★★★★★ Dance Review: Sounding Light 定光 by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre

Cloud Gate invites us to pause and appreciate the little things all around us, and to rediscover the wonder and beauty of simply being alive. Duration: 60 minutes What if the world has never been quiet, but we have simply forgotten how to listen? In Sounding Light, which played last weekend as part of the 2026 edition of the Esplanade’s da:ns focus: Connect Asia Now … Continue reading ★★★★★ Dance Review: Sounding Light 定光 by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre

Review: Still Lives – Singapore by Daniel Kok and Luke George feat. RUDRA

Bodies, instruments and histories held in stasis, Still Lives: Singapore turns the act of tying into a meditation on care, memory and the communities that gather around them. Duration: ~105 minutes What does it mean to watch a metal band that cannot play its instruments, in a theatre where nobody is quite required to sit still? In Still Lives: Singapore, four members of pioneering Vedic … Continue reading Review: Still Lives – Singapore by Daniel Kok and Luke George feat. RUDRA

★★★★☆ Dance Review: BATU by Ayu Permata Sari and Hasyimah Harith

A multisensory fever dream that examines femininity in all its sorcery, esoterica, and erotica through the lens of the humble mortar and pestle, and the stories passed down from woman to woman in the kitchen. Duration: 75 minutes You can watch a dance, or you can feel it take hold of your body. BATU does both, pulling you into its strange, increasingly feverish world through … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Dance Review: BATU by Ayu Permata Sari and Hasyimah Harith

Sounding Light 定光: An interview with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Artistic Director Cheng Tsung-lung on slowing down

It seems like an impossibility to ever ask people who live in bustling metropolitan cities like Taipei or Singapore to slow down. These are places built around movement: trains arriving and departing, traffic flowing through intersections, people crossing streets with somewhere to be, messages arriving before the previous ones have been answered. There is always another email, another meeting, another decision to make. Even our … Continue reading Sounding Light 定光: An interview with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Artistic Director Cheng Tsung-lung on slowing down

BATU: Ayu Permata Sari and Hasyimah Harith on reimagining the kitchen, sharing stories and space

A kitchen can be many things. It is a place where food is prepared and domestic work is done, but it can also be where women gather, where stories are exchanged, where knowledge is passed between generations, and where rituals are repeated almost without thought. For Indonesian choreographer Ayu Permata Sari and Singaporean artist Hasyimah Harith, it is also a space through which questions of … Continue reading BATU: Ayu Permata Sari and Hasyimah Harith on reimagining the kitchen, sharing stories and space

Still Lives – Singapore: Daniel Kok and Luke George on using shibari to explore trust, tension and stories

A performance called Still Lives might sound, at first, like an exercise in holding still. But for artists Daniel Kok and Luke George, stillness is only the beginning. Built around rope, bodies, objects and the act of carefully binding people into sculptural compositions, Still Lives is less a fixed work than an evolving encounter with each place it enters. Since its beginnings during the pandemic, … Continue reading Still Lives – Singapore: Daniel Kok and Luke George on using shibari to explore trust, tension and stories

Preview: da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN) 2026 by Esplanade – Theatre on the Bay

In a world where we’re constantly scrolling, multitasking and moving from one thing to the next, taking the time to truly see has become something of a luxury. This October, Esplanade’s da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN) returns with a timely reminder that contemporary performance can do more than entertain, and encourage us to pause, pay attention and reconnect with ourselves and those around … Continue reading Preview: da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN) 2026 by Esplanade – Theatre on the Bay

da:ns focus: An Interview with Kevin O’Hare, Director of the Royal Ballet, on legacy, live performance and reinvention

For Kevin O’Hare, director of The Royal Ballet, the long-awaited return of the world class British ballet company to Singapore this June goes far beyond just another international stop on a touring calendar. More than two decades have passed since the company last performed here, and the scale of The Royal Ballet Gala, part of the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s da:ns focus – … Continue reading da:ns focus: An Interview with Kevin O’Hare, Director of the Royal Ballet, on legacy, live performance and reinvention

Preview: da:ns focus – Ballet by the Bay 2026

This June, da:ns focus – Ballet by the Bay marks a long-awaited homecoming as Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay welcomes The Royal Ballet back to Singapore for the first time in over two decades. Following the company’s last visit in 2005, this return is both a celebration and a renewal—an encounter with one of the world’s most revered ballet institutions, whose legacy continues to … Continue reading Preview: da:ns focus – Ballet by the Bay 2026

★★★★☆ Dance Review: Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Somewhere between trance and precision, Fase keeps turning. Watching Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich, the signature work of Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, feels less like attending a performance and more like submitting to a condition. It is not something that easily invites a rating. It asks instead for time, attention, and a willingness to sit inside repetition—something that feels … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Dance Review: Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker