Singapore Arts Festival 2011 (13 May- 5 June 2011)

About Singapore Arts Festival

The Singapore Arts Festival 2011 will reconnect with you through memories, histories and places long forgotten. Told through sights and sounds, I Want to Remember engages in a past that redefines the way we look at the present even as we race toward the future.

Curatorial Threads

Dance Greats

Between 2009 and 2010, three of the most important dance makers passed on, sending shockwaves through the dance world. They are Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham and Kazuo Ohno. Their loss were acutely felt and as part of I want to remember, we have curated a series that remembers and pays tribute to their artistic contributions and their impact to the art world.  They have served as mentors, inspirations and friends to ayounger generation of artists and their essence lives on through them. The works in this series showcases the voices of this younger generation as they reflect on these dance legends.

Histories

In remembering, we also look at histories both public and private that inform our sense of self and identity. Ranging from events, periods and generations past, these productions serve as reference points as we navigate the future. Rather than being nostalgic, the reconnection to these histories informs the larger discourse about our sense of place in time and our relationship to a time forgotten.

Lost Languages and Memories

The condition of erasure and forgetting is something so familiar to the urban experience. The journey in wanting to remember has also led us to a series about excavating lost languages, memories and civilizations.  These are important as they reconnect us to our roots and to gaps in our past, especially when we don’t have any capacity to remember. Collectively, they contribute to the larger discussions about our heritage.

Personal Memories

The investigation on I want to remember also looks at the personal. Usually, constructs of histories overshadow stories and memories of individuals who may not be part of the larger consciousness within our communities. At the Festival this year, we give voice to these personal stories that need to be told and celebrate their contribution as they complete a much richer picture about who we are, where we have come from and where we will be going.

Sites.Sights.Sounds

Our exploration of the process of remembering is not complete without looking at visceral triggers that activate memory fragments deep within us. Through reconstruction and perhaps reinvention of forgotten places, sights and sounds, this series of works further layers the relationship we have with memories. From the intimate to the spectacular, they energize a physical response creating a lasting memory that extends long after this festival draws to a close.

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	Experience the Arts with all your senses at the Singapore Arts Festival 2011. Now you can totally immerse yourself in the Arts.  As an ArtsFest Club member, we want you to be first to know the amazingly experiential line-up we have in store. Our festival, running from 13 May to 5 June, is fun for the whole family. Enjoy great company at the Festival Village@Esplanade Park, plus inspire your kids by taking them to our all-new Kids Arts Village. Don’t miss out. Check out www.singaporeartsfest.com for more details and visit SISTIC to buy tickets. You can also download our Festival iPhone app from the App Store. Here’s a selection of our great performances that have been designed to stimulate all the senses. Enjoy! Acclaimed composer and musician, Nitin Sawhney, conducts his band and the Singapore Festival Orchestra in the Asian premiere of A Throw of Dice.  Watch the beautiful 1929 silent film classic Prapancha Pash (A Throw of Dice), as Sawhney’s score combines delicate flavours of East and West through ‘live’ musical performance to accompany the film. This marks Sawhney’s welcome return to the Festival following last year’s standing ovation for his acoustic set. Nitin Sawhney presents a brand new club set, featuring tracks and segments from his latest and ninth studio album, Last Days of Meaning. Played by legendary actor John Hurt, the album, in the tradition of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” features an embittered old man who sits isolated in a flat listening to a mix-tape sent by his ex-wife. The mix-tape is the album itself, comprising songs and instrumentals of reflection, shared memory, empathy and hope. Nitin and key members of his band perform a live DJ set with Nitin on decks, guitar and keyboards, Aref Durvesh on tabla and dholak, Ashwin Srinivasan on bansuri flute, Nicki Wells and Tina Grace on vocals. Programme Sponsor: Contemporary Australian music ensembles Topology and Loops join forces to present this fabulous concept piece celebrating 100 years of key moments of radio broadcast history! They have set the voices of the famous and infamous – Clinton, Bush, Einstein, Freud, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Hitler, Churchill, Gandhi etc to music and transformed them into song. A big piece chockerblock with history, musical invention and amusement! Programme supported by Australian High Commission Open your heart to the haunting music celebrating the alluring mysticism and mystery of the ancient Shu Kingdom of China. Soul Capture is composed by award-winning Chinese composer Hu Xiao-ou and presented to you in a multi-disciplinary work comprised of film, installation art, and music performed by Singapore’s finest classical group, the T’ang Quartet. Artists Share 28 May 3 – 4.30pm library@Esplanade Open Stage Free Admission To find out more- click here. Festival Chats: OPEN-STUDIO 23 April 3 – 4.30pm Central Public Library Free Admission To find out more – click here. Join our Choir Karaoke Love karaoke? Join our 2011 Choir Karaoke and sing live at the ArtsFest finale. To be a part of this exciting project- click here. www.singaporeartsfest.com Keep up with the latest news and offers on Feacebook and Twitter

	Get ready to be inspired!Come immerse in the experience of the People’s and Creations Festival by indulging in our spectacular line-up of performances- both on-stage, and off-stage! The festival is offering you a rare opportunity to journey into the makings of your favourite shows through various Learning Workshops and Artists share conducted by the artists themselves. So don’t miss out- there’s no better way to be part of the Singapore Arts Festival 2011! Join our Choir Karaoke. Love karaoke? Join our 2011 Choir Karaoke and sing live at the Singapore Arts Festival Grand Finale. To be a part of this exciting project – click here. Visually and aurally stunning, Li and Sa is an enthralling confluence of Korean traditional music, Buddhist chant and dance, and modern music performance. Created by Be-Being, a collective of some of Korea’s most prominent and illustrious artists in traditional and modern music, this project seeks to understand Buddhist philosophy embodied in art, and to re-interpret traditional Buddhist music and dance from the perspective of contemporary art. First staged in Seoul in 2008, it toured Europe in late 2010 to wonderful reviews. Related com.mune activities Artists share – Be Being Talk and Demonstration 21 May 11am-12.30pm Esplanade Theatre Studio Free admission To register, please call +65 63469428 (Mon-Fri: 9am-6pm) or email here. The splendid Singapore Chinese Orchestra presents an intriguing new work celebrating the roots of the Singapore Chinese Hokkiens. Inspired by the charms of nanyin music on a visit to Quanzhou in June 2010, Maestro Tsung Yeh and renowned composer Law Wai Lun created this unique repertoire – a combination of orchestral music, ensemble playing, choral work and other special sound effects coupling live music with electronic mixing – to showcase the elegance of nanyin music in an entirely new and novel way. Related com.mune activities Artists share – A Heritage Journey: Elegance of Nanyin Dialogue session 21 May 3-4.30pm library@esplanade Open Stage Free admission. To register, please call +65 63469428 (Mon-Fri: 9am-6pm) or e-mail here. The 1957 Oscar-nominated film Mother India was a massive epic which came to symbolise the post-colonial Indian psyche. Known for its stunning cinematography, dramatic storyline and indelible soundtrack, the film has been put in the adventurous hands of leading turntablist and electronic composer DJ Tigerstyle, to reinterpret the score in a unique, live electronic performance. Mother India 21st Century will move masses anew with its experimental ad specially cut and remixed vision, and audiences may well decide that Mother India is one truly funky mama. Related com.mune activities Learning Workshop Mother India Talk + Demonstration on working with Music and Film Conducted by DJ Tigerstyle, Cellist Matt Constantine and Drummer David Shaw 26 May 12pm-5.30pm Possibility Room, National Library Board $15 per participant Equipment supported by Vestax Singapore To register, please call +65 63469428 (Mon-Fri: 9am-6pm) or email here. 2 is a work that pushes physical limits to awaken the body’s creative possibilities in search of new discoveries and potential ‘futures’. TAO Dance Theater intends for the meaning of the character 2 to be uncertain: perhaps 2 represents something as simple as two souls in conversation; or one talking to oneself. The abstractness of this symbol ’2′ is used to investigate new methodologies for creation. Be surprised and mesmerized by this complex, fulfilling work! Related com.mune activities Learning Workshop Dance Concepts Creation Class Duan Ni and Tao Ye 4 June 1-3pm The Substation Dance Studio $15 per participant. Limited to 30 participants. To register, please call +65 63469428 (Mon-Fri: 9am-6pm) or e-mail here. www.singaporeartsfest.com Keep up with the latest news and offers on Facebook and Twitter.

	If you live by art as a means of creation, you will find nothing short of Life at the Singapore Arts Festival!This year, we’ve got a line-up for performances specially created and commissioned for the ArtsFest to pamper the senses. Don’t miss out- you’re all that’s missing in our festival of Creations and People!Spoilt for choice? Here’s a selection: Examine contemporary Singapore with The Necessary Stage as the company revisits historical characters, merges fact and fiction, and has them interact in real and imagined events. Looking at the themes of migration, harmony and identity, SINGAPOREprobes deeply into a country’s past and the psyche of the people. Featuring a ‘politically correct’ multi-racial cast, the play is seriously funny and deceitfully truthful.Master Class for Teachers and Artists Uniquely Singapore Alvin Tan 16 April 10am-1pm, $25 per participant Limited to 30 participantsTo register, please call +65 6346 9428 (Mon – Fri: 9am to 6pm) or email here. She was a young girl with a beautiful voice and a love for singing. Embroiled in the politics of that era, she was forced to give up her love of choral singing while struggling to keep her family going during a tumultuous time. A tribute to Singapore’s forgotten women in the 50s and 60s, prominent contemporary theatre company Drama Box presents Otto Fong’s story of a tenacious woman with an unfulfilled dream. The dancers from T.H.E Dance Company explore the boundary between memory and reality, traversing between shadow and light. The scenery fades leaving only the essence of the dancers’ delicate breath that permeates the concrete, steel and glass jungle of this city. Choreographer Kuik Swee Boon continues with his exploration of the body and search for uniqueness in identity and environment.Master Class for Teachers and Artists Kuik Swee Boon 郭瑞文 15 May 10am-12pm, $25 per participant Limited to 25 participants. Participants are required to have at least 3 years of dance training and performance experience.To register, please call +65 6346 9428 (Mon – Fri: 9am to 6pm) or email here. Open your heart to the haunting music celebrating the alluring mysticism and mystery of the ancient Shu Kingdom of China.  Soul Captureis composed by award-winning Chinese composer Hu Xiao-ou and presented to you in a multi-disciplinary work comprised of film, installation art, and music performed by Singapore’s finest classical group, the T’ang Quartet.Artists Share 28 May 3-4.30pm library@esplanade Open Stage Free admission The People’s Exhibition“I want to remember… the old performing spaces.” Supported by the National Library Board April, 10am–9pm Central Public Library Free To find out more – click here. Join our Choir KaraokeLove karaoke? Join our 2011 Choir Karaoke and sing live at the ArtsFest finale. To be a part of this exciting project- click here. www.singaporeartsfest.com Keep up with the latest news and offers on Feacebook and Twitter

	This community visual arts exhibition is held in conjunction with Oxford Playhouse’s production of The Wright Brothersat the Singapore Arts Festival. It features planes made by different communities, from kindergarten children, to Primary and Secondary students, disadvantaged beneficiaries from Tan Chin Tuan Foundation, NTUC Back to School Fair and the general public. Come find out the aspirations of our communities as their planes take flight! Here’s your chance to contribute to the exhibition! Participate in the fun and festivity of making your own plane and be a pilot of your aspirations by flying the paper planes at the World Water Day 2011. Materials and prototypes will be provided to inspire you. Toby Hulse, an experienced director, playwright and theatre maker who specialises in work for family audiences, will personally conduct the master classes on both days. First day sharing will focus on object theatre and second day activities will centre on creating theatre from play. To register, please email nac_artsfestcommune@nac.gov.sg The inspiring story of two brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, who taught the world to fly. This intimate but epic adventure takes us on the brothers’ pioneering journey, turning the dreams of two small-town bicycle repairmen into a brilliant reality. The brothers’ relationship, ambitious spirit and commitment to learning are at the heart of this powerful and moving story. Programme supported by Frasers Hospitality Programme and Master Classes supported by the British Council and the Embassy of the United States of America www.singaporeartsfest.com Keep up with the latest news and offers on Facebook and Twitter.

	Put on your dancing shoes!For all you out there who live, breathe and dream dance, Singapore Arts Festival 2011 has a sterling line up of dance performances just for you and your feet!Be sure to catch our Dance Greats and participate in related Festival Chats & Master Classes for a sensational dance experience!So come join us – and help us create wonderful memories of this Festival. Belgian director Alain Platel strips dance down to its fundamentals and its most potent raw material – the human body. Platel uses these self-imposed limitations to bring into focus the mastery of his dancers as he leads them – and you – on an adventure of revelations and a lifetime of body memories. Out of Context- an intimate, inviting & captivating dance experience that may well be less out of context than you’d expect. dance/film explores the idea of expression of movement beyond the ‘live’ performance – created through a dialogue between a choreographer and a filmmaker, giving audiences multiple perspectives when approaching dance. This year’s dance/film extends the tribute to the Dance Greats; Kazuo Ohno, Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham with a series of screenings dedicated to them. The Festival also continues the dance/film commissioning platform as impetus for local artist collaboration, showcasing short films from award-winning local filmmakers like Victric Thng, Ric Aw, Pok Yue Weng, Sherman Ong and Ming Wong. Related com.mune activities: dance/film Tour Available from Jan – May 2011 1 hour timing to suit school’s curriculum At school’s premises The dance/film tour is a basic level 101-guide to dance films which introduces the films of today and provides a background into the beginnings of the genre. Recommended for secondary and tertiary level assembly programmes, dance clubs and film or A/V clubs. To register for dance/film Tour, email schools@objectifs.com.sg Created and performed by Yoshito Ohno, Kuu is a touching tribute to his father, the late dance great Kazuo Ohno, who made the butoh dance form an international phenomenon. Kuu, which means ‘emptiness’, is, in Yoshito’s sense of it, the body. The idea of emptiness resonates with the themes explored in the works by Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno – that of non-attachment and freedom. Fans of butoh and dance will not want to miss this!Related com.mune activities: Festival Chats - Remembering the Dance Greats 26 March, 3 – 4.30pm Central Public Library Free Admission Master Classes for Teachers and Artists – Butoh Workshop by Yoshito Ohno 22 May, 10.30am – 1.30pm Drama Centre Visitor’s Centre $25 per participant (Limited to 25 participants) For enquiries on Dance Greats com.mune activities, email to us. Inspired by David Vaughan’s seminal book Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years, a photographic recounting of the master’s work in dance, Boris Charmatz invented this work from the photographs, performed from the beginning to the end, a choreography created in the pages of the book itself. Flip Book is not about re-staging Cunningham’s works but an interpretation of his creative methodology, as well as re-looking at new connections with the ideas and physical vocabulary of Merce Cunningham’s genius. This work has various versions: 50 ans de danse, performed by former dancers of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and Roman Photo, with non-dancers, students and amateurs. www.singaporeartsfest.com Keep up with the latest news and offers on Facebook and Twitter.