M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2024 explores pressing social issues and the ways we relate and connect to each other

Over the years, the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival (M1SFF), organised by The Necessary Stage (TNS), has undergone a variety of changes to the way it’s been run, from taking on specific themes and topics, to responding to art work. But at its heart, M1SFF has always been about one key goal – to present small scale local and international work that address key social issues, … Continue reading M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2024 explores pressing social issues and the ways we relate and connect to each other

Preview: Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of Arts 2023 by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay

Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of Arts is back this November to showcase and explore Indian and Singapore-Indian identity and culture through the performing arts. This year, the festival features some of India and Singapore’s best-known names in theatre, dance and music, who celebrate the power of stories and folklore, through both traditional and contemporary mediums. Leading Singapore comedian … Continue reading Preview: Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of Arts 2023 by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay

Preview: da:ns focus 2023: FL/OW – The FULL OUT Weekend

Bringing their da:ns focus 2023 programme to a close, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is ending the year on a bang with a weekend of street dance with FL/OW – The FULL OUT Weekend. Taking place for three days in December, FL/OW promises exciting performances, workshops, battles and parties, highlighting the vibrant street dance scene in Singapore, always active and only growing each year. … Continue reading Preview: da:ns focus 2023: FL/OW – The FULL OUT Weekend

★★★★☆ Review: Lapse by Melati Suryodarmo

Finding the rhythm of chaos through seeing and re-connecting. We live in a time of disorder. From conflict that doesn’t make sense to seemingly inexplicable disasters, how can we start to accept the chaos we’re constantly surrounded by? Rather than attempting to resolve these tensions, Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo seems to suggest accepting and connecting precisely because of such turbulence, rather than reject and attempt … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Lapse by Melati Suryodarmo

★★★★☆ Review: Mali Bucha: Dance Offering by Kornkarn Rungsawang

Tradition and technology come together to get closer to the gods. There are some beliefs and rituals that are no longer practiced today, either due to this modern life leaving little time for preparation, or the knowledge lost between generations. What Thai dancer Kornkarn Rungsawang wants to do then, is to reconnect us to these traditions through her technologically-driven work Mali Bucha: Dance Offering, that … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Mali Bucha: Dance Offering by Kornkarn Rungsawang

★★★★★ Review: 13 & 14 by TAO Dance Theater

A testament to the ceaseless persistence of the essence of dance. Founded in 2008, for over fourteen years now, China’s TAO Dance Theater has been exploring the very essence of dance itself. Led by artistic directors Tao Ye, Duan Ni and Wang Hao, the company has distilled the art of dance to its core aspects, manifested as minimalist productions that focus entirely on the infinite … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: 13 & 14 by TAO Dance Theater

An Interview with Meenakshy Bhaskar, choreographer of Bhaskar’s Arts Academy’s ‘Radin Mas’

As the daughter of legendary Indian classical dance artists K.P. Bhaskar and Santha Bhaskar, Meenakshy Bhaskar has a lot to live up to when she took over Bhaskar’s Arts Academy as Artistic Director. In her first year, she found herself fully helming the projects her mother had been working on, dealing with collaborators and stakeholders, and most of all, learning the ropes of what it … Continue reading An Interview with Meenakshy Bhaskar, choreographer of Bhaskar’s Arts Academy’s ‘Radin Mas’

da:ns focus 2023: An Interview with Tao Ye on movement, performance, and his signature ‘Numerical Series’

After their sold-out performance at da:ns festival nine years ago, the acclaimed TAO Dance Theater is set to take the stage at Esplanade once again as part of da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN), a weekend that spotlights contemporary dance works by Asian artists focusing on distinct voices and creative impulses from the region. Presenting a double bill of two works choreographed by TAO Dance Theater … Continue reading da:ns focus 2023: An Interview with Tao Ye on movement, performance, and his signature ‘Numerical Series’

Preview: Radin Mas by Bhaskar’s Arts Academy, with Sri Warisan Som Said Performing Arts

Supported by Temasek Foundation, Bhaskar’s Arts Academy, Singapore’s premier institution for Indian performing arts is pleased to unveil its latest production – Radin Mas. This one-night-only performance presented in collaboration with Sri Warisan Som Said Performing Arts, promises to touch the heart and stir the soul. Radin Mas is lovingly portrayed through captivating Bharatanatyam and Javanese dance, and features traditional folk arts of wayang kulit, … Continue reading Preview: Radin Mas by Bhaskar’s Arts Academy, with Sri Warisan Som Said Performing Arts

da:ns focus 2023: An Interview with Melati Suryodarmo on performance art, the body, and ‘Lapse’

One of Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo’s most iconic works is her dance work Exergie: Butter Dance (2000), in which she dances atop a pile of fast melting butter. It is a strange work to witness, as she increasingly loses her balance on the slippery, oily floor, meant to have her exploring the specific bodily sensation experienced in the single “delicate moment” where the body loses … Continue reading da:ns focus 2023: An Interview with Melati Suryodarmo on performance art, the body, and ‘Lapse’