Apsaras Dance Company opens jubilee season with a work on digital life to woo young audiences
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Apsaras Dance Company's jubilee season begins with Agape – The Human Connection, a collaboration with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
PHOTO: APSARAS DANCE COMPANY
- Apsaras Dance Company opens its 50th anniversary with Agape: The Human Connection, blending bharatanatyam with digital themes and Western music to attract younger audiences.
- The company collaborates with Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Indian musicians, exploring multicultural fusion and minimal vocals.
- Apsaras plans intimate shows, international tours, and premieres new works, aiming to engage diverse audiences and celebrate its legacy globally through innovative dance theatre.
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SINGAPORE – Apsaras Dance Company’s jubilee celebrations open with a scene that is unusual for the 2,000-year-old bharatanatyam dance form the company is rooted in – dancers looking at the beguiling world of the smartphone and dancing to live music of Western instruments from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO).
“These are the things that intrigue young people more than just doing an epic story,” says Apsaras’ associate creative director Mohanapriyan Thavarajah, 36, of Agape – The Human Connection. It is the opening show of Apsaras’ 50th-anniversary season and plays on Aug 21 and 22.
The theme of digital connection and alienation is part of the company’s attempt to woo more young people under 35 – which currently account for 30 per cent of its audiences – over the next 50 years.
Apsaras hopes the 70-minute piece will resonate with Gen Z audiences who have been passionately advocating for more conversation on mental health and looking for immersive arts experiences.
Its collaboration with about 50 musicians from the SSO as well as guest musicians from India is not new but an extension of the work Apsaras has been engaged in over the past 50 years – a fusion of cultural traditions that the recently launched $20 million Multicultural Arts Programme Grant wants to further promulgate.
The collaborative process between a Western symphonic tradition that relies on written scores and a classical Indian music tradition less reliant on sheet music has already yielded interesting dialogues between the artists.
Unusual to Indian classical dance, too, there will be minimal vocals in the show. The composer is Rajkumar Bharathi and the music arranger and director is Sai Shravanam, who worked on the soundtrack recording for the 2012 film Life Of Pi.
Says Apsaras’ artistic director and Cultural Medallion recipient Aravinth Kumarasamy, 60: “Bharatanatyam is one art form that is practised all over the world – even when you go to the Swiss mountains, people are taking classes. The form itself has given us so much versatility to come up with new themes and translate the dance form itself.”
Other landmark multicultural works in the company’s history include a collaboration with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Balinese dancers on Arisi: Rice in 2022, and another with theatre company Wild Rice for Agathi: Refugee in 2017.
Apsaras Dance Company’s artistic director Aravinth Kumarasamy (right) and associate creative director and choreographer Mohanapriyan Thavarajah in the company’s office at Goodman Arts Centre.
ST PHOTO: SARAH LEE
Big year ahead
Apsaras is continuing to curate intimate platforms to encourage younger dancers to perform and attract new audiences.
From July 6 to 11, 2027, it will take over various spaces across The Arts House at the Old Parliament to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Darshana platform, its Indian classical dance series that allows audiences to watch dancers up close.
Says Mohanapriyan: “We always get young people coming to watch Indian dance for the first time – so it’s not just for the converted audience.”
The Arts House takeover is titled Apsaras Fest: 50 Hues Of Gold and will feature performances, talks and film screenings. While the programme has not yet been confirmed, Aravinth wants this to be an opportunity to bring different dance practitioners together.
“Can we invite all the living Cultural Medallion recipients for dance? I think we have never seen them all on one platform.”
Apsaras Dance Company’s artistic director Aravinth Kumarasamy (left) and associate creative director and choreographer Mohanapriyan Thavarajah.
ST PHOTO: SARAH LEE
Its anniversary programming is a mix of looking back and forward. It is premiering new work Abode (Dec 5 and 6) – choreographed by Mohanapriyan – which draws parallels between the human body and the layout of ancient Indian temples. Audiences can also revisit some of Apsaras’ iconic works.
Restagings include Agathi: Refugee (Feb 11 to 14, 2027) – a dance and theatre production based on poems by refugee children – and Aarupadai Reimagined (Aug 14 to 15, 2027), an update on choreography from 1998 by Apsaras co-founder Neila Sathyalingam.
Apsaras’ jubilee season will not be confined to Singapore, as the company is taking Agathi: Refugee to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and France in August and September 2026. It is also celebrating its golden jubilee with its dedicated audience base in India come January 2027 and taking dance-theatre production Amara, inspired by a Cambodian monument, to Chennai in September 2026.
Aravinth says Apsaras has been able to develop a fan base in India precisely because it has infused its practice with multicultural elements. He is pursuing international collaborations and performances in a bid to grow a stronger and more distinct tradition.
“We became a hot commodity in India because you cannot bring ice to Eskimos, right? So our flavour of ice is different.”
For more information on Apsaras Dance Company’s golden jubilee shows, go to www.apsarasarts.com. Tickets to Agape – The Human Connection are available at str.sg/zHiK. This is eligible for Culture Pass credits.