After two sellout crowds, da:ns festival 2008 is back again for the third time since its inaugural launch in 2006. This time the festival will showcase over 150 shows with a combination of local, regional and international productions performed by artists from 13 countries and many of the current best talents on stage.

Audiences can get right into the action by not only watching the performances, but also take part in the diverse range of demonstrations and workshops too. The workshops are available at all levels- from beginners to professional- ranging from Bollywood to Ballroom dancing. To support the local arts scene, the centre has introduced a new work for the festival, checkmate, by local choreographer and artist for the festival’s artist residency programme, Albert Tiong. Also returning is last year’s artist –in- residence Kuik Swee Boon, who will present a double bill work with local talent, Jeffrey Tan. These works will be performed by the Singapore Dance Theatre.

To enable local artists to develop their works, Da:ns will also be working with Singaporean choreographer Joey Chua as she showcases her work-in-progress piece under the Shift series. According to Esplanade’s Director of Programming Mr JP Nathan, Da:ns is an arts centre within Asia which presents and develops Asian arts, therefore artists and culture lies at the heart of their programmes. This year, they hope to see more local talents seizing the opportunity to use da:ns as a platform to showcase and develop their works. Da:ns has also broadened the range and nature of their presentations in Rasas, an Asian dance component to share more deeply the rich culture and heritage of the region with their audiences.

Key highlights

This year, Da:ns promises a visual treat that will delight the senses by combining the disciplines of film and dance in two pieces that will open and close the festival. Catch one of ballet’s great comic classics, Coppélia by the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève which is given a boldly imaginative makeover by Catalan choreographer Cisco Aznar. An audacious and eccentric presentation, it unfolds on stage and on screen in a world where quirkiness is laced with macabre beauty. Spectacular and multi-layered, the production weaves dance, theatre and cinema seamlessly with a hint of Pedro Almodovar and Tim Burton. This is Coppélia reimagined.

Double Bill: Silent Screen & Toss of a Dice by the Nederlands Dans Theater I, is another piece that combines the disciplines of dance and film choreographed by Jirí Kylián and duo Lightfoot- León. The Silent Screen will feature the hypnotic music of Philip Glass in a piece emotionally fueled with poignancy and introspection. Kylian’s piece, Toss of a Dice is a melding film with visual arts and dance, a scissor-sharp sculpture by Susumu Shingu which looms ominously above the dancers accompanied by the quietly suspenseful sound score of Dirk Haubrich. 

Classical ballet lovers can also enjoy pieces from Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake by the Russian Ballet Gala featuring Ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet Marianna Ryzhkina and the Premier of the Bolshoi Ballet Dmitry Belogolovtsev with dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet, Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet and St Petersberg State Ballet Theatre. New contemporary works will also be premiering in Singapore together with the popular ballet classics for two evenings.

The Esplanade welcomes back the fiery passion of Spanish Flamenco with Sabores or

“Flavours”, by the talented and Spain’s Premio Nacional de Danza award recipient, Sara Baras.

The Shift series, held at Esplanade’s studios, challenges popular notions of dance and will showcase some of the best emerging talents in the region. First in line is their artist-in-residence local choreographer Albert Tiong Trained at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Tiong was a dancer with Taiwan’s acclaimed Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and Singapore’s Odyssey Dance Theatre, as well as a guest artist at the Hong Kong Dance Company before returning home. Returning again is last year’s artist-in-residence, and a various award winner, Kuik Swee Boon together with talented local choreographer Jeffrey Tan. Together, they will present Redoubled- performed by the SDT. Here, Tan revisits Sometimes I Think I Remember, which traverses the grey area between reality and the surreal. The dance, invokes the feelings of loss, dashed hopes, and shattering dreams. Kuik premieres Pellucid, a work centred on simplicity, rejoicing in the true essence of life through what is fundamental and basic.

Another effort to provide local artists with the platform to develop their works, Singaporean choreographer Joey Chua (nominee of Most Promising Male Dancer in Contemporary Style at the FNB Dance Umbrella 2001) and South African choreographer Mcebisi Bhayi will present their work-in-progress- Tracing: Dance Dialogues in Singapore and South Africa at da:ns 2008. The young talents of Singapore will take centrestage next with showcases by LASALLE’s School of Dance and dance students from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Curated by Singapore’s Tammy L. Wong, LASALLE’s students present Solos, Duets and the Vacant House, an innovative dance work by emerging choreographers and established artists from across the Pacific.

Other  choreographers include Mark Haim, Omar Olivas, Evan Gao Yu Wen and Melissa Quek. NAFA’s Third Space Series will showcase four new contemporary Asian works. RHYMORPHS by Sri Rama is a contemporary recital of the traditional Indian classical dance style of Kuchipudi and the other three works have been created under the artistic mentorship of Cultural Medallion recipient Lim Fei Shen and comprise Leong Jian Hao’s In the Ashes, Edwin Wee’s The Shaman’s Cat, and Jamaludin Jalil and Michael Teichmann’s Madhayanam.

Lined-up in Shift are works from rising talents within the region. Hailed as one of the most exciting and cutting edge contemporary dance companies under the artistic direction of Akiko Kitamura, Leni Basso from Japan will present Ghostly Round - a rite of interactivity between dance and body. This piece generated rave reviews when premiered in Belin’s In Transit 2005 and has been touring ever since.

 Seen:Silent, presented by two dance prodigies; Hun Pen a prima dancer of the Cambodian royal entourage of dancers and January Low (Malaysian), an award-winning Indian classical dancer who is also schooled in western ballet and modern dance, will take audiences on a voyage of biography and dance. The duo confronts and investigates the differences and similarities slipping between worlds. Seen:Silent premiers at da:ns 2008.

A slew of activities have been lined up before the festival to get those feet tapping to infectious rhythms of dance. First up is the Esplanade’s popular Footwork workshops have seen participants groove to different dance styles from Funk to Capoeira at beginners level. To help encourage fathers to bond with their children, Parent-Child workshops were also organised for kids aged 7-10 and special workshops were also conducted for members from the Centre for Fathering and patients at the Institute of Mental Health. Audiences can also attend What’s Your Move?--A series of dance demonstrations conducted at Esplanade’s forecourt. Instructors will demonstrate various dances styles from Bollywood to Ballroom under the starlit sky after which members of the public are free to join in to the accompaniment of live music.

Community youths who have worked over a three month period to present a piece for our audiences will take stage on Hip Hop Jam Night. Rasas, showcases the beauty of Asian Dance and the rich cultural heritage of the region in daily dance demonstrations. Besides these performances, Rasas will also move outdoors this year with two weekends spent celebrating the Hindu legend of the Ramayana through dance.

Visual Arts

Watch the beauty of dance in print through Tan Ngiap Heng’s (a local photographer) collection of photographic prints which will be on display at the Esplanade Tunnel from 9-19 October. Also catch the works by Kito, a young Japanese artist that creates a cityscape with strokes of lights out of ordinary everyday objects at the Esplanade Concourse.