Ding Yi Music Company:
声态不息: ECOncert 2024
[Stage director, Dramaturg]
Esplanade Recital Studio
“𝑵𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆.” – 𝑾𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅, 𝒂 𝒅𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒚 𝑬𝒄𝒐-𝑩𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔
Ding Yi Music Company presents the 2nd edition of “ECOncert,” a thought-provoking musical journey exploring humanity’s relationship with nature. This year’s theme, Waste, invites audiences to reflect on this pressing issue through music and art. Drawing on the documentary “Wasted” by Eco-Business and the Mobius recycling loop it highlights, ECOncert encourages reflection on our current relationship with waste, as we bathe in the harmonious sounds of traditional Chinese instruments.
Creative Director, Conductor: Dedric Wong
Stage Director, Dramaturg: Ang Xiao Ting
Composers: Avik Chari, Yii Kah Hoe
Set/Installation Designer: Alecia Neo
Lighting Designer: Liu Yong Huay
Review: The Straits Times
"As the score moved ever so gradually from discordance to concordance, from dark desolation to bright illumination, its denouement was an optimistic but guarded conclusion. As long as people pay heed to their environment and better manage resources, the wake-up call provided by this thought-provoking concert should not go to waste."
Singapore International Festival of the Arts 2024
Performing The Director's Notes:
All The World's A Sea
[Concept, Co-director]
Creating new work is a process of building on the past; reflecting, questioning, extending. Yet, much of this becomes invisible once the curtains rise.
Kuo Jian Hong’s All The World’s A Sea (2024) continues an exploration that started with I came at last to the seas (2018). Both works are also a response to her father Kuo Pao Kun’s Descendants of the Admiral Eunuch (1995).
Situating Performing The Director’s Notes: All The World’s A Sea as part of a larger accumulation, this performance suggests that the artist and her life is also a “work-in-progress”. It includes an assembly of text fragments*, pieced together as the unfolding of a decades-long dialogue: between artistic peers and creative collaborators; between father and daughter.
Performing The Director’s Notes: All The World’s A Sea also celebrates the craft of theatre-making, the labour of our creatives, and the dramaturgical work bringing it together. It not only chronicles our process now but is a stepping stone to the future as we test new eco-scenographic ideas. After all, scenography has always been a crucial part of Practice — all 59 years of it.
Fragments from:
Script Vignettes:
All The World’s A Sea (2024) – Liu Xiaoyi
Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral (1995) – Kuo Pao Kun
Creators’ Notes:
Director’s Notes on All The World’s A Sea (March, 2024) – Kuo Jian Hong
Director’s Notes on All The World’s A Sea (May, 2024) – Kuo Jian Hong
Playwright’s Notes on Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral (1995) – Kuo Pao Kun
Images above @TanNgiapHeng, courtesy of The Theatre Practice
Ding Yi Music Company:
声态不息:ECOncert
[Stage Director, Dramaturg]
Esplanade Recital Studio
Ding Yi Music Company proudly presents “ECOncert”, a captivating and thought-provoking musical journey that explores the intricate relationship between humanity and the awe-inspiring force of nature.
Through the mesmerising synergy of evocative music and stunning visuals, the concert is a reminder of man’s smallness in the face of nature’s grandeur. Under the creative direction of conductor Wong De Li, Dedric and stage director/dramaturg Ang Xiao Ting with Chong Li-Chuan’s exquisite soundscapes, compositions by John Sharpley and Yii Kah Hoe, set and art installations by Quek See Yee and Ferry, and video projections by Visual Media Artist Robert Zhao, “ECOncert” invites audiences to embark on a profound exploration of the delicate equilibrium between human presence and nature’s indomitable spirit. Celebrated Guqin soloist Zhong Zhi Yue will also play a newly-commissioned work.
Taking inspiration from the highly beloved activity of ‘forest bathing’, “ECOncert” invites audiences to meditate on their relationship with the natural environment, while being enveloped in the soothing embrace of Chinese musical instruments that have celebrated nature for thousands of years.
“Can humans and nature coexist in an urban environment?”
Images courtesy of Ding Yi Music Company and Andrew Bi Photography
 Land of Loss - wisdoms |  Gathering process |  Land of Loss - Wisdoms |
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Performance Space (Sydney): Land of Loss - Wisdoms
[Concept]
Co-Recipient of the 2021 Experimental Micro Fellowship with Jean Ferry
PHASE 1 (Research)
Land of Loss - WISDOMS focuses on intergenerational knowledge related to ‘healing’ in post-colonial Singapore. We asked ourselves: What exactly did our ancestors* leave behind for us? What ways of knowing did they have or not have? Taking into consideration that Singapore is a multicultural island state, we excavate these wisdoms which we believe arose from a frantic mixing of races and ethnicities.
In the midst of the pandemic, “healing” as both physical or socio-emotional, becomes an especially urgent topic. On this tiny island, our elders were adept at knowing which herb was suitable for ailments (medicine for the physical) with such ways of knowing passing down through generations, yet gaps in socio-emotional knowledge (medicine for the mind and heart) results in vastly differing experiences and expressions of emotions, and forms of emotional resilience.
Even as we are gaining knowledge, we are also losing past ways of knowing. This loss is especially prevalent in Singapore, where change and gentrification occurs at a rapid rate. Younger generations have lost their mother tongues; dialects of our elders are rapidly disappearing; wisdoms of the past have been ignored or dismissed as old wives’ tales. WISDOMS is an urgent response to this loss.
Whilst hyper-local, WISDOMS hopes to articulate these findings, facilitate conversations, and draw awareness to what we are losing, have lost or will be losing by creating a space for discovery, dialogue and in turn, giving time to process “loss”.
https://performancespace.com.au/programs/artists/ang-xiao-ting/
 Asian Performing Arts Camp 2021 |  Final Presentation |  Class of 2021 |
|---|---|---|
 Audience feedback |
DIGITAL THEATRE
Tokyo Festival Farm: Life Cycle Assessment - not all fish are created equal
[Concept & Director]
2021 Asian Performing Arts Camp
As an Asian eco-theatre artist and story-gatherer, I am obsessed with island gastronomy such as fish.
Working across mediums such as film, collaborative digital theatre, sound design, fieldwork research,
Life Cycle Assessment: Not All Fish Are Created Equal is a new form of online
'lecture-performance', where audience participation and knowledge-sharing are made even more
accessible because of the immersive potentialities of the digital medium. This experiment invites
audiences to embark on a speculative journey that provokes more questions than answers, while
disrupting commonly-held assumptions of environmental problems in relation to human agency.
Perhaps by investigating where our food comes from, we have more in common than we realise in this
climate-affected world?
Featuring cameo appearances by Walid Ali & Kikuchi Monami
Review:
"The entire presentation was very poetic and I felt like we really went on a journey, from the analytic to the sensory and to the tactile. I saw stories about food, families, food systems and of course, sustainability."
- Kanado Uea (Cocoroom, Japan) & Helly Minarti (LINGKARAN | koreografi)"
 Songs of Tau |  Songs of Tau |  Songs of Tau |
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 Songs of Tau |  Songs of Tau |  Songs of Tau |
PROJECT Utopia: Songs of Tau
[Concept & Cast]
2019 M1 Patch! Festival
Nominated for Best Sound Design at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards 2020
Both curious and playful, PROJECT Utopia invites you to join us as we embark on a journey to rediscover our relationship with the world around us. Five artists from Finland, Germany, Indonesia and Singapore set forth to question what utopia means in a disturbingly unpredictable world. These artists draw upon their respective cultural contexts to create five evocative performance vignettes. These stories are weaved into a vivid tapestry of dreams, comprising of movement, poetry, multimedia, sound and at times, your participation. Together, we hope to offer PROJECT Utopia as a momentary respite to ask: What is your utopia?
Ming Poon (Germany/Singapore) // The Pledge
Dhimas Aryo Satwiko (Indonesia) // The Forgotten Ones of Omelas
Sini Rautjoki (Finland) // Kopisisu
Ang Xiao Ting (Singapore) // Songs of Tau
Kuo Jian Hong (Singapore) // FLAME
Songs of Tau:
Cast: Ang Xiao Ting (Dancer), Dhimas Satwiko (Dancer), Jean Ferry (Sound Artist), Ethel Yap (Vocalist), Ric Liu (Vocalist)
Songs of Tau is the final chapter of my ‘Disease Poems’. It is an exploration of dementia – a condition in which the illusion of choice is arguably, the most absent. We wanted to construct an evocative experience that allows audiences to submerge themselves in someone’s mind. I would like to thank the patients who contributed their words to create the text palette for Songs of Tau. We will always remember your stories.
Reviews:
“We came into this work not knowing what to expect, and left it impressed, filled with hope and the drive to make our individual utopias a reality. What utopia is ends up never getting defined nor we any closer to reaching it, but with some of the most original and exciting new ideas we’ve seen in some time and a total commitment to crafting a unique, well-integrated audience experience, PROJECT Utopia is a masterful experiment in form that has allowed The Theatre Practice to reach new heights of artistry, discussing universal concepts in an engaging and accessible way. This is a work that has managed to fully highlight the ‘art of play’, and a prime example of why the M1 Patch! Festival has the potential for seeding new ideas and push the local arts scene into previously unchartered artistic territory.”
M1 Patch! 2019: PROJECT Utopia《望眼吾托邦》 by The Theatre Practice (Review)
‘The strongest of the works is Singaporean Ang Xiao Ting’s Songs of Tau, a dream-like dive into a dementia-riddled mind […]’
https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/in-futile-pursuit-of-utopia
 2020 - The Living Zoom |  2019 |  2018 - Presentation |
|---|---|---|
 2019 - Dramaturgical Process |  2019 - Presentations |  2019 |
 2019 - Pre-show |  2019 Farmers |
M1 PATCH! Festival: Artist Farm
[2018-2019 - Dramaturg; 2020 - Concept & Cast]
Theatre x Sound x Dance [2020, Zoom]
Theatre x Visual Art x Dance [2019]
Theatre x Sound x Theatre [2018]
Every year, nine artists and three dramaturgs are invited for a unique creative boot camp, led by The Theatre Practice’s Artistic Director Kuo Jian Hong. Artist Farm is a safe haven for artists to work across disciplines, jam with little pressure, and most importantly play.
Engaging in training and skill exchange in the mornings, followed by creative sparring and work development in the afternoon and evenings, Artist Farm nurtures ideas and pushes the boundaries of collaborative practices.
These artists must find common ground as the foundation of their collaboration – also known as “The Thesis Statement”. Through their artistic processes, we gain a unique insight into what it means to collaborate, experiment and play. The journey concludes with a series of three public presentations. Audience members are invited to witness the evolution of works, and to dive deeper into the artistic process by engaging in critical open dialogue with our Farmers.
Check out pages 20-24 for my take on Artist Farm [2019]: https://www.practice.org.sg/assets/Artist-Farm-Report/Artist-Farm-Report-2019.pdf
Reviews:
'我觀察到有一組的討論，為了要使其清楚、有效率、結構化，將若干關鍵詞語寫在便利貼上，如此，在組員的討論過程中，方便隨著意念討論的流動，而挪動便利貼的順序及結構關係。將不斷流動、生產與消逝的意念視覺化、組織化，我贊同這是一種有效的討論方式，且其效果也直接反映在該組呈現之中，我認為是三組呈現裡最有結構性的小品，概念清晰，陳述清楚，且力量驚人，效果絕佳。'
https://mypaper.pchome.com.tw/yushanlu/post/1380395792
'In another presentation, viewers were asked to close their eyes and touch a part of their body they felt was most connected to feelings of grief. After the presentation, some in the audience described how they felt more comfortable experiencing the work from their homes because the private setting allowed them to feel safe and immerse themselves more fully.'
 2018 |  2018 |  2018 |
|---|---|---|
 2019 |  2019 - Taiwan |  2019 - Taiwan |
 Tour Info |
Chop Chilli Chop: Round Round Buns
[Concept & Cast]
Practice Tuckshop (Singapore)
Berlin Tacheles (Taiwan)
Men may be from Mars and women may be from Venus, but in cyberspace, anything goes.
Welcome to RoundRoundBuns.com, an online hangout where we let it all hang out; a virtual world of social networking, interactive forums and games. Call in your online (and offline) friends and assemble your squad. It’s time to bring your keyboard honesty to real life and get ready to play!
Part games night, part confessional, part theatre, Round Round Buns invites you to take a frank and humorous look at the unspoken. A pair of char siew baos? A sausage bun? This time, we zoom in on the deep and dangly bits – what are YOU really made of?
For the tour version, the artists will work with a local artist to re-write some aspects of the script so as to reflect a more localised take on gender. A local artist will also perform in this tour version.
Review:
‘It is testament to their ability and instincts in improv and handling audience members that Chop Chili Chop Co. has managed to ease the entire crowd into opening up and interacting with complete strangers, raising plenty of intellectual dough audiences knead out over a very fun night. Through Round Round Buns, Chop Chili Chop Co. has crafted an effective method for making broaching difficult and potentially taboo topics easier to approach, hosting a madcap yet poignant party we’d be more than happy to dive into once again in future iterations‘
https://bakchormeeboy.com/2018/08/20/m1-patch-2018-round-round-buns-by-chop-chilli-chop-co-review/
 ICALTTS |  ICALTTS |  ICALTTS |
|---|---|---|
 ICALTTS |
2018 Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts:
I Came At Last To The Seas 《六根不宁》
[Dramaturg & Assistant to the Director]
Esplanade Theatre
Six individuals in various stages of migration cross-paths, reflecting the multiple identities of the Chinese diaspora. Six stories reflect one journey, woven together as a meditation on the impact of displacement and the six roots of sensation in Buddhist philosophy.
I came at last to the seas is an Esplanade commission directed by Kuo Jian Hong, , starring talented actors Joanna Dong and Sugie Phua from Singapore, Rosa Maria Velasco from Hong Kong and Ethan Wei from Taiwan, Fung Wai Hang and Wang Wei (both with the support of Hong Kong Repertory Theatre), as well as Kun Opera actor Zhao Yu Tao (with the support of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group, Kun Opera Theatre) and drummer Huang Yu-Ting (with the support of U-Theatre).
https://www.esplanade.com/discover-and-learn/insight/journeys-of-one-soul-across-the-seas
Review:
‘剧名中的“根”有两层意义，一是佛教中的根，即眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意，六种感受存在的方式。另一是指向“寻根”，也就是身份认同。这两个层面其实相关联，以不同的感受方式，在一个寻找、怀疑、确认或失落的过程中，对于个人或集体所属根源的探索与界定。《六根不宁》中的七个主要人物中的六个，正是这个关注的再现。’
 Scenofest |  M1 Chinese Theatre Festival |  M1 Chinese Theatre Festival |
|---|---|---|
 Scenofest |
Blank Run
[Concept & Solo dancer]
2017 Scenofest at World Stage Design (Taipei)
2017 M1 Chinese Theatre Festival (Singapore)
Nominated for Best Multimedia at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2018
Blank Run is a memory landscape combining video installation, soundscape and physical theatre in its multisensory storytelling. It is a jigsaw puzzle, with each element constructing its own version of “what really happened”. The performance in Singapore was held in partnership with AWARE’s Sexual Assault Care Centre.
Reviews:
‘The hour-long work, conceived by Gloria Ang Xiao Teng, Zoea Tania Chen and director Kuo Jian Hong is a taut, psychological thriller, with a sting in its tail’ – The Straits Times
‘Its abstract form the perfect structure to stage the portrayal of a fragmented memory one is determined to erase, Blank Run is an immensely disturbing work brimming with raw emotion that does a fantastic job of portraying the complicated nature of trauma. Even a more experienced actor would probably find this high energy, emotionally-charged work a challenge to perform, and for the young Gloria to have pulled off such a feat,
is a huge achievement'
https://bakchormeeboy.com/2017/08/20/review-blank-run-by-the-theatre-practice/
‘Above all, is the sense of uncanny that ripples through the piece… In its attempt to stage the reconstruction of a complicated traumatic memory, Blank Run has successfully depicted the contradictions of memory – how it is unreliable, illogical, inconsistent – but above all, raw, haunting and unforgiving.’
 Shanghai ACT Festival 2016 |  Shanghai ACT Festival 2016 |
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One Tables Two Chairs: 10 Variation
[Dancer]
2015 Experimental Theatre Festival (Nanjing)
2016 ACT Shanghai International Theatre Festival (China)
10 Variation is an experiment that reduces a human body to the fundamentals through a combination of improvised and rehearsed gestures. Starkly powerful, this cross-cultural exhibition combines the talents of two touring artists and two local artists in an exploration on how different bodies respond to the same stimulus.
4 participants learn the recurring ten gestures with minimal rehearsal time. Before the performance, they draw lots to see whom they will perform the duet with. Out of the three sections in ’10, two sections are improvised.
Each semi-improvised performance lasts 20 minutes.
Review:
'10, one table, two chairs, a man, a woman, ten numbers on the screen. In distilling the essence of life to a repetitive movement sequence executed in a framework of ten seconds, this performance utilized the simplest of languages to allude to a highly nuanced performance. In ten seconds, the sequence rewinds, fast-forwards, slows down and repeats itself in a cyclical structure. Is the given scenario a repetition? Or is it mere supposition? It reflects the inevitable, as well as the uncertainty of existence. Be it the loose narrative, dramaturgical structure, rhythm or use of body language, the amalgamation of these elements clearly highlight Kuo Jian Hong’s directorial finesse and craft. With regards to the performance, it is perhaps less important to analyse the techniques involved. Rather, it is the dialogue without spoken word between two bodies in space; it is the musical soundtrack devoid of text underscoring the performance that creates a particularly moving production. Beyond the stage, the audience members entered the liminal space with the performers. Together, they shared the experiences of fracture, reconciliation, connection, alienation, intensity, warmth, growth and decline.'In 10 seconds, these strangers shared a lifetime together.'
- Nanjing, Veteran Journalist, Arts Critique, Wang Xiao Ying
 Schubert's Sagas |  Schubert's Sagas |  Schubert's Sagas |
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The Sing Song Club: Schubert's Sagas
[Installation Artist]
Arts House Ltd
I was commissioned to participate in this multidisciplinary project and created a video installation, as well as a performance sequence. Experimenting primarily with the themes of infatuation, desire and narcissism.
I was also fascinated with the use of video as a potential voyeur, taking on the identity of the central protagonist looking upon his object of desire. This obsession increases over time and with that, the video also evolves into a kaleidoscope of dreams intermingling with reality.
if romantic love straddles the in-between,
and oscillates between extremities,
is it kinetic energy;
a matter of perspective;
games?
 Lancaster University of Contemporary Art |  Lancaster University of Contemporary Art |
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Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts:
... And the setting sun
[Concept & Cast]
Awarded one of the top marks in the 22-year history of the module
This 'postmodern musical' was a devised ensemble performance inspired by dementia.
'I was one of the supervisors on her final third year practical group project (LICA 381) which gained the highest mark for this assessment in the cohort. This was a strikingly original and moving piece of devised work based on the theme of dementia drawing on ideas and aesthetic strategies studied on other third year modules. While very much a team effort, there is no question that its success owed in a very large part to Gloria’s contribution. She was very much a driving force in this piece of work, sharing vocal and physical skills and techniques learnt on her year abroad with the other students and encouraging them to work in a highly disciplined fashion and to build on their own accomplishments, pushing themselves to new and greater levels of achievement. Her own final performance in this piece was sensitive, subtle and beautifully executed and was highly commended by the examiners.'
— Professor Geraldine Harris, Lecturer and Academic Supervisor, Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts