Singapore Archives

Frontier Danceland’s “LEAP 2019”: Showcasing the Scholars of PULSE 2018/19

By Jocelyn Chng (930 words, four-minute read) LEAP is an annual platform from contemporary dance company Frontier Danceland, showcasing the young trainee dancers of the M1-Frontier Danceland PULSE Programme. The PULSE Programme is now in its ninth year, and since 2014 has been supported and co-presented by M1. It takes in aspiring dancers between the […]

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (15 – 21 April 2019)

Plunge: Esplanade’s The Studios 2019 by Arts Republic & Centre 42, 21 April 5pm, library@esplanade If you’ve caught any shows from Esplanade’s The Studios 2019 season and can’t wait to talk about them, come join us at this special edition of Plunge! Co-hosted by reviewers from Arts Republic and Centre 42’s Citizens’ Reviews programme, this

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Book Review: “The State and The Arts in Singapore: Policies and Institutions”

Commissioned by the Institute of Policy Studies of Singapore (IPS) to trace the course of cultural policy in Singapore from the 1950s to the present, The State and the Arts in Singapore: Policies and Institutions is a comprehensive tome that should serve as an essential text in time to come for any student’s introduction to Singapore’s

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Liu Chen-hsiang

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan: Between East and West, Heaven and Earth

Sustainability, remaining fresh and engaging is challenging in the present day, content-saturated global world. Lin Hwai-min and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan are among a handful of contemporary dance companies that have achieved this over 45 years of performing an ever-changing, diverse and provocative repertoire. With multiple accolades and awarded doctorates to his name,

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“orbit” by Ethos Books: the gravity and pull of insignificant destinies

“I reached for those insignificant destinies again; the smallest collision of time and incident that throws life out of orbit” – “Stillborn”, Khin Chan Myae Maung A new series by Ethos Books titled “orbit” has launched – a literary space station intended for works of writing that can hold their own despite not meeting the

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SIFA 2019: Top Ten Picks

By Akanksha Raja The 42nd Singapore International Festival of Arts returns this year from 16 May to 2 June 2019. In its second year under Festival Director Gaurav Kripalani, it promises a larger smorgasbord of critically acclaimed international performances as well as Singaporean commissions. Watch the Festival’s official trailer: Within one hour of the

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Crispian Chan

She Creates: Nine Years Theatre’s “FAUST/US 浮世/德”

By Daniel Teo (1400 words, six-minute read) All eyes are on Cherilyn Woo in her solo directorial debut for Nine Years Theatre (NYT), FAUST/US. It’s the first time in the Mandarin theatre company’s seven-year history that someone other than Artistic Director Nelson Chia is at the helm of a production. In keeping with the NYT

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (1 – 7 April 2019)

SOTA Open House 2019, School of the Arts, 6 April, 9am – 4pm Unleash your child’s creative potential at SOTA Open House 2019 Want to learn more about the arts-enhanced education in SOTA? Join us on Apr 6, 2019 (Saturday), 9am to 4pm, at the SOTA Open House for tours of our vibrant campus, talks

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Tuckys Photography

Podcast 55: “Not In My Lifetime?” by The Finger Players

Claire Teo and Stephanie Esther Fam respond to Not In My Lifetime? by The Finger Players which was staged at Gateway Theatre from 5 – 17 March 2019. Billed as an inclusive theatre experience, it explores the special education system in Singapore through the experiences of the teachers working in the sector. It’s a collaboration

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Crispian Chan

Podcast 54: “FOUR FOUR EIGHT” by Emergency Stairs

Duration: 41 min As part of ArtsEquator’s Critics Reading Group programme, we got together three arts writers – Corrie Tan, Jocelyn Chng and Loo Zihan – to discuss FOUR FOUR EIGHT by Emergency Stairs. Corrie, Jocelyn and Zihan’s conversation sets the work within the context of Liu Xiaoyi’s experimental oeuvre, and reveals their personal, unique encounters with

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Mark Teo

“Still Life” by Checkpoint Theatre: Art Recreates A Life

In today’s world of Instagram, blogs, vlogs and reality TV where we gaze at other people’s lives, autobiographical theatre is unique for the intimacy created between the actors and the audience as they watch the life being lived, re-lived and rediscovered. As Grace Sherrill rightly states “In the live theatre of AutoBiography, truth claims the

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (25 – 31 March 2019)

NYFA Conference 2019 – Film Industry 101: How Do I Get My Films Made, *SCAPE, 31 March 3pm For a young filmmaker, the road to making a feature film can be daunting; from securing funding to getting the right team for your film, there are many components to pulling a project together. In this comprehensive seminar,

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The #TenYearChallenge: M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival

Over the past decade, contemporary dance in Singapore has blossomed. One of the most dynamic initiatives that arguably catalysed this growth is the M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival. Starting out in 2010 as “CONTACT 2010: A Week of Dance”, running for a week in its first iteration, the festival has gone from strength to strength,

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“A Disappearing Number” at NUS Arts Festival 2019: Approaching Infinity

By Eugene Koh (945 words, five minute read) Part of the NUS Arts Festival 2019, NUS Stage’s A Disappearing Number, directed by Edith Podesta, presents a world of imperfect humans aspiring to fully grasp the wonder of this world. Like the mathematicians in A Disappearing Number, NUS Stage embarks on an adventure to reach the

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Poetry Festival Singapore

Podcast 53: Songwriter on the Spot – Ng Sze Min of Artwave Studio

Duration: 21 min Ng Sze Min, a young emerging music composer and producer, whips up a song based on Akanksha’s teenage poetry, and shares about the other projects that she has worked on as part of Artwave Studio, which she runs together with her partner – aside from her personal practice composing audio plays (which

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Programming The Studios 2019: An Interview with Lynn Yang

The Studios is Esplanade’s longest running platform for supporting Singapore’s theatre scene. This season opens at the end of March, and the theme this year is “The weight of a stone in a pocket”. That alone piqued my curiosity, so I spoke with Lynn Yang, lead programmer for The Studios 2019, to find out a little

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Open Calls and Opportunities: March 2019 (Singapore)

Internship at NUS Museum, May to August 2019 Applications are now open for the NUS Museum Internship Programme! Five positions are available in exhibitions, outreach and collections across the period of the university summer holidays. If you have always wanted to delve deeper into the arts and heritage sector, while advancing your research interests and

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (11 – 17 March 2019)

District 18 by P7:1SMA, organised by Arts in Your Neighbourhood, at Tampines Round Market, 16 – 17 Mar, 12pm Rediscover stories of hawkers and market stall owners of a pasar bulat (wet market), its legacy, and its relevance in today’s age of supermarkets. This interactive contemporary dance performance is set against the backdrop of the

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What You See Is What You See: Notes from a Docent at “Minimalism – Space. Light. Object.”

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon in early December, and the Visitor Centre at the National Gallery was packed. Twenty pairs of eyes looked at me expectantly as I reported for duty as the volunteer docent for the 2pm tour. All 20 individuals – a group of retirees, a couple from Nepal, a group of

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Of Math and Art: “A Game of Numbers” with NUS Arts Festival 2019

By Elaine Chiew (1195 words, five-minute read) ‘A GAME OF NUMBERS’: Elaine Chiew interviews Mary Loh and Professor Victor Tan on the mathematically-themed NUS Arts Festival 2019 believed to be first-ever in Singapore. Organised by NUS Centre For the Arts, a fete of mathematics-themed arts engagements in dance, music, theatre and film awaits us in

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (4 – 10 March 2019)

Not In My Lifetime? by The Finger Players, 5 – 17 March, Gateway Theatre Not In My Lifetime? explores the special education system in Singapore and people in it. The play, based on the experiences of playwright Alvan Yap, is supported by multi-talented performers Inch Chua, Evelyn Chye, Myra Loke, Timothy Nga, Nix Sang and

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Arnaud Bouvier

“Learning”: Memory, Precision, Uncertainty in a 5-hour Durational Performance at National Gallery Singapore

By Jocelyn Chng (440 words, three-minute read) Part of National Gallery Singapore’s special programme Performing Spaces that explores how space can be a “living organism” facilitating encounters between performers and audiences, Learning takes place over two weekends in March 2019. Learning is choreographed by Liz Santoro and Pierre Godard, co-founders of French dance company Le

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (25 February – 3 March 2019)

Still Life by Checkpoint Theatre, opening 28 February, 72-13 Mohammed Sultan Road What happens when an artist picks up her paintbrush after a long hiatus? Does the body still remember what has been lived? Or are the senses dulled by time, the joints fused with experience? Still Life is an affecting look at life and

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Tuckys Photography

Pain and Cauterisation in “Off Centre”

By Casidhe Ng (1, 543 words, eight-minute read) When the play ends (although it never really ends), Saloma sits on stage, alone, even after the house lights have been turned back on, with a look of uncertainty and shock plastered across her face. She feels – no, she is entirely real, and even more so

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Tuckys Photography

To V and S in “Off Centre”

By Teo Xiao Ting (1,103 words, five-minute read) Dear Saloma and Vinod, I first met the two of you seven years ago, when I was 16. I dissected your words, and tried to live alongside you in Off Centre. I fear I have outlived you. Yet after meeting the both of you again, I know

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A LAND IMAGINED 4 (C) Akanga Film Asia & Philipp Aldrup Photography

Photo courtesy of Akanga Film Asia & Philipp Aldrup Photography

“A Land Imagined” and The Ghosts We Forget

The three definitions of the word “ghost” from the Oxford dictionary are as follows: the first, “an apparition of a dead person which is believed to appear or become manifest to the living”; the second, “a slight trace or vestige of something”; and the third, “a faint secondary image caused by a fault in an

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Ian Whalen

What More Ballet Might Be: William Forsythe at da:ns series 2019

By Chan Sze-Wei (687 words, four-minute read) In 1987, William Forsythe created a ballet for the Paris Opera with a young Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire in the central duet. In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated is a high-octane incarnation of neoclassical ballet. Set to a pounding score, the ensemble silhouettes deliver razor-sharp pique unisons, while

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Exploring the Past Through the Personal: “Meantime” and “Rojak Romance” at TFOOPFest

By Akanksha Raja (1181 words, five-minute read) It’s 2019 and nostalgia is in the air in Singapore, thanks to the Bicentennial fever that is sweeping the country. Standing out among the plethora of Singapore Bicentennial events is a youth-led initiative, The Future of Our Pasts Festival: a multidisciplinary programme which dialogues with the idea of

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (18 – 24 February 2019)

They Told Us To Move – Conversations on Relocation by Ethos Books, library@harbourfront, 23 Feb, 2pm Join us for the book launch of They Told Us to Move: Dakota—Cassia which tells the story of relocation through the eyes of Dakota residents, volunteers and academics, edited by Ng Kok Hoe (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public

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Weekly S.E.A. Radar: Environmental Activism and Art; “Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War”; The Fall of Art Stage

ArtsEquator Radar features articles and posts drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region. Here’s a round-up of content from this week, scoured and sifted from a range of regional news websites, blogs and media platforms, and

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