Circumcision as a rite of passage opens up difficult conversations about family ties. Severance of any form can be a source of great anxiety. Whether it’s separation from the only family you’ve ever known, or even the prospect of removing a part of your body, can the act of having something cut off from you no longer be seen as a necessary rite of passage? … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Potong (2023) by Teater Ekamatra
What does it mean to be a Singaporean Malay man? Is it having gone through National Service? Is it simply by virtue of being brown? Or could it be the quintessential rite of passage for Muslim males – circumcision? Those are key questions that will be addressed and more in Johnny Jon Jon’s play Potong, which receives a new staging next week as part of … Continue reading Pesta Raya 2023: An Interview with ‘Potong’ director Mohd Fared Jainal
Gogol’s satirical comedy becomes a spellbinding movement piece about truth, lies, and power. Category Score (out of 10) Direction/Choreography (Crystal Pite) 10 Writer (Jonathon Young) 10 Music / Sound Design (Owen Belton, Alessandro Juliani, Meg Roe) 10 Performance (Renée Sigouin, Doug Letheren, Rakeem Hardy, Rena Narumi, Ella Rothschild, Brandon Alley, Jennifer Florentino, Gregory Lau) 10 Scenic Design (Jay Gower Taylor) 10 Costume Design (Nancy Bryant) … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Revisor by Kidd Pivot
ASMR meets meditation in this private dance between yourself and Faye Driscoll. In her exploration of connection and the relationship between audience and performer, American choreographer Faye Driscoll has conceptualised Come On In, a dance-installation work that eschews traditional dance conventions. Rather than watching a performer enact a series of choreographic movements, the audience becomes the performer, taking instruction from Driscoll as she leads us … Continue reading Review: Come On In by Faye Driscoll (Esplanade’s da:ns focus 2023)
Making sense of the uncertain future, one moment at a time. Life often moves at breakneck speed, so fast that we hardly have time to reflect on all we’ve been through. To take a moment to pause and consider the sum total of our experiences then, is a luxury we must afford, if we are to actively, consciously build a better future for ourselves. That … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: The Future Show by Chong Tze Chien and Jo Tan
Dance is often thought of as an art form that’s enjoyed seated, and performed on a big stage. It is a passive act of consumption, rather than an active act of participation. When the performance is over, we politely applaud and admire the dancers for their physicality and skill, and think to ourselves – wow, I could never do that. But American dance artist Faye … Continue reading Preview: An Interview with dance artist and creator of installation ‘Come On In’ Faye Driscoll (Esplanade’s da:ns focus 2023)
Making its Asian premiere, get ready as Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay welcomes Kidd Pivot’s Revisor to the stage as part of this weekend’s da:ns focus programme. Co-created by award-winning artists Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young, Revisor is a hybrid work of dance-theatre that reinterpret Nikolai Gogol’s play The Government Inspector. Named best new dance production by the Olivier Awards in 2022, watch as … Continue reading Preview: Revisor by Kidd Pivot (Esplanade’s da:ns focus 2023)
The hardest battles are with your own inner demons. Often thought of as a time of innocence, exploration and freedom, childhood is one of the most precious things a person can possess. But for Singaporeans at least, childhood is also incredibly fragile, with one of the biggest threats to it being the dreaded national examinations. A single misstep is all it takes to fall behind, … Continue reading Review: Changeling by Void Deck Games
10 years after his debut film Ilo Ilo shook the film world by clinching the Camera d’Or for best debut feature in 2013, Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen will be returning to Cannes next month to premiere his new film. As announced by the Cannes Film Festival at its press conference in Paris, The Breaking Ice (Chinese title: 燃冬) will world premiere at Cannes in the … Continue reading Film Fanatic: Anthony Chen’s new film ‘The Breaking Ice’ to make world premiere at 76th Cannes Film Festival
This June, The Human Expression (T.H.E) Dance Company is going back to basics with the annual cont·act Contemporary Dance Festival. Now in its 13th edition, the annual contemporary dance festival takes on a stripped down, but fully live approach, in the first edition since the pandemic that celebrates and explores our relationship with our body and each other. Festival Director and T.H.E’s founding Artistic Director … Continue reading Preview: cont·act Contemporary Dance Festival 2023
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