SIFA 2018: The Blues Project by Dorrance Dance (Review)

Tap meets blues in an unlikely but effective collaboration. Is tap dance merely all show and no soul? Or is it possible that given the right music, tap can be a genre catapulted far beyond its stereotypical impression, into a form that seethes with expression and aches with emotion? Furious, rhythmic tap and slowed down, soulful blues might appear to be strange bedfellows at first, … Continue reading SIFA 2018: The Blues Project by Dorrance Dance (Review)

SIFA 2018: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower (Review)

Afro-futurism is given a musical touch in a stirring work of speculative fiction. Toshi and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s Parable of the Sower is a genre defying work that, if it were to be summed up, would simply be a powerful musical adaptation of one of the most seminal works of Afro-futurism. Parable of the Sower was originally written as a novel by award-winning author Octavia E. Butler, and is … Continue reading SIFA 2018: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower (Review)

SIFA 2018: OCD Love by L-E-V Dance Company (Review)

Mesmerising, muscular bodies tangle with the simultaneous pain and allure of the mental condition.  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD for short, is characterised as a state by which a person’s mind is constantly occupied by cycles of intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. It’s an invisible condition that only really becomes evident when you know someone, and is often a lifelong state an afflicted person finds … Continue reading SIFA 2018: OCD Love by L-E-V Dance Company (Review)

SIFA 2018: TAHA by Amer Hlehel (Review)

Deceptively simple, Amer Hlehel puts the power of words onstage with a tour de force performance as the eponymous Palestinian poet.  How does one go through countless losses and still come out an optimist? In the eyes and life of Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali (1931-2011), one will find that it is completely possible. Directed by Amir Nizar Zuabi, TAHA is a show with a simple set-up – writer … Continue reading SIFA 2018: TAHA by Amer Hlehel (Review)

SIFA 2018: The Blues Project by Dorrance Dance (Preview)

Created by an all-star creative team consisting of tap dance extraordinaire Michelle Dorrance, acclaimed choreographer Derick K. Grant, genre-busting musician Toshi Reagon, and tap dance maestress Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, The Blues Project sees tap dancing break into the modern world set to emotive blues in an explosive fusion of American themes and styles. A multi-genre, multi-medium style performance, The Blues Project unites original live music with raw emotion and dance … Continue reading SIFA 2018: The Blues Project by Dorrance Dance (Preview)

SIFA 2018: The Hidden by Kamini Ramachandran (Review)

Unearthing the stories hidden within this age-old monument.  As Singapore’s oldest Christian church, the Armenian Church is rife with the memory of travelers and people past, its very walls pulsating with a special kind of hidden power only afforded to the oldest of structures. With such a history behind it, it stands to reason that it makes for the perfect monument to stage something brimming … Continue reading SIFA 2018: The Hidden by Kamini Ramachandran (Review)

SIFA 2018: A Dream Under The Southern Bough – The Beginning by Toy Factory (Review)

原来只是一场梦。 Inspired by Tang Xian Zu’s 16th Century Kun Opera 《南柯记》, A Dream Under The Southern Bough – The Beginning marks the first part in a planned theatre trilogy that will be staged over the next few years, and the start of an incredibly ambitious project from Toy Factory. Adapting the opera for a contemporary audience, director Goh Boon Teck and script editor Zhu Xin Chen have in … Continue reading SIFA 2018: A Dream Under The Southern Bough – The Beginning by Toy Factory (Review)

SIFA 2018: OCD Love by L-E-V Dance Company (Preview)

Enter the world of Israel based L-E-V Dance Company’s OCD Love. Based off Neil Hilborn’s famous viral spoken word poem about love lost to the speaker’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD Love interprets the poem with a fierce viscerality, as dancers move to DJ Ori Lichtik’s techno beats to present an epic struggle between the head and the heart. Stylistically abstract, watch as bodies move completely in sync with each other, orbiting and … Continue reading SIFA 2018: OCD Love by L-E-V Dance Company (Preview)

SIFA 2018: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower (Preview)

 Considered one of the foremost pioneers of the Afro-futurism movement, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sowerfollowers is a sprawling, epic tale of the spiritual awakening of young Lauren Olamina, amidst a dystopian America wracked by the violence brought on by climate change, unrelenting greed, and systemic injustice. Known for her keen ear for sonic Americana, musician Toshi Reagon has been celebrated for … Continue reading SIFA 2018: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower (Preview)

SIFA 2018: TAHA by Amer Hlehel (Preview)

Born in a village in Galilee in 1931,Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali has been through many things – he fled with his family to a refugee camp in Lebanon in 1948 before returning to Nazareth where he ran a souvenir shop and taught himself classical Arabic literature and learnt English. But through it all, he remained an unerring optimist, and in his works, celebrated the … Continue reading SIFA 2018: TAHA by Amer Hlehel (Preview)