A review of Daniel K’s ‘Hokkaido (Or Something Like That) at this year’s da:ns festival, Esplanade Theatre Studio, Singapore.

In America the use of blackface is cringe-worthy and condemned. In Malaysia it pops up everywhere…but what does it mean?

Interview with Bilqis Hijjas: Who else should we approach for a more qualified primer on the state of contemporary dance in Malaysia?

by Bilqis Hijjas

Review: Evolving Motion’s Duod

Sometimes it is enough just to revel in the joyousness of two dexterous bodies at play. With Cathy Seago & Rosalind Noctor, there was an element of watching the cavorting of sea lions or dolphins — if dolphins were familiar with fractal theory.

by Bilqis Hijjas

This is a musical of how Prince Siddhartha became the Buddha — a figure whose contribution to humankind, according to the musical, was to teach them to turn away from transient and material happiness, towards more eternal themes. But when his tale of modesty is told with all the pomp and circumstance that can possibly be mustered, doesn’t the term “Buddhist musical” seem an oxymoron?

by Bilqis Hijjas

On the way to see director Loh Kok Man’s new version of his work now entitled Toilet, I was expecting lots of grit and grime, blood and guts all over the walls, grotesquerie and grimness. What I found was altogether different: light polished vignettes, all scrubbed and disinfected. And while I enjoyed the production in the end, I couldn’t help feeling that something was missing.

by ARTERI

It’s almost unreal that the Klang Valley art scene has been buzzing with activities non-stop for the past month. You’d think that as we enter into what is described as the worst recession since the Depression that programmes would have been scaled down or decommissioned altogether.

by Simon Soon

Marion D’Cruz’s lecture performance takes a new generation of arts supporters back into the heyday of theatre/dance/visual art/literary/education collaboration, reliving the Five Arts recipe that was borne from a sincere drive towards a multidisciplinary approach in art practice.

by Bilqis Hijjas

Most dance productions have to be seen in person. No video, no matter how accurately captured and carefully edited, can compare with the ability of the human eye to encompass the width of the stage in one instant, then hone in to focus on the swivel of an eyeball in the next. That said, there are a few occasions when watching a dance production in person is so frustrating and uncomfortable that a video comes as a welcome blessing. ”Seven Skins’ at the launch of The Light Show at the Annexe Central Market was one such instance.

by Sharon Chin

Of all the openings I’ve been to (including my own), the one for The Light Show at Annexe Gallery last Thursday stands out as truly memorable. It was was the first time I’d seen so many people at an exhibition opening, ever. The energy in the air was palpable. It seemed like all the worlds of KL’s design, art, architecture and performance communities had converged in one place. It was awesome.

by Bilqis Hijjas

On rainy Sunday afternoons, KLPac seems like a warm glowing hub of humanity in a gray wet world. In the cafe, tables of friends laugh and clink their glasses of wine. Upstairs an orchestra is practicing – the sound of their brass and drums filters down to the foyer. A waiter with a trolley of beer clatters past. People filter in for the matinee in Pentas 2, chattering and twirling their wet umbrellas.