A Bigger Party Than Expected: Honouring Rex Shelley at SWF 2019
By Akanksha Raja (830 words, 4-minute read) On 1 November, The Arts House plays host to an unlikely wedding celebration titled A Bigger Party Than Expected, which features “silent disco” dances to an Eurasian folk song, multidisciplinary art installations,…
The Personal, the Humour and the Horror: Interview with Irwan Ahmett
By Patricia Tobin (1,140 words, 6-minute read) The concluding production of TPAM 2019 was Constellation of Violence, a lecture-performance by artist Irwan Ahmett, which focused on the culmination of the Cold War in Indonesia in 1965, from its lead-up…
Celebrating the monstrous other: “Anak Pontianak” and “Nobody” at LumiNation
By ila (1,100 words, 6-minute read) The year is 2049: two hundred years since the Pontianak first appeared in writing, marked insignificantly in Hikayat Abdullah as residues of superstitious and foolish beliefs of the Chinese and Malays that have persisted…
“In Time To Come” at LumiNation 2019
We asked our readers what they would put in a time capsule. The answers were heartwarming, quirky and intriguing – through each of them, there was a consideration of what deserves preservation, and an imagination of our futures. In Tan…
“Disappearing Act” “NAMUH” “DBL.TAP”: What’s In A Name? DiverCity at M1 CONTACT
The M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival returns this year for its 10th edition with 20 shows and over 30 classes and workshops. Returning platform DiverCity, which in past years was combined with M1 Open Stage, stands on its own this year…
The Body Remembers: Kitt Johnson on “Stigma” at M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival 2019
By Germaine Cheng (605 words, three-minute read) 2019 marks the 10th edition of the M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, a humble endeavour by Kuik Swee Boon, artistic director of T.H.E Dance Company, that has expanded to be an incredible force…
What If Your Body Turns into a Sculpture?: Interview with Sasha Waltz on “Körper” at SIFA 2019
By Winnie Chen Dixon (600 words, four-minute read) Have you ever imagined dancers’ bodies turning into sculptures, as if time stood still? This is the impression of Körper (Body), the signature dance performance of this year’s edition of the Singapore…
The Beauty of Time and Image: “ST/LL” at SIFA 2019
Seamlessly blending the digital image, live dance and a richly evocative music score, ST/LL is startlingly beautiful treat for the eyes and the ears. This production celebrates the performance collaboration of composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and visual and multimedia artist Shiro Takatani. (Sakamoto’s concert Fragments, with visuals…
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…
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…
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,…
“Dionysus”: Suzuki Tadashi Brings Vengeance to SIFA 2019
By Kathy Rowland (642 words, three-minute read) Suzuki Tadashi is one of the brand names in the international tour circuit, whose productions have earned critical praise and inspired several generations of audiences. A decade on from his last production in…
ArtsEquator’s Top 10 Picks at the Performing Arts Meeting 2019
Established in 1995, the Tokyo Performing Arts Market (TPAM) was created to be a platform to network Japanese artists with producers and funders. 24 years later, TPAM has expanded in scope and purpose, to include live performance, panel discussions and…
Eleven New Elements from the Asia-Pacific Region Inscribed on the List of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage
Meeting in Mauritius until 1 December, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage inscribed eleven elements from the Asia-Pacific region on the Lists of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Among them, two elements have been added to…
Joe Sidek: “I’ve never felt more strong”
By Kathy Rowland (910 words, five-minute read) Joe Sidek will not be cowed. “Everyone thinks I’m down and depressed. I’m fine!” It’s been a challenging year for the founder of the George Town Festival. In the foreground: the removal and…
AExGTF Chats: Charlie Lim and .gif in George Town
On the closing weekend of the George Town Festival, ArtsEquator interviewed Singaporean musician Charlie Lim and indie-electronic music duo .gif who were in Penang to perform at China House, along with other Singaporean musical acts including Tabitha Nauser and Yung…
SHIFT (Your Perspective) at Esplanade’s da:ns festival 2018: A Sneak Peek in GIFs
Esplanade’s da:ns festival returns this year from 9 – 21 October. The 13-day celebration of movement features powerful performances from around the world, internationally acclaimed acts and exciting new works. Apart from ticketed performances, the festival offers free programmes, including…
Johor Arts Festival 2018: Top 8 Picks
The 15th Johor Arts Festival kicked off on 1 September, and runs until 23 September 2018. One of Malaysia’s longest-running festivals, it features a variety of performances, exhibitions, workshops, talks, and activities, ranging between the traditional and contemporary; the loud…
AExGTF Chats: The Griffith Creative Arts Room at George Town Festival
The opening weekend of the George Town Festival 2018 also saw the opening of the Griffith Creative Arts Room at Wisma Yeap Chor Ee, Penang: a room dedicated to presenting the works of creative arts from the students and faculty…
In George Town, a Proxy War for the Nation
By Kathy Rowland (1165 words, 5-minute read) Coloured ink on paper. Only a society that polices gender and sexuality can turn ordinary photos into weapons of mass gay conversion. Over the past eight iterations, the George Town Festival (GTF) has…
AExGTF Chats: “Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច)” at George Town Festival
Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច), a two-hander dance performance dovetailing b-boy vocabulary with contemporary dance, was the result of a three-year cultural exchange between Tiny Toones in Cambodia and Darwin City Rockers in Australia. It was presented at George Town Festival…
The World Cup, The Japanese Occupation and Our Painful Inheritance
This article is republished from the Singapore International Film Festival editorial. It is part of New Waves 2018, an annual series of screenings and dialogues with regional filmmakers. For this third edition of the New Waves series, SGIFF invites participants…
What the Arts in Malaysia Needs: More Transparency, Less Intermediaries
By Kathy Rowland (2145 words, 8 minute read) 2 July 2018 – The receding brown moon on millions of Malaysians’ fingernails are a biological marker of the eight weeks since the end of the Najib administration. These past 55 days…
M1 Open Stage + DiverCity: Chiew Peishan and Liu Wen-Chun
This year, with an increased number of international programme collaborators, M1 Open Stage features innovative and exhilarating works by a diverse range of dance artists over two nights. As part of this year’s M1 Open Stage + DiverCity platform at…
Rainforest Fringe Festival 2018: Top 8 Picks
By Nur Athirah Abdullah The Rainforest Fringe Festival 2018 (RFF 2018) is less than a month away! Not to be mistaken for the Rainforest World Music Festival, one of the region’s best world music festivals, the Fringe is a cool…
SIFA 2018: Walking death’s footsteps in Zelda Tatiana Ng’s “0600”
0600 is named for the time that executions are carried out. What makes an artist take on the polarising topic of the death penalty in Singapore? Zelda Tatiana Ng has been a fixture in the Singapore performing arts scene for…
SIFA 2018: “OCD Love”‘s Dancing in the Face of Love
By Kathy Rowland (400 words, 3 minute read) “I asked her out six times in thirty seconds.” In 2013, a Youtube video by slam poet Neil Hilborn went viral. In the clip, Hilborn delivers an impassioned performance of OCD, a…
SIFA 2018: The Festival House and The Outdoors
By Akanksha Raja The Singapore International Festival of Arts 2018 takes place at different venues across the Civic District, including Victoria Theatre, its sprawling Empress Lawn, and the Esplanade Theatre. Nestled comfortably between these locations is The Arts House, dubbed…
ArtsEquator’s Picks: TEXTURES, A Weekend with Words
By Akanksha Raja Presented by The Arts House and co-commissioned by #BuySingLit, Textures – A Weekend With Words is an inaugural literary festival taking place from 9 – 11 March, chockablock with performances, workshops, book-themed exhibitions, and over 30 panel discussions,…
Same same but different: ASEAN 50 at the Singapore Writers Festival 2017
By Akanksha Raja (840 words, 8-minute read) “Language is born from imagination, and imagination is what makes language real. Without language, we have no memory: therefore, literacy (the mastery of language) is important. Our sense of language is the most…