ASSOCIATE
ARTISTS
A multidisciplinary part-time artist born in Ipoh, Malaysia, Carmen started her performing arts journey at a tender age of 4 where she was enrolled into ballet classes so that her mother could have at least 1 hour of 'quiet and peace' every week. Before arriving at Singapore to complete her Diploma in Dance in Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), she was actively performing in the local productions in Ipoh, involving herself in both dance and musical theatre works. Most recently, she performed in Dek Hujan (2018) in Pesta Raya at the Esplanade with P7:1SMA. To achieve her motto of living life with no regrets and to achieve that, a minimum of 2 cups of coffee daily is a necessity for her to make decisions on a day to day basis. Fun fact about her includes her ability to sing for 6 hours straight with minimal breaks in between songs.
Carmen
Pang
Chew Shaw En is a dance artist from Singapore. Dance immersions and other platforms have led her to dance in Taiwan, Barcelona, London and Korea before she began formal dance training at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts where she has worked with local and international choreographers such as Richard Chappell, Lucy Marinkovich, Mel O'Callaghan, Lee Mun Wai, Lim Fei Shen, Kevin Wynn and Ezekiel Oliveira. While on exchange to SUNY Purchase College she co-initiated 'The Happening' - a recurring sound, lights and movement exploratory event. Upon graduating in the summer of 2018 she has performed in M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival, as a project dancer for P7:1SMA, and had her choreography 'komastai' staged at The Esplanade. She just completed an extended internship at Frontier Danceland Company where she performed with the company for a season doing works by Deborah Nightingale née Galloway; Sascia Pellegrini and Low Mei Yoke. She is currently freelancing.
Chew Shaw En
Chloe is a movement artist based in Singapore. She has performed and trained internationally with Romançon Dance Company (Manila), B Supreme (London), Ecole Des Sables (Senegal), Omi International Dance Collective (Hudson), Evidence/Ronald Brown Dance Community (New York), Movement Research (New York), and Gati Dance Forum (New Delhi). Currently, she performs for local dance companies P7:1SMA and Chowk that work in-between the space of both traditional and contemporary; she is also an Associate Artist with Dance Nucleus. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art from the School of Oriental and African Studies (London). When she's not dancing or writing, she is immersed with nature and finds pleasure in nothingness. www.chloechotrani.com
Chloe
Chotrani
Desmond
Soh Jin Kai
Desmond is a recent graduate from the Intercultural Theatre Institute. He is also from the 2nd batch of ARTivate, the youth wing of Drama Box. His ost recent credits include Our Town (ITI), Leakage(s) and Anticoagulants (ITI), and Se7en (Red Dot August 2017). Desmond plans to continue his work in performance, exploring theatrical structures and how they can create spaces for conversations in the community.
A dancer and choreographer trained in Malay performing art forms, Ismail Jemaah (b. 1990) dives into Malay dance to make sense of his personal experiences and beliefs and explores contemporary dance through the lens of his roots as his catalyst. He believes that arts and movement provide the freedom for people to create a connection, even across differing beliefs or opinions. Ismail is also a resident instructor and choreographer in Azpirasi Dance Group, a traditional and contemporary dance group under artistic director and founder, Mr Azmi Juhari. Through all his involvements, Ismail seeks to continually stretch himself to see how the world we live in can be shared, through the body we move with.
Ismail
Jemaah
Johanna
Lee
Jojo graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in 2019. She developed an intrest in Malay dance ever since she completed her Asian Dance Technique in NAFA and decieded to explore more into the malay dance contemporary scene. Jojo has completed her internship at the Kaizen M.D and performed for Malay Cultural Fest 2018, Nausantara Berdoa. She is currently a Project Artist in P7:1SMA LTD where she performed her first project, KEMAS by Norhaizad Adam, for PESTA RAYA, Malay Arts Festival 2018. Jojo staged her first dance creation work earlier in January 2019 at NAFA's Open House Dancers @ Work, Pursuit of Happiness. Some of her recent performances include NAFA's 80th Anniversary, Crossings 2018, Phantasmagoria Of Dreams by Gillian Tan, 2018 graduating show, Dancers @ Work, Conformity by Klivert Mendoza and ITE's 25 Anniversary Musical, Letters to ITE.
Jonit
On
Jonit is a dance artist based in Singapore working closely with P7:1SMA Ltd. as a project artist. She graduated with a Diploma in Dance from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and has supplemented her training with the Gaga Intensive Summer Course in 2018 and the Second Company Training Initiative under The Human Expression (T.H.E) Second Company. She has had the privilege of working with and performing works by Norhaizad Adam, Anthea Seah, Lim Fei Shen, Ezekiel Oliveira and Shahrin Johry. She has also performed on local platforms such as liTHE by T.H.E Second Company, Pesta Raya and da:ns festival.
Graduated from National University of Singapore (NUS) with Masters of Landscape Architecture and Bachelor of Arts (Architecture), Kow Xiao Jun works predominantly in the field of dance, theatre and design. Since her first contact with the arts scene in 1995, not only does she perform, she has also been teaching and nurturing the young since 2007. She recently started her director journey, working with CHIA on Mr Magnolia (2017) which received the Life! Theatre Award Best Production for the Young 2018 and ANG Gey Pin on The Silly Little Girl and The Funny Old Tree (2019). She continues to venture in her artistic journey by collaborating with and learning from various companies and freelance artistes.
Kow
Xiao Jun
Pat
Toh Yiling
Pat Toh theatre performer and maker; her work lies in the corporeal in performance. She sees the body as material that has the potential to engage the audience into realms of micro and macro perceptions. A Shell- NAC Arts Scholarship recipient, she trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (Australia) and graduated with a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts (Acting). She holds a Masters of Arts from the National Institute of Education (Singapore). In 2014, Pat was part of Substation Directors Lab where she research into the physicality of fighting. Between 2014-2015, she created Homogenous (Raw Series at Esplanade) and developed it into Terra Incognita for the M1 Fringe Festival. In 2017, she was Substation artist-in-residence and created Sole, a one- on-one massage performance. That same year she choreographed A Map of Scars, Bruises and Broken Bones as part of Substation Discipline the City exhibition. In 2018, she was associate artist at Dance Nucleus where she developed The Map, which was showcased at the Indonesia Dance Festival.
Sharul
Mohammed
Sharul is a versatile dance artist with multifaceted experience comprising choreographic work, teaching and performance. From 2007 he has been a Malay dance practitioner with Artiste Seni Budaya, under the tutelage of Mr Rizman Kassim. He developed a well-honed craft in the various traditional and folk forms of Malay dance. With experience performing on international stages (Poland, Korea, Sabah, Bulgaria, Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur), and through a wide variety of platforms and collaborative works, Sharul has deepened his unique perspectives: his dance artistry and choreographic creativity are grounded in intricate expression and complexity of movement. He is dedicated to bringing traditional Malay dance closer to society by assisting people to relate to the art form in new ways, thus keeping the tradition alive and relevant. Sharul is passionate in creating contemporary works that explore movement language of Malay traditional form. Upon graduation from BA (Hons) Dance from LASALLE College of the Arts, he would like to nurture his practice and create more choreographies.
Syarifuddin
Sahari
He started out in street dance at 17 and now mainly practices HipHop, House, Dancehall & African, yet having interest in other forms of movement and performance. He believes that dance as movement is a universal language that shares vocabulary and concepts, and is open to finding new ways to move and explore in order to better communicate physically. Intrigue, fascination, curiosity, wonder and understanding are some of the fuels that drive his actions and behaviour. He is currently exploring the relation between sound and movement. He can be a bit...eccentric, at some times even more so.
Syimah
Sabtu
Syimah Sabtu holds a Diploma in Dance from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and a Diploma in Theatre and Arts Management from Republic Polytechnic. Syimah has choreographed a few works, H A S E R being the most recent that explores the duality of being, which recognises silence in strength that was showcased at Singapore M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival 2019 and Dance Bridge Festival 2019 in Kolkata, India.
In her years of dance, she has worked with both local and international choreographers such as Norhaizad Adam, Lee Mun Wai, Noramin Farid, Goh Lay Kuan, Lim Fei Shen, Dr Filomar Tariao, Ezekiel Oliveira and Martín Piliponsky. She has been awarded the Arts & Cultural Award by Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan in 2016 & 2017, and the Merit Award by Tan Chin Tuan Foundation in 2018.
Xie
Shangbin
Xie Shangbin (b. 1982, Singapore) is also active in the community of Playback Theatre and Contact Improvisation. As a performer, he is an Associate Artist with P7:1SMA and a member of 好久不见剧团 (in English, Long Time No See Playback Theatre). Shangbin has been acting stage theatre productions once a year since 2014. Shangbin is grateful that he was exposed to movement training through Dance Nucleus from 2016, without which he would not be introduced to the domain of bodywork and joy from movement. He is delighted to be a member of P7:1SMA, which he considers to be a wonderful kampung village consisting of an eclectic bunch of creative spirits. Shangbin’s 2019 performing credits include Kemas, José Maceda’s Cassettes 100, Project Transit: Echoes of Waterloo, Complexnya, 《傻姑娘与怪老树》, District 18 and Simone Forti’s Dance Constructions.
Sonia is a performer, performance-maker and facilitator who explores the body as material and body politics through varying artistic manifestations. Her work moves between theatre, performance art and dance. Sonia received her training in acting from the Intercultural Theatre Institute, Singapore (ITI) and was a recipient of the ITI-William Teo Scholarship. Sonia also holds a Bachelor of Creative Industries (Drama) with Distinction, a study in interdisciplinary practice, from Queensland University of Technology, Australia (QUT).
Sonia often creates collaboratively and is interested in disruptive intersections. She is proud to be an associate artist with P7:1SMA, as existing in-between aligns strongly with her own philosophy. Her work Hymen Instinct, which she wrote and performs solo in, was selected for the 2018 Asia Weekend Theatre Festival and toured to Taiwan as part of the double-bill Alternative Lessons for Women which she produced with Tan Weiying. Currently, Sonia is working on her first installation and exhibition ‘red thread’, a collaboration with artist ila, coming up in Dec 2019 at The Substation sad bar.
