Artists

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 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 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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

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

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.

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 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.

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 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