Artists

art naming 奇能 (Singapore/Taiwan)

Open Stage Artist, i have nothing to do with explosions

art naming 奇能 creates and participates in projects that deal with documenting the passing of time and its endless endings, as we do as we live.

artnaming.com

Photo by Jonathan Tan

Caroline Chin (Singapore)

Open Stage Collaborator, i have nothing to do with explosions

Caroline is a performer from Singapore with a background in Theatre and Dance. She obtained a professional diploma in acting from the Intercultural Theatre Institute (Singapore) whilst training in contemporary dance, Butoh, and Odissi. She is currently a company dancer with Chowk Productions. She seeks to continuously dissolve and challenge boundaries of culture and its perceived notions while seeking new ways of understanding relationships between beings, space, and time.

Photo by Gabriel Aiden

Chloe Chua (Singapore/USA)

Open Stage Artist, Limbo

Chloe Chua was born in Singapore, in 1998. At age 3, she started her dance journey at Attitude Performing Arts Studio, under the tutelage of Donato C. Ferrer. She went on to pursue her passion for dance at School of The Arts, Singapore (SOTA) from 2011 to 2016, and graduated as one of the top scorers in the International Baccalaureate Career-related Program. Currently, Chloe is attending the Boston Conservatory at Berklee under merit scholarship, and will earn her undergraduate degree in the spring of 2021.To enrich her dance education, Chloe has attended dance intensives at The Juilliard School (2016), Batsheva Dance Company (2017/2018) and Nuova Officina Della Danza Summer Program (2019). She is privileged to have had the opportunity to work with esteemed choreographers such as Iratxa Ansa, Catherine Coury and Loni Landon, and to study the repertoire and works of Batsheva Dance Company and Martha Graham Dance Company. In an environment where interdisciplinary possibilities are endless, Chloe enjoys using this to her advantage by building connections and collaborating with artists from other art forms.

Photo by Crispian Chan

Eng Kai Er (Singapore/Germany)

Open Stage Artist, Standard Deviation (excerpt)

Eng Kai Er was born in Singapore, raised compliant, now mostly a question mark mixed with a complaint. After a horrifically misspent youth, she is rehabilitating herself through slow dancing, quick writing, and long-term art-making. Since October 2019, she has been studying MA Choreography and Performance at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies, Giessen, Germany. She creates small-scale, intimate, and fun performances, mostly for stage; sometimes also for galleries, film, internet, or other contexts. For more about her work, see kaifishfish.tumblr.com.

Photo by Martin Eklund

Katrina Bastian (New Zealand/Germany)

Open Stage Artist, Soliloquy in Sweat

Katrina is an endurance-based movement artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She was born in the traditional territory of the Wabanaki Confederacy (colonially Portland, ME, USA) and raised in the foothills of the Schwarzwald (Heimsheim, DE). Her choreographies explore power, privilege, post-capitalist malaise, and feminine rage. Since 2020 she has worked with the New Zealand Dance Company, Footnote New Zealand Dance (ChoreoCo), Black Grace Dance Company, Dance Plant Collective, and Mary-Jane O’Reilly. Katrina’s solo Soliloquy in Sweat won the ‘Best in NZ Fringe’, ‘Best Dance AKL Fringe’, and ‘Best Performance AKL Fringe’ awards in 2021. Before 2020 she lived and worked in Berlin, Germany where she received a Master’s Degree in Choreography from HZT-Berlin and worked with several renowned choreographers and companies.

Photo by Caroline Bindon

Kenji Shinohe (Japan/Germany)

Open Stage Artist, ORGARHYTHM

Kenji was born in 1990 in Iwate, Japan. He enrolled in the dance major at Nihon University College of Art in 2009, learning the history of modern dance and art then. At the age of 20, he created his first dance piece, and his first solo was selected for Soul International Choreography Festival 2013, which kickstarted his choreography career. He also studied at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany with a scholarship as an international art student in 2015. His solo dance piece THE PEELS won the first prize and the audience award at the 5.Internationales Tanz Theater Festival 2016 in Erfurt. Another solo, R, won the Best Newcomer solo prize at 10. Internationales Tanzfestival SoloDuo NRW in Köln, and the ‘Best Solo’ prize and audience award at SzólóDuó International Dance Festival 2019 in Budapest. His work has been performed in more than 35 cities in 12 countries. After graduating from Folkwang University of the Arts in 2019, he began his professional dance career at Neuer Tanz, a dance company in Düsseldorf, before he moved to Company Dinamo Danza in Spain in 2020. Since 2021, he has been an independent freelance dancer

Photo by Sophia Otto

Puri Senja (Indonesia)

Open Stage Artist, The Other Half

Puri Senjani Apriliani was born in Surabaya in 1994, and studied dance at the Department of Arts, Drama, Dance and Music at the State University of Surabaya. Since 2014, she has worked as a dancer, choreographer, and dance tutor for several institutions, and has been a member of Sawung Dance Studio and Surabaya Stage Dance. She has collaborated with both Indonesian and international choreographers, and her works include Exist (2014), Sudut (2016), Fase Tubuh (2017), Tim-Bang (2018) and The Other Half (2019). Her solo work, The Other Half, was performed at several Indonesian dance festivals and selected to be performed at the OFF STAGE program as part of the M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival, Singapore (2020). She is a candidate for a Masters degree from Yogyakarta Institute of the Arts.

Photo by Feriadi Heru Presetyo

Seo Jeong Bin (South Korea)

Open Stage Artist, There was no room for food

Seo Jeong-bin is a member of PYDANCE, a choreographer and dancer, and a researcher in dance education. She has been exposed to various genres since she was five years old, using ballet, hip-hop, and contemporary dance in efforts to present more honest choreography. She began her official choreography in 2019, winning the 'Best Picture award' at the 5th International Duet Festival Daegu with The ball, and her first solo work, There was no room for food won the Post Theatre Art Award at the 24th Changmu International Dance Arts Festival in Seoul. Currently, she is active in Daegu and Seoul as a freelance choreographer and dancer.

Jozef Chua (Singapore)

Off Stage Artist, Gekko

Jozef is an emerging artist currently involved in dance-making processes. He received Ballet and Contemporary training both in School of the Arts (SOTA) Singapore and Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) curriculums. He has received awards in SOTA for Composition and Improvisation modules. His experiences with Latin Dance in younger years have shaped the way he navigates his Body alongside ideas of gender and sexuality, seeking out visceral experiences that are physicalised through elaborate geographies of the Body. Jozef is excited to engage in interdisciplinary work and explore audience sensorial engagement in art-making. His current work, Gekko, for Off Stage began when he was 16; he is the youngest cont·act dance festival artist this year.

Pat Toh (Singapore)

Off Stage Artist, Aqua Lung

Pat is a performance maker whose practice centres around working on, with and about the body. Her work often looks to sport and fitness culture as a point of departure to reflect on the remnants, effects and trauma of ideology and bio-power. A Shell-NAC Arts Scholarship recipient, she trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (Australia) and graduated with a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts (Acting). She holds a Masters of Arts from the National Institute of Education (Singapore). Her work Pretty Things was nominated for “Production of the Year”, “Best Director” and “Best Ensemble” in Singapore for The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards (2012). She has presented at Esplanade’s The Studios: RAW, M1 Fringe Festival, M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, Indonesia Dance Festival and State of Motion: Rushes of Time. She was The Substation’s artist-in-residence and an associate member at Dance Nucleus, a space for independent dance makers in Singapore.

Sonia Kwek (Singapore)

Off Stage Artist, Mise en femme

Sonia is a performer, artist and facilitator/educator. She works across varying projects and spaces which often intersect in the arts, creative and non-profit sectors. Sonia's practice is rooted in working with and through the body and performance, examining material/ materiality and the potency of their politics. Her works have manifested as live theatre, participatory installation and experiential experiments, as she seeks to shape space-time for intimate encounters and visceral experiences. Sonia is a graduate of the Intercultural Theatre Institute and an associate artist with dance company P7:1SMA. Her works have been programmed by T:>Works’ N.O.W. Festival, The Substation, SPRMRKT, EX-Theatre Asia Weekend Theatre Festival (Taiwan). Sonia has collaborated with The Esplanade, National Gallery Singapore, Gillman Barracks’ Art After Dark, Singapore Biennale, Centre 42’s Late Night Texting, Neon Lights Festival, Singapore Night Festival, Singapore International Festival of The Arts’ The O.P.E.N., etc.

Compagnia Zappalà Danza (Italy)

Caino e Abele #1 (Corpo a Corpo)

Founded in Catania (Sicily I) in 1989 by Roberto Zappalà, artistic director and main choreographer, and regularly supported since 1996 by the Italian Ministry of Culture and by the Region of Sicily, the Compagnia Zappalà Danza is considered one of the most unique contemporary dance companies in Italy today.
Compagnia Zappalà Danza distinguishes itself with a wide and articulated repertory, a result of the synergistic and prolific work of Roberto Zappalà and dramaturg Nello Calabrò, who traced together in the last ten years a path in continuous expansion that allowed for the realisation of different types of productions, from creations for a few dancers to those with the entire company, most of them with live music.
Zappalà often deals with extended, longer-term projects such as Corpi incompiuti (2002-2007), Instruments (2007-2009), Re-mapping Sicily (2007- now). Among his creations for the company, Pasolini nell'era di Internet was selected for BIG Torino 2000, and A. semu tutti devoti tutti?, which received the Danza & Danza Prize 2010 for the best Italian production, was recently staged at the Théâtre de la Ville of Paris. Recently, the production LA NONA (from chaos, the body) received the Danza & Danza 2015 Award Italian Production of the Year.

Albert Tiong (Singapore)

Dance at Dusk Choreographer,《起风了》Rising Winds

Albert Tiong graduated from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts on full scholarship. He was a professional dancer with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (Taiwan), guest artist with Hong Kong Dance Company, principal dancer with Odyssey Dance Theatre (Singapore) and represented Singapore at the World Dance Alliance Asia-Pacific Dance Bridge 2007 Artist Showcase. From 2007-2011, Albert was the Resident Choreographer and training master for Frontier Danceland, and in 2012, he founded Re:Dance Theatre. He has also choreographed countless dance works, some of which have been performed at local festivals such as Esplanade’s da:ns festival, M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, M1 Fringe Festival, NUS Arts Festival and Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts. Internationally, his works have been staged at Colorado College International Dance Festival (USA), Sibu International Dance Festival (Malaysia), Fukuoka Dance Fringe Festival (Japan), CDE Springboard (Macau), DANCESTAGES Shanghai Dance Festival (China), Busan International Dance Market (Korea), Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance (Australia), SPOT Hong Kong performances, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. His work Traces won Production of the Year at the 2014 Tan Ean Kiam Arts Awards.

Klievert Jon Mendoza (Philippines/Singapore)

Dance at Dusk Choreographer, Kawayan

A graduate of the Philippines High School for the Arts, where he received the Outstanding Student Artist Award in 2015, Klievert joined Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) on the NAFA and Ministry of Education (MOE) Discovery Scholarship. Graduated in 2018 with a Diploma in Dance (Distinction), he was also named ‘Best Graduate’ and received the ‘NAFA President Award’. Klievert was the first Filipino to compete in the Youth America Grand Prix 2018, the world’s largest international student dance competition. At age 17, he was awarded the Gold Medal in the pre-professional category of the 2014 Concours International De Danse Classique De Grasse in Paris, France. He was part of NAFA’s dance performance at the Opening Ceremony of the 8th ASEAN Para Games in Singapore. Klievert joined T.H.E Dance Company in 2018.

Annamaria Ajmone (Italy)

Grey Space Artist, Dreams and Death: Connections over Space

Annamaria Ajmone is an Italian dancer and choreographer. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Modern Literature and she also studied at the Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi, Milan. The intends the body as a malleable and changeable material, capable of transforming spaces into places, is at the core of her research. Her works were presented in various dance, theatre and performing arts festivals, museums, art galleries and non conventional spaces, in Europe, Asia, Northern Africa and the United States among others. Annamaria coordinates Nobody’s Business for Italy, an open source platform for the sharing of artistic practices, and she is currently an associated artist of Triennale Milano Teatro, Milan.

annamariaajmone.com/en/about.html

Nguyen Thanh Chung (Vietnam)

Grey Space Artist, Dreams and Death: Connections over Space

Chung Nguyen is a performance maker based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, whose practice spans dance/movement, performance art, and somatic studies to embody a body-mind relationship. Chung’s works focus on the experience and sensations of the body in relation to movement, senses, time and space, and the interplay with objects. In 2021, Chung conceived Collective Consciousness | Collective Dreams (CCCD) - an ongoing research project and practice that examines the consciousness between waking reality and dream/sleep experience by looking at the phenomenal aspects of dreaming as a form of practice in daily life and in creative process.
Chung’s individual works, and collaborations, have been presented across Vietnam, Australia, America, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, and Switzerland. Chung has also participated in artist residencies including Deep in the Mountains (Korea), Southeast Asia Choreolab, (Malaysia), The International Choreographers Residency-American Dance Festival (Durham, USA), Southeast Asia Choreographers Network 2 & 3, and Grey Space (ongoing), cont·act Contemporary Dance Festival (Singapore).

nguyenchung.info

Pakhamon Much Hemachandra (Thailand)

Grey Space Artist, Dreams and Death: Connections over Space

Pakhamon Hemachandra, an independent performance artist, was born in 1990 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pakhamon is very much interested in working with the body as the very tool of instinctive expression. Her works delve into her curiosity about the notion and function of dance as gestures deeply connected to human perceptions of themselves and the world.
Pakhamon has participated in artist residencies such as Southeast Asia Choreolab (Malaysia), International Choreographers Residency – American Dance Festival (USA), Southeast Asia Choreographers Network-Kelola Foundation (Indonesia), and Grey Space (Singapore). She is also passionate about teaching to help people gain better understanding of their bodies and to connect with their own groove and flow. Pakhamon trained at Victorian College of The Arts (Melbourne, Australia) and attained a BA in Dance in 2011. She joined EDge Postgraduate Dance Company of London Contemporary Dance School – LCDS (London, UK), touring nationally and internationally for their 2012/2013 season and completed her MA in Contemporary Dance Performance at LCDS in 2014. Since 2015, Pakhamon has been working in numbers of projects across Asia and Europe as performers, collaborator, and choreographer.

instagram.com/much.ph/
instagram.com/movenbodies/

Moh Hariyanto (Indonesia)

Grey Space Artist, Jap/Vanese

Moh. Hariyanto, or Hari Ghulur, born in Madura island, Indonesia. He decided to take dance as his major and earned his undergraduate degree of drama, dance, and music department in State University of Surabaya (2010). In 2011, he continued his studies in Dance Creation and Interpretation for his Masters in Indonesian Institutes of the Arts, Surakarta (ISI Surakarta) and graduated in 2013. Hari has been involved in many festivals, as well as national, regional, and international events. Hari is now a lecturer in The College of Art Wilwatikta, Surabaya. He established a dance studio named “Sawung Dance Studio” for Surabaya dancers and choreographers to work on creative process and innovative art works.

Reisa Shimojima (Japan)

Grey Space Artist, Jap/Vanese

Born in 1992, Reisa Shimojima began dancing in her hometown of Kagoshima, Japan, at the age of 7. Reisa primarily performed jazz dance and traditional Japanese Yosakoi dance, and majored in contemporary dance at J.F. Oberlin University. Reisa was later featured in the works of other choreographers, such as Kuniko Kisanuki, Chieko Ito, and Ryohei Condors. Since the establishment of the KEDAGORO Dance Company in 2013, Reisa has been in charge of the choreography and production of all the works. Reisa's solo, Monkey in a Diaper premiered at the Yokohama Dance Collection, and was invited to more than 10 places in Japan and abroad. In 2018, Shimojima performed Monkey in a Diaper at the first Asian Comic Dance Festival in Hanam, and also showcased Sky at the 2019 Seoul World Dance Festival.

T.H.E Second Company (Singapore)

Dance at Dusk Performers, 《起风了》Rising Winds & Kawayan

T.H.E Second Company was born in 2008, with an interest in identifying and mentoring aspiring dancers to reach a professional standard of contemporary dance. Today, T.H.E Second Company has expanded its reach to members of the public who display a high aptitude for dance, including serious dance hobbyists and aspiring choreographers.

Unique to the company is its stringent technique training programme - one that is seldom available to individuals outside of a professional dance company. Members are taught by T.H.E’s core artistic team and guest teachers to ground them with a sound level of physical aptitude to tackle the demands of contemporary dance. Members also receive critical professional feedback on their performances and choreographic creations.

The rigorous yet open nature of T.H.E Second Company’s training empowers individuals to develop their artistic practice alongside their educational, work and personal commitments. Equally significant are the myriad opportunities for exposure and performance, encouraging members to make the most of their training and to aim for higher artistic excellence.

Various members of T.H.E Second Company have performed at the M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival; liTHE (previously known as Emerging Choreographers), an annual in-house showcase; high profile commissions such Singapore:Inside Out, the SG50 celebrations, and the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre’s inaugural Cultural Extravaganza 2017; as well as on overseas tours with T.H.E Dance Company.

Olé Khamchanla (Laos/France)

Instructor, Masterclass by Olé

Originally from Laos, Olé Khamchanla discovered hip-hop dance in 1990, particularly specializing in popping technique. He then practiced contemporary dance alongside choreographers Abou Lagraa and Monica Casadei, before training in traditional Lao and Thai dance in 2006. Little by little, he found a unique choreographic vocabulary, shaped by these three dance styles. Co-choreographer of the A'Corps company from 1996 to 2010, he founded his company, KHAM, in Drôme in France in 2011. Olé's choreographies combine dance and other forms of expression such as theatre, video, music, and painting, and questions the human and its complexity. In addition, Olé frequently collaborates with artists from South Asia, particularly with those from Laos, whom he has accompanied since 2007. He notably directs the Fang Mae Khong international contemporary dance festival in Laos, created in 2010.

Nah Jieying (Singapore)

Instructor, Affect Movement

Born in 1995 in Singapore, Jieying started training as an artistic gymnast and a Chinese dancer. She moved on to contemporary dance and ballet training for 6 years in School of the Arts, Singapore. Graduating with an International Baccalaureate Diploma, she moved on to become a dancer with T.H.E Second Company from 2011 to 2015. Jieying is a recipient of the National Arts Council Scholarship (Undergraduate) 2016 for overseas study at London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS). At LCDS, she was awarded the Peggy Hawkins Scholarship in recognition for her work, and graduated in 2018 with first class honours for a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance. She was a part of T.H.E Dance Company from 2019 to March 2022.

Chew Shaw En (Singapore)

Instructor, Floorplay

Chew Shaw En is a freelance dance artist, practitioner and facilitator. Shaw En loves fantasy and world-building, which actively manifests in her creation and collaborative processes; She builds with principles of generative play, improvisation and an awareness of how we want to spend our time with one another. Alongside her artistic goals, she is drawn to likeminded people and communities intent on working towards sustainable, fair and equitable ways of living and working in the arts.

Courtesy of National Gallery Singapore

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