Singapore has a 500-year memory gap in its history, starting with its founding by Sang Nila Utama and ending with the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles. Everyone familiar with Singaporean history knows the dates and events of those two points of history of the country, but there are 500 whole years between the two. So what happened in Singapore in those 500 years? The short answer is, no one really knows for sure.
That’s where Singapore’s Era Dance Theatre comes in. The leader of the dance troupe wants to bond dance and performance together to tell the story of what might have taken place in the lost 500 years of Singapore’s history. Not meant to be taken as historical canon, the performance will feature classic and contemporary music, singing, acting, and dancing. The dance troupe leader, who has organized and coordinated this performance, says he is happy to be working on something with so large a scale.
What will be examined and performed as a part of the event is the legendary sighting of a lion that gave Singapore its name and informed important aspects of the culture. Sang Nila Utama’s sighting might have been less than literal, as lions are not typical fauna of Singapore. However, as lions are important to Buddhism and Singapore’s founder was a practicing Buddhist, the lion might have been more of a spiritual sighting than anything else.
The performance won’t be completely made up from out of thin air. Officials from the dance troupe are using an academic paper theorizing what might’ve happened during those missing 500 years. What officials do know is that Singapore was a busy port, and the performance will celebrate that. Officials for the dance troupe hope that viewers of the performance will come away from it excited about the contributions Malays had to the history and development of Singapore, including inspiring young people to learn more about their heritage.
This is just the beginning for the dance troupe, who is also focusing on deeper partnerships with an academic group to offer an academy. Though the academy does not yet have a physical location, officials with both the dancing troupe and the school are working together to develop curriculum for incoming students. Types of programs that will be offered includes instruction on many different forms of art, creative research projects, writing and publishing books, and other endeavors.
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To read more about the dance troupe and its performance, go to http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/imagining-singapores-past.