Snow Whitening Revisited presents an allegory on being a female artist in Cambodia, playing with imagery that evokes visceral feelings of clinging, and a sense of embodied helplessness that pays tribute to both cultural heritage and a deep historical trauma. Presented digitally as part of this year’s M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, the piece masterfully explores …
By Jocelyn Chng (1,800 words, 4-minute read) When I accepted the opportunity to write this piece on Purⓔ《纯ⓔ》, I did it feeling a bit like a shipwreck survivor re-approaching water for the first time. As someone who was already struggling to make sense of my triple roles as an artist, audience member and reviewer in …
Four artists, Ruby Jayaseelan, Irfan Kasban, Fabio Liberti and Xenres Kirishima Chi Ji Hong, get personal as they talk about mental health issues in relation to works they have been developing for M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival. Ruby and Irfan talk about what Terbalek (Malay for “upside down”) means to them; Italian choreographer Fabio reveals …
Kavitha Krishnan, creative director and co-founder of Maya Dance Theatre, shares about her start in the traditional dance form Bharatanatyam, and how she also incorporates contemporary techniques and practices into the company’s work. This video is conceptualised and directed by LASALLE students Yeo Siew Ju and Nikhita Ganesh, who share that they chose to interview …
The working processes of artists: Kavitha Krishnan Read More »
Here’s a list of the top 10 ArtsEquator articles in 2019: Enter Stage Right: Tay Tong by ArtsEquator “It is amazing how one’s identity is so associated with one’s job. Especially for me – after 30 years, all of a sudden I am no longer the MD of TheatreWorks, I’m no longer the producer …
Soultari Amin Farid, Chan Sze-Wei and Germaine Cheng discuss their top picks for dance in 2019, and discuss trends they’ve observed in the scene this year. Duration: 36 minutes Stream Podcast 71: Also available on Spotify. Download Podcast 71 here (right-click and select ‘Save Link As’ on Windows; control+click and select ‘Save Link As’ on Apple) …
Podcast 71: ArtsEquator End-of-Year Dance Podcast 2019 Read More »
By Bernice Lee (1,507 words, 7-minute read) Forward Shift, a new platform for works-in-progress within Esplanade’s da:ns festival, begins with much fanfare. Members of the public were treated to three performance experiments featuring artists whose artistic and audience development have been supported steadily at #mydurian. In What She Said, choreographer Raka Maitra and music composer …
Progress at work: “Forward Shift” at da:ns festival Read More »
A little over a year ago, I was invited to be a part of MI(X)G, Festival Tokyo’s 2018 opening production, and the cherry on the sundae was to work together with legendary Thai contemporary dance artist Pichet Klunchun for five weeks spread out over four months. I missed my flight to Bangkok, the only flight …
The Traditional Body, The Contemporary Mind and The (Dancing) Mother Read More »
In this video, LASALLE students Ernie Martha and Raesmi Nambiar speak to Raka Maitra, founder and artistic director of CHOWK, on the practice of contemporary dance in Singapore, her roots as a classical Odissi dancer in India and the challenges CHOWK faces as a dance company. This video can also be viewed on YouTube. Between …
The working processes of artists: Raka Maitra from CHOWK Read More »
By Corrie Tan (2,700 words, 13-minute read) Content Warning: Mentions of a sexual relationship involving a teenager This response contains major spoilers for Blunt Knife by Eng Kai Er and A Doll’s House by Theatre of Europe. Dear Kai, You invited us to write to you after the performance. So here I am, writing. …
Transgression, triggers, and the thousand cuts of “Blunt Knife” Read More »
The prestigious Paris Opera Ballet arrives on local shores this June as part of Esplanade’s da:ns series, bringing with them a trio of wide ranging works. These include the stories of romantic love told through balletic duets in Jerome Robbins’ In The Night (1970), the speed and precision of William Forsythe’s Blake Works I (2016), …
Duration: 32 min In this month’s dance podcast, host Amin Farid chats with Malaysian dance practitioner and writer Bilqis Hijjas on wide-ranging topics from her roles as president of MyDance Alliance and director of the dance programme Rimbun Dahan, to her thoughts on the dance scene in Malaysia, dance criticism, the Southeast Asian identity, and some emerging choreographers and …
A white circle 10 metres in diameter greets us on entering the flexible performance space in Loft 29. I stand next to B-boy Erak Mith of Tiny Toones (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). He is locked in eye contact with Aaron Lim of D-City Rockers (Darwin, Australia) directly across the circle and I recognise the calm, unflinching …
“Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច)”: De-cyphering Conversation Read More »
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 2018, running over the opening weekend of 4 – 5 August. We interview choreographer Nick …
AExGTF Chats: “Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច)” at George Town Festival Read More »
By Bernice Lee (974 words, 5 minute read) I caught Astrid Boons between rehearsals in Korzo for Vestige. She’s preparing to restage the work, rehearsing with a new cast member who had thankfully been part of the original creative process. She shares that coming to Singapore is a result of happenstance: Dimo Kirilov, who presented …
Astrid Boons: Belgian Choreographer brings “Vestige” to Singapore Read More »
Duration: 30 mins In this month’s dance podcast Chan Sze-Wei chats with Hwa Wei-An and Luqman, two dancers who move between the worlds of contemporary dance and street dance. Wei-An is the organiser of Paradigm Shift, a contemporary-based dance platform taking place in Singapore that encourages exchange between contemporary dancers and dancers of different backgrounds. …
Podcast 43: Paradigm Shift; Contemporary and Street Dance Read More »
By Chloe Chotrani (990 words, 4-minute read) Garden Uprooted is a performance work drawing from nature as the source, a collaboration with The Philharmonic Orchestra Singapore and The Arts Fission Company. Subtle tonalities slowly seep into the theatre, and contradicting erratic yet fluid movements in space and time. Throughout Garden Uprooted is nature-inspired music by …
By Chan Sze-Wei (849 words, 5 minute read) L-E-V Dance company’s OCD Love is tightly choreographed and intense in its physicality, as might be expected from a choreographer issuing from years dancing, choreographing and directing for the iconic Batsheva Company whose Gaga style of dancing and theatrical physicality has become iconic of Israeli contemporary dance. …
“OCD Love” by L-E-V Dance Company: Mental Illness Plus Dance Equals Ballet and Horror Read More »
Duration: 26 min ArtsEquator’s dance podcast series returns this year, after a short hiatus, with a lively and thoughtful discussion between Chan Sze-Wei, (dance-maker, performance-maker and sometime trouble-maker; Chloe Chotrani (movement artist, writer and gardener); and Soultari Amin Farid (choreographer, arts educator and researcher of Malay dance) This month they discuss two programmes that took …
Podcast 37: “Joget” and “Intersections: Traditionally Speaking” Read More »
Su-Wen Chi was one of four mentors at a week long workshop for young dancers at the Indonesian Dance Festival in Bobor, West Java in May this year. She recounts her experience working with contemporary Asian dancers and opening her practice up to the idea that passivity and softness can be strength. (Source: Tanz Connexions) …
Notes from the Indonesian Dance Festival Workshop Read More »
