The two dance artists, Shu En Ho and Syimah Sabtu, and Artistic Director, Hasyimah Harith, during rehearsal at P7:1SMA studio.
While the spotlight is usually on the stage, there is an immense amount of work and preparation that goes on behind the scenes to produce any arts production. Since January 2021, the Arts Management Collective (AMC) has been working to produce RE:CALL, a movement work presented under Centre 42’s Vault series. While the experience has been challenging, it has also pushed the team to fully comprehend how being an arts manager is an expansive role that involves much more than just administrative work. Arts managers need to be flexible and versatile, so as to support and enable the arts in multifold ways.
How It All Began
RE:CALL originated as a class assignment for ACM201: Introduction to Performing Arts Management, an Arts and Culture Management Programme module that was co-taught by Centre 42 at Singapore Management University in 2020. The assignment brief was to develop a proposal to promote Singapore theatre through a presentation which responds to a local theatre production created in the 2000s.
The RE:CALL team chose to respond to the theatrical work Recalling Mother, first written and performed by theatre practitioners Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed in 2006. Recalling Mother’s script is based on Claire’s and Noorlinah’s memories and relationships with their mothers. Through dance, RE:CALL would explore maternal relationships as well as spotlight a unique work in Singapore theatre history.
After ACM201 concluded, Centre 42 selected RE:CALL to be produced. The project team – comprising Victoria Wong, Janice Yap, Ho Shu En, Charlotte Tan, Megan Hon and Jeffrey Kang – began work under the auspices of AMC. The team is joined by Carissa Lim, an alumnus of the Arts and Culture Management Programme.
The Artistic Team
The first step in realising RE:CALL was to assemble an artistic team that would devise and perform the work.
Shu En, who originated the concept behing RE:CALL, is a street dance artist. She is accompanied by Syimah Sabtu, a Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts dance graduate whose practice is rooted in Malay folk dance and contemporary dance. Syimah is also an associate artist with P7:1SMA, a dance performance company that creates intimate and innovative movement experiences, and a key collaborator on RE:CALL. Devising workshops for RE:CALL have been taking place at Rumah P7:1SMA, P7:1SMA’s studio space at Stamford Arts Centre.
P7:1SMA co-founder Hasyimah Harith rounds off the artistic team as artistic director. Both Syimah and Hasyimah were personally interested in exploring the theme of motherhood through dance; the latter, in particular, recently became a mother herself as well.
“Hasyimah being pregnant herself adds another new lens as she would share her own anxieties about becoming a new mother during rehearsals,” shared Carissa. “Being able to collaborate with partners who have both professional alignments and personal interests in the project has deeply enriched the project.”
In addition, Victoria and Janice have been lending dramaturgical assistance to the artistic team. While dramaturgy isn’t something arts managers typically involve themselves with, Victoria and Janice have experience analysing texts – they helped the artistic team identify possible literary devices and tropes from Recalling Mother that could be useful for the devising process.
They have also been prodding the artistic team to explore questions such as: What are the unique characteristics of theatre and dance as two unique art forms, and how could this movement response acknowledge but also bridge the distinctive divides? How faithful should this response be to the original text? Is it important for the audience to be able to identify and relate to the original theatrical text during the dance performance? How can this movement response push boundaries and add value to the existing local arts ecosystem?
Shu En found the presence of the dramaturgs helpful in the devising process. She added, “Different collaborators contribute their own unique sets of expertise to refine and strengthen the art-making process. Having members of our producing team stepping up to act as dramaturgs shows that arts managers are not simply just administrators, but creative individuals who will prioritise and enable the art-making process by lending their unique strengths and capabilities.”
The Arts Management Collective during an online meeting with Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed.
A Living Script
On 5 March 2021, the artistic team and AMC met with Claire and Noorlinah over Zoom. In the conversation, the Recalling Mother artists shared that with each subsequent restaging, their script would change with the passage of time bringing new memories and life events, as well as fresh insights into their relationships with their mothers. In this way, Recalling Mother could continuously evolve as a “living script”.
For the artistic team, this living script methodology made it apparent that RE:CALL could not simply be a rehash of Claire’s and Noorlinah’s stories; rather, the movement response needed to be based on the artists own personal memories and emotions. RE:CALL could only hope to have subsequent lives if the dance artists had personally invested themselves right from the first iteration.
Another interesting point that emerged from the conversation with Claire and Noorlinah was how their friendship was integral to the creation of Recalling Mother. It allowed them to be vulnerable, sensitive and empathetic while excavating their personal memories. Creative work could also continue outside of the rehearsal room, particularly over a good meal!
Following in Claire and Noorlinah’s footsteps, the artistic team realised that they had to develop their relationship with each other – not just personally, but also in terms of an exchange of dance forms and styles. They spent many hours teaching and learning from each other to discover synergies between their differing dance backgrounds. For example, Shu En, with her street dance background, would reimagine Syimah’s delicate Malay folk dance movements with a groovier twist.
“Many rehearsals were often open-ended with no precise plan or goal in sight. They primarily consisted of the dance artists spending time learning and imitating each other’s movements,” observed dramaturg Victoria. “It was necessary to build trust, comfort and mutual respect between the two dance artists, and was key to improving their dance chemistry.”
Engaging Audiences
Charlotte, Janice, Jeffrey and Megan worked together to document the process of devising RE:CALL using a variety of recording methods, from note-taking and drawings, to photographs and video recordings. Documenting the journey of RE:CALL has been an integral component of the project, not just in terms of informing the artistic team’s reflection and refinement but also in heightening the producing team’s reflexivity and sensitivity to the nuances of the artistic process.
Additionally, the documentation material was also used to help attract, educate and engage potential audiences and facilitate a deeper understanding of the contextual information of RE:CALL. Janice, who co-designed the visuals for RE:CALL, pointed out that possible audiences also differed widely. With the interdisciplinary nature of the project, RE:CALL has the potential to attract audiences interested in theatre, dance, and/or interdisciplinary collaborations. There would also be audiences who would not know about Recalling Mother and its history.
With the complexity of the project, its communications strategy needed to accomplish several goals: explain what RE:CALL is about; promote the history of Recalling Mother and its relation to
The two dance artists devising movements based on their recollections of their mothers.
RE:CALL; and illuminate the devising process by the RE:CALL artistic team. Furnishing audiences with this information would both seed anticipation and promote appreciation of the artistic value of the project.
Janice said, “A key challenge has been to develop an overall communications strategy that would reach out to these multiple audience groups, but also not send conflicting messages.”
Going Above and Beyond
RE:CALL has been an invaluable experience for AMC to learn and apply our arts management skills and knowledge outside of a classroom setting. The team not only undertakes the production of the project, but is also heavily involved in artistic development, documentation, and even audience engagement. Being part of more aspects of the behind-the-scenes processes has afforded a more rounded perspective of and a greater sense of commitment to the project.
Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to arts management. Every arts project comes with its own challenges and opportunities – it is the duty of arts managers to meet all these head on.
The Vault: RE:CALL is originally scheduled as a public live event on 19 & 20 June 2021. In view of the health advisories and tightened safe management measures announced on 14 May 2021, this programme will be postponed to a later part of August 2021.
By Arts Management Collective
Published on 24 May 2021