Arts Picks: Chinese dance takes flight, play about parenting in poverty

Soar: A Devotion by Singapore Chinese Dance Theatre. PHOTO: SINGAPORE CHINESE DANCE THEATRE

Soar: A Devotion

In its latest production, Singapore Chinese Dance Theatre takes inspiration from the Huma bird of Hindu legend, which is said to never alight on the ground, spending its entire life in flight till it dies.

Choreographers Jenny Neo and Benedict Soh, whose first co-creation was If It's Now for the Esplanade's Huayi - Chinese Festival of Arts earlier this year, contemplate notions of devotion and perseverance in this 60-minute work.

Where: Goodman Arts Centre Black Box, 90 Goodman Road
MRT: Mountbatten
When: Aug 5 and 6, 3 and 8pm
Admission: $38, $30 (concessions) from this website

The Nest

Te Hao Boon and Ethel Yap in The Nest by Rainshadow Studios. PHOTO: ELIZABETH MAK

All expecting parents want the best for their baby. But raising a child is expensive, especially in a world succumbing to the climate crisis.

Young arts group Rainshadow Studios transports The Nest, German playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz's 1974 eco-fable, to Singapore. Actors Ethel Yap and Te Hao Boon play working-class parents Kurt and Martha, who struggle with balancing what they want for their baby with what they can afford.

The production, which draws on minimalist principles and is sourcing its costumes second-hand, seeks to ask how art can be produced in an environmentally sustainable way.

Where: 42 Waterloo Street
MRT: Bras Basah
When: Aug 4 to 21, Thursdays to Fridays, 8pm; Saturdays, 3 and 8pm; Sundays, 3pm
Admission: $35, $25 (student concessions) from this website
Info: Website

Found In Translation

Artworks by Tan Chee Lay, part of Found In Translation. PHOTO: TAN CHEE LAY

Home-grown Chinese-language writers Chow Teck Seng and Tan Chee Lay will hold a joint calligraphy and painting exhibition, inspired by local poetry in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil.

Chow, a Singapore Literature Prize-winning writer, and Tan, an associate professor at the National Institute of Education, have striven to translate these works into forms such as calligraphy and ink painting, in scrolls, albums and even folding fans.

The exhibition is part of the annual Poetry Festival (Singapore), which Tan co-founded in 2015.

Where: Blue Room, The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Lane
MRT: City Hall
When: July 30 to Aug 9, 11am to 7pm daily
Admission: Free

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