seemed to be some magic about making people laugh. I make a lot of dad jokes. I find they come out very naturally; it’s therapeutic for me, sharing bad jokes. I think it relaxes everyone, too. People will roll their eyes when they hear them – they seem to both like them and detest them. It’s a way to understand another person, if I throw a joke out. If they roll their eyes and smirk, this is a person I can talk to. I watched the film again recently, and I found that I had memorised some of the lines. Now I don’t get emotional, because I know what’s coming. I’m trying to understand why she’s using a particular speed – why she would stop, lurch and fall into a certain embrace. I’m trying to calculate her timing. And does it come from the editing, or does she do that live? (In the final monologue, narrated by her disabled character) she expresses the way she dreams that she can have a perfect body, so she can dance. Wow – it was such an image. I consider that dance: that voice and that movement. Dance is not about movement training; it’s about what you want to express. If you know what you want to express, your body will naturally do it for you. That is dance to me, because it’s beyond words.