Evolving Synergies

Celebrating Dance in Singapore

Stephanie Burridge, Caren Cariño

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317341383
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Dance

A comprehensive overview of the dance culture of Singapore, this book embodies storytelling, personal reflections, memories, and histories of the artists. The extensive calendar of events encompassing companies and soloists from diverse dance practices, such as Indian, Malay and Chinese and a variety of Western contemporary dances, underline Singapore as a vibrant player in the evolution of Asian culture.

1

The Evolving Cultural Ecology
through Dance

Caren Cariño

The development of dance in Singapore is a reflection of the country’s evolving cultural ecology throughout its history. While not all developments in dance can be reduced to state instrumentality, it is important to acknowledge the political strategies that may have influenced or coincided with it. During Singapore’s colonization by the British, for some dance was a conduit to maintain a connection with their homelands, while for others it represented a form of identification with their British colonizers. When Singapore gained independence in 1965 after a brief merger with Malaysia, the government harnessed the possibility of dance as a vehicle to forge tolerance between the major cultural populations: Chinese, Indian and Malay. During the 1960s and 1970s, while the government focused on the country’s economic development that included foreign investment, dance was a mode to promote Singapore’s multicultural society locally as well as abroad. Coinciding with the Asian values discourse in the 1980s and 1990s, dance reflected Singapore’s expanded Asian identity as its landscape embraced more Asian cultures. In the late 1990s, after Singapore recovered from the Asian economic crisis and began to grow in confidence, dance as an art was finally acknowledged as one of the important signifiers of a culturally vibrant society. Today, in the first 14 years of the 21st century, dance is both a representation of culture as well as an art form and exemplifies Singapore’s maturing cultural ecology. Documents such as the ‘Report of the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts’ (1989), ‘Renaissance City Report’ (2000) and ‘Report of the Arts and Culture Strategic Review’ (2012) provide insights that consider the aspirations of Singapore through the arts, including dance.

Cultural Identities

Dance has played an important role in forging and fortifying Singapore’s cultural ecology. During its initial colonization by the British (1819–1945) Singapore was viewed by some immigrants as a destination where they came to work rather than to settle permanently and create a new culture or nation.¹ Eventually, for the Chinese, Malays and Indians who decided to stay and make Singapore their home, dance served the purpose of providing a sense of community. According to Singaporean historian Wang Gung Wu, the growing number of Chinese born in Singapore readily adopted the Western culture, converted to Christianity, displayed loyalty to the British Empire, and established a Westernised community.² It was in this cultural climate that ballet was introduced in Singapore.

After the Second World War (1942–45), during which time the Japanese occupied Singapore, when the British returned to rule, dance was linked to national identity. There were sentiments of anti-colonialism and dance became a means to create a multicultural society based on the Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures. Thus, cultural dance organizations were established, including the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (1949), Bhaskar’s Arts Academy (1952), Nrityalaya Aesthetics Society (1952), Sriwana (1955), Bengali Association (1956), and Perkumpulan Seni (1958). Furthermore, Singaporean Chinese, Indian and Malay dancers learnt each other’s dance forms, signifying their unification. Chua Soo Pong, a Singaporean dance scholar, for example, notes that the

most important contribution made by [the Bhaskar Academy of Dance, an Indian dance organization] was its ability to attract the Chinese student activists, who were in the 1950’s, keen to learn the non-Chinese arts, cultures and languages, as part of their mission to create the new Malayan culture.³

At the same time, those who were British-influenced continued to assume a British nationalistic allegiance and promulgated the development of ballet. Maudrene Yap was the first Singaporean teacher to obtain an advanced certificate from the Royal Academy of Dancing (RAD), a ballet syllabus produced in the United Kingdom. She went on to found a ballet school before migrating to the United Kingdom in 1954.

The RAD system of training dancers was strengthened through the efforts of Goh Soo Nee. After graduating from the Sadler Wells Ballet School in the United Kingdom (now renamed the Royal Ballet School), Soo Nee founded the Malaya School of Ballet in 1956 with Blossom Shek. Together they established dance studios in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. In 1958, they founded the Singapore Ballet Academy (SBA) with Frances Poh (who took over Maudrene Yap’s ballet school and co-founded the Frances School of Dancing with Florrie Sinclair in 1954) and Vernon Martinus.

Then, in 1959, Singapore was granted internal self-governance at the helm of Lee Kuan Yew (before it gained independence in 1965). The government implemented several projects towards the creation of a New Malayan Culture including the People’s Association, a grassroots cultural organization formed in 1960 to foster racial unity and to establish a bridge between the government and the people through its numerous community centres. This was the precursor to other cultural initiatives involving dance still to come.

Singaporean Identity

Singapore quickly moved towards self-governance that culminated in a brief union with Malaysia (1963–65) and finally independence in 1965 when it ambitiously attended to nation-building – establishing political and economic stability as well as a Singaporean identity based on cultural tolerance between its Chinese, Indian and Malay populations. Chua Soo Pong explains the development of dance during this time, under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (1959–90), as increasingly playing a role in

anti-colonial campaigns, in political competition between the ruling government party and its opposition and in forging unity. It is doubtful that performing arts [including dance], can be totally cut off from the cultural roots and emotional importance of the three major ethnic groups.⁴

The annual Singapore Youth Festival (SYF), organized by the Ministry of Education (MOE), was inaugurated in 1967 as a platform to advocate Singapore’s cultural diversity. Students participated in dance as an extra-curricular activity (later termed co-curricular activity). Chinese, Indian, Malay and international dance forms that included ballet, contemporary dance, tap and a variety of other cultural dance forms were presented by primary and secondary students every alternate year at the SYF.

Multiculturalism

Singapore’s economic development, which began in the mid-1960s and continued into the 1970s, saw the government’s economic policy encouraging foreign investment which was paralleled in dance through multiculturalism. Foreign performing groups were presented in Singapore. At the same time, Singapore’s traditional Chinese, Indian and Malay dance forms were promoted overseas through the government-supported National Theatre Dance Company established in 1968.

In Singapore, cultural dance companies continued to be established, including Majlis Pusat (1969), a Malay dance group, while two companies became full-time: the National Dance Company in 1970 and the People’s Association Dance Group in 1971. Dance in the community continued as a popular activity organized by the People’s Association through its community projects and community centres offering lessons in a variety of dance forms: ballet, jazz, tap, modern dance, ethnic dances, and dance for children. Also in 1971, Goh Soo Nee’s sister Goh Soo Khim, who was spotted by the Australian Ballet School where she garnered a place as the first Asian dance student in 1964, took over the helm to direct the Singapore Ballet Academy (SBA).

Other initiatives during the 1970s include the annual Chingay Parade (1973), a procession featuring dance among many displays, in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, organized by the People’s Association.

Besides Malay dance group Pusparama Dancers (1975, later called the Rina Dancers) and Indian dance group Apsaras Arts Ltd (1977), cultural performance groups were also formed at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1977, comprising students and alumni. The NUS Chinese Dance group was founded with Ding Hong as Artistic Director/resident choreographer together with Zhou Lei, technique instructor. The Indian Dance group was established under the guidance of its Artistic Director and resident choreographer Santha Bhaskar, an Indian dance pioneer in Singapore. The Festival of Arts (later renamed Singapore Arts Festival) was also inaugurated in 1977 by the National Arts Council (NAC), presenting local and international cutting-edge and mainstream dance performances.⁵

In 1979, the NAC implemented the Cultural Medallion award to ‘recognise individuals whose artistic excellence as well as contribution and commitment to the arts have enriched and made a distinction to Singapore’s arts and cultural landscape’.⁶ As of now, dance awardees include Madhavi Krishnan (1979), Goh Soo Khim (1981), Goh Choo San (1986), Som Said (1987), Lim Fei Shen (1988), Neila Sathyalingam (1989), Santha Bhaskar (1990), Ying E. Ding (1992), Goh Lay Kuan (1995), and Angela Liong (2009).

Asian Values

Cultural dance representing the three major cultural populations in Singapore continued to grow. Dance organizations formed during the 1980s include Temple of Fine Arts (1981), NUS Malay Dance group (early 1980s, renamed the NUS Ilsa Tari in 1998) headed by Osman Abdul Hamid, a Singapore young artist award recipient and choreographer for the People’s Association Malay Dance group, and Hokkien Huay Kuan Dance Troupe (1989). The National Theatre Dance Circle (with founding members Chua Soo Pong, Gan Beng Lee, Goh Soo Khim, Krishana Pillay Bhaskar, Lee Shu Fen, Lim Fei Shen, Nonchik Ghani, and Tony Quek) under the auspices of the National Theatre Trust was also formed in the 1980s. Through this group’s inauguration of the Singapore Dance Festival (1982), the development of dance in Singapore in the 1980s enjoyed a variety of cultural dance performances, both traditional and new creations.

The 1980s also saw dance in Singapore aligned with expressions of Asian-ness, which coincided with the rise of the Asian values discourse in the political realm. The context to the increase of this Asian discourse was the economic rise of the Asia-Pacific region⁷ that signalled a shift in the way Singapore perceived its cultural identity. Instead of simply being a Singaporean identity, there were imaginings of a broader Asian identity. Multiculturalism was expanded to mean pan-Asian or even cosmopolitan.

The Department of Dance at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) was established in 1984 to provide serious dance training and education at the tertiary level. At first, the programme directed by Chang Shang Lok largely focused on Chinese dance training, and examinations were implemented by Chinese lecturers in affiliation with the Beijing Dance Academy. However, under the direction of Chinese American Angela Liong, appointed in 1989, the dance programme promoted Singapore’s multicultural doctrine – preserving as well as promoting the country’s Chinese, Malay and Indian cultures through the study of their traditional dance forms. At the same time, the dance programme reflected Liong’s Western training background and interest in modern dance and ballet technique. In 1999, Chua Soo Pong was appointed in the dual role as School of Performing Arts Director and head of dance. The addition of the subject Movement in Chinese Opera influenced by Chua’s background in Chinese opera strengthened the programme’s Chinese dance emphasis. Chua also reinforced Southeast Asian dance forms which attracted the department’s first batch of Chinese students lured by the prospect of expanding their knowledge in Southeast Asian dance. Following Chua’s departure, Teresa Pee, a Chinese Singaporean, led the dance department as acting head in 2001 with a vision to embrace Singapore’s broadening multicultural identity. After Pee’s brief stint, Michael Teichmann, a German national, was appointed head of dance at NAFA in 2001. Under Teichmann’s leadership, the dance programme aspired to create a Singapore style based on the cultures of Southeast Asia. Towards this endeavour he increased the study of regional dance forms through dance technique training. In 2007, I was appointed the head of dance. Now, the Department of Dance offers a unique blend of Asian and Western practical, creative and contextual studies towards the development of contemporary Asian dance forms.

While NAFA founded...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. The Evolving Cultural Ecology through Dance
• 2. Chinese Dance: Cultural Resources and Creative Potentials
• 3. The Matrix of Cultural Identities in Indian and Malay Dances
• 4. To Live, to Dance, to Be: Two Decades of Singapore Dance Theatre and Beyond
• 5. Creative Dance Education: A Personal Account
• 6. Youthopia: Dance and Young People in the Lion City
• 7. Dancing with Community
• 8. Looking Out: International Focus
• 9. Regional Networks and Cultural Exchange
• 10. Dance and New Media
• 11. Interconnections: An Overview of Contemporary Dance Scene from the 1990s to the Present
• Artist Voices and Biographies
• Index