★★★☆☆ Dance Review: Tempo by Kalle Nio and Fernando Melo (SIFA 2026)

Moments stretch, reverse and repeat through magic, circus and dance in this frustratingly slow meditation on time.  Time is supposed to be objective, but more often than not, it is deeply relative; stretching, compressing and slowing according to emotion, attention and memory. Presented as part of the 2026 Singapore International Festival of Arts, Tempo takes that idea and turns it into a performance experiment, where … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Dance Review: Tempo by Kalle Nio and Fernando Melo (SIFA 2026)

SIFA 2026: Last Rites – An interview with director Liu Xiaoyi on the temporality of live performance and preparing for the end

What would it mean to stage your final act, not as a last bow, but as a reflection of everything that came before? In Last Rites, Liu Xiaoyi brings together five veteran performers from across Asia to confront this question, weaving their personal histories into a meditation on life, art, and what remains after both have passed. Presented at the 2026 Singapore International Festival of … Continue reading SIFA 2026: Last Rites – An interview with director Liu Xiaoyi on the temporality of live performance and preparing for the end

SIFA 2026: Makan Culture – An interview with playwright Jo Tan and director Krish Natarajan on makan, mayhem and making meaning

What happens when theatre stops asking audiences to sit still and instead invites them to eat, speak, and play? At the festival village of the 2026 Singapore International Festival of Arts, new experience Makan Culture unfolds as a lively, unpredictable encounter that sits somewhere between performance and gathering. Created by Jo Tan and directed by Krish Natarajan, the work brings together music, puppetry, and audience … Continue reading SIFA 2026: Makan Culture – An interview with playwright Jo Tan and director Krish Natarajan on makan, mayhem and making meaning

SIFA 2026: Tempo – An interview with choreographer Fernando Melo on twisting and turning time through dance and illusion

Time slips, stretches, and occasionally seems to stand still in Tempo, a dreamlike work presented at the Singapore International Festival of Arts. In this collaboration between director Kalle Nio and choreographer Fernando Melo, falling bodies hover mid-air, actions reverse, and the ordinary becomes quietly uncanny. Rather than treating illusion as spectacle, Melo approaches it as a byproduct of attention, of bodies, space, and time aligning … Continue reading SIFA 2026: Tempo – An interview with choreographer Fernando Melo on twisting and turning time through dance and illusion

SIFA 2026: The Lighthouse – An interview with Patch Theatre artistic director Geoff Cobham on light and children’s theatre

In The Lighthouse, light isn’t something you simply watch, but something you step into. Created by Geoff Cobham for Patch Theatre, the work invites audiences, both young and the young-at-heart, to move through a glowing landscape of shifting rooms, reflections, and surprises, where curiosity leads the way. Presented as part of the 2026 Singapore International Festival of Arts, this immersive experience rethinks what theatre for … Continue reading SIFA 2026: The Lighthouse – An interview with Patch Theatre artistic director Geoff Cobham on light and children’s theatre