Dancing With the Ghost of My Child by Effendy Ibrahim, Ruby Jayaseelan and Nanyang Academy of Arts (Singapore)

Dates and Times:

9 January 2025, Thursday, 8pm

10 January 2025, Friday, 8pm

11 January 2025, Saturday, 3pm & 8pm

12 January 2025, Sunday, 3pm

a unique approach, rather bold and different

—Natya Vichara on Purushi by Ruby Jayaseelan

I know [Effendy's work] will express a kind of pain and anger acceptable in the performance space, a pain and anger that is often delegitimised or minimised or considered “inappropriate” elsewhere—and I cherish his work for that reason.

—Corrie Tan, Jom Media on ANAK by Very Shy Gurl by fendy

I myself am an absolute abyss.

—Antonin Artaud

In the beginning, God created despair, for men to find hope within. Someone heard someone else say this somewhere before, sometime back. But no one knows who, when and where. It must have been God herself who had said this through some men. Only God could be that smart to tease men into such futility. And here, men find themselves being baited into their own despair.

Directed by Noor Effendy Ibrahim and choreographed by Ruby Jayaseelan, Dancing with the Ghost of My Child is an experimental physical theatre performance exploring vulnerability, trauma and the desire to heal. It is devised by students from the BA (Hons) in Performance Making programme at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Co-presented with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (a founding member of the University of the Arts Singapore).

Accessibility features: Open captions in English for all shows.

There will be a dialogue with the artists after the 8pm performances on 10 and 11 January 2025, with speech to text interpretation available upon request for the dialogue on 10 January 2025. Please email your request to [email protected] by 6 December 2024.

General

Once tickets are sold, there are strictly no cancellation, exchange or refund.

For concession tickets, random verification checks may be carried out at the theatre.

Photography

Photography and videography are strictly not allowed during the performance.

Accessibility

We welcome patrons who need accessible seating arrangements—including wheelchair users, those who require access to open captions, and those with assistance dogs.

Due to varying production designs and seating configurations, please contact us at [email protected] before booking your ticket so we can share more information about seating and routes with you. You can also find more information about accessibility at the Fringe website.

For queries or more information, please contact us at [email protected].

NANYANG ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS

Founded in 1938, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of the ArtsSingapore, has nurtured artists imbued with the courage to create in traditional and contemporary art practices. Through industry-led practices and experiential learning, it builds upon rich cultural heritage, promoting an innovative spirit and artistic imagination in Southeast Asia.

DIRECTOR – NOOR EFFENDY IBRAHIM

Noor Effendy Ibrahim is a Singapore-based interdisciplinary arts practitioner, and his practice interrogates the complexities of identity politics contextualized within domestic spaces, particularly that of the Malay-Muslim. Effendy began his practice in 1991 and had been the Artistic Director of The Substation (2010-2015), and Teater Ekamatra (2001-2006). Effendy is currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of Fine Art, Faculty of Art & Design, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and is currently practising under the name of Very Shy Gurl by fendy.

CHOREOGRAPHER – RUBY JAYASEELAN

Ruby Jayaseelan is an interdisciplinary movement artist, who trained in Bharatanatyam with Cultural Medallion recipient Srimathi Neila Sathyalingam of Apsaras Arts (Singapore) and Kalakshetra Foundation (Chennai, India). These, along with her exposure to Western techniques of the somatic and experimental movement, have informed her movement pedagogy and practices. She is currently an Associate Artist with Teater Ekamatra and has worked with local theatre and dance companies in prominent works like Ghost Writer (The Necessary Stage) and Hungry Stones (Chowk). Her own creations Flowers, Birds and Guns, Sakhi, and Purushi have been presented at festivals such as Pinkfest.

SOUND ARTIST – ANTARMUKA

Electric duo ANTARMUKA is helmed by Syafiq Halid and Rosemainy Buang. Formed in Singapura on the foundation of a decade-long friendship, ANTARMUKA experiments with finding the balance between analogue sensibilities and the digital world, with influences from the Nusantara region.

LIGHTING DESIGNER – FAITH LIU YONG HUAY

Faith Liu Yong Huay is honoured to have worked on numerous theatre and dance productions in Singapore as a lighting designer. In September 2017, she co-founded 微 Wei Collective with theatre practitioner Neo Hai Bin. She explores giving breath to spaces, objects and bodies with light.

She is trained at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in Lighting Design (2016), under the National Arts Council Arts Scholarship (Postgraduate).