CALL FOR DANCE ARTIST
Are you a youth dancer looking to experiment, play and create original performance works?
LAB = Dance x Music by *SCAPE is looking for 4 dance artist / dance groups from all genres (with the exception of Chinese dance) with interest in experimenting and collaborating with youth musicians from Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra to create a 7 – 10 minute performance item. Participants can expect a showcase at the end of the programme.
Dance artist / dance groups will also receive mentorship by dance mentor Melissa Quek and music mentor Wang Chen Wei during your creation journey each month.
Project timeline: June 2021 – September 2021
The following individuals are encouraged to apply:
- Individual / a group of up to 5 pax who are at least 18 years old and at most 34 years old at the time of registration
- Individuals / a group of up to 5 pax who have some experience in choreography and dance
*This programme is open for Singaporean/Permanent Residents age 15 – 35 only.
Interested participants are required to submit the following (and questions, if any) to dance@scape.sg by 2 June 2021, 2359 hours.
- CV and Portfolio or past works / choreographies
- 100 words write-up of why you would like to be apart of this project and what would you like to achieve from the programme
Successful applicants will be contacted by *SCAPE for an interview within the period of 3 – 8 June 2021.
SUBMIT TO DANCE@SCAPE.SG
Mentors
Melissa Quek
Prior to graduating with Honours from New York University’s highly competitive and prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, Melissa Quek was a dance-artist performing professionally with the tammy l. wong Dance Company in Singapore. With the National Arts Council Arts Bursary (Overseas), she attained a BFA with a double major in Dance and English and American Literature. In 2010, she received a coveted grant award from the University of Surrey’s Department of Dance, Film and Theatre to undertake Masteral studies and she completed her Masters of Arts, Dance Cultures in 2011.
Melissa had a successful professional career as a dance-artist, performing and choreographing internationally in the USA, Canada, Korea, China, Singapore and Malaysia. Her choreographic commissions in Singapore include the Substation Open-Call 2010, the M1 Fringe Festival 2009, Esplanade’s Octoburst! 2018 and she has been in the ArtGround’s Groundbreaker’s incubator residency in 2018 and 2019. She has also performed for choreographers Ricky Sim, Low Mei Yoke, Albert Tiong and Kuik Swee Boon. In 2017 she began The Kueh Tutus, a collective dedicated to creating dances and experiences for young and very young audiences. With her current role as Head, she enjoys expanding conceptions of dance for young audiences.
Melissa has a huge penchant for writing. Despite her busy schedule, Melissa has contributed reviews for The Business Times, short articles for Esplanade’s website, and in 2010, she was chosen by the Goethe Institute to represent Singapore at the Dance Reviewers workshop in Jakarta.
Her research and choreographic work deals with designing optimal dance experiences for specific age groups within the young and very young audience demographic.
Melissa contributes as a dance expert in dance curriculum design and serves on various grant and award panels for organisations and committees in Singapore, including the National Arts Council and the Ministry of Education.
Wang Chen Wei
Wang Chen Wei is Composer-in-Residence of Singapore Chinese Orchestra, adjunct faculty and composition supervisor at the National Institute of Education (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), and council member of the Singapore Chinese Music Federation. As Head of Research and Education at The TENG Company, he is the main co-author of The TENG Guide to the Chinese Orchestra (2019), a 624-page book on instrumentation and orchestration.
After graduating from Raffles Institution’s Gifted Education Programme with seven academic awards, Chenwei obtained his Magister Artium (five-year Master of Arts) with distinction and an Honorary Award (Würdigungspreis) from the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he studied composition and audio engineering under a scholarship from the Media Development Authority of Singapore.
At the age of 17, Chenwei composed The Sisters’ Islands, a symphonic poem which won the Singapore Composer Award at the 2006 Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition. This piece has been widely performed and recorded in various arrangements, most notably at Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural National Day concert in 2018.
Chenwei has received composition commissions by numerous organisations including the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Taipei Chinese Orchestra and the Ministry of Education of Singapore. He was commissioned by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra to compose four set pieces for the National Piano and Violin Competition 2019. Three of his compositions were commissioned as set pieces for the Singapore Youth Festival. His works have also been subjects of academic theses authored by three Taiwanese professors.
Additionally, Chenwei served as an adjudicator for Singapore’s National Chinese Music Competition 2020 and the Singapore Youth Festival Arts Presentation 2021 Guzheng ensemble category, as well as an external examiner for the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2021.
Chenwei’s efforts in composing, conducting, playing 12 musical instruments and writing in 12 languages was featured in Extraordinary People, a half-hour documentary broadcast on Singapore television on 12 May 2009. For his contributions to the music scene, Chenwei was conferred the Young Outstanding Singaporeans Award in 2011.
