QUESTIONS & DANCERS

3pm-5pm
Sunday 5 March 2023

Venue: Studio 1, The 1ncubator, Petaling Jaya Performing Arts Centre
Free entry, registration online: https://tinyurl.com/questionsdancers

What was the best advice you received, when you were starting out in your career? What was the most difficult thing you ever faced, in your dance career? Did you ever want to stop working in dance, and why?

In celebration of International Women’s Day, this forum session supports women in the Malaysian contemporary dance community to ask questions, have their voices heard, and their issues addressed.

We can’t wait to hear your questions! We have invited three trailblazing leaders in Malaysian dance — Aida Redza, Marion D’Cruz and Choong Wan Chin — to respond, to share their experience, wisdom and perspectives, and to raise their own questions too.

Everyone is welcome to join the live session at PJ Performing Arts Centre. The session will also be broadcast online on Facebook live, and questions will be taken from both live and online audiences. Questions will also be generated by the speakers themselves, as well as from online forms publicised before the event.

 

Studies show that women generally ask fewer questions in a professional environment than men do. Women are more likely to feel intimidated by figures of authority, or to worry that their own questions are not appropriate, or that they are not clever enough. They are concerned about taking up too much space or slowing down the discussion.

This forum session is part of a series produced by MyDance Alliance to acknowledge International Women’s Day. The series addresses ongoing inequalities for women in the dance field, where they are underrepresented in positions of authority as choreographers, artistic directors, and festival directors. This series, which began with the performance platform Protégées at PJPAC in March 2022, seeks to provide positive role models for emerging women leaders and enhance the visibility of women’s contributions to the field.

This event is part of the series MyDance@PJPAC, in partnership with Petaling Jaya Performing Arts Centre. Produced and moderated by Bilqis Hijjas, Secretary, MyDance Alliance.

 

AIDA REDZA is an artist who takes on the role of the penjaga (guardian), with a mission to initiate creative projects that nurture, heal and transform, by bringing her works closer to people to highlight the stories and concerns about the everyday. Based in Penang, Malaysia, Aida is the founder of WindRiver Productions, artistic principal of Studio Pentas and a member of Ombak-Ombak ARTStudio. WindRiver Productions was founded to support her interest in collaborative works with multidisciplinary artists and social activists to express and represent the issues that matter. Aida continues to evolve as a socially-engaged artist committed to creating performances that are inclusive and collaborative, situated between art and the everyday, to raise awareness and advocate for the causes she believes in.

 

MARION F. D’CRUZ, a founding member of Five Arts Centre (est. 1984), graduated with a BA in Performing Arts (1977) and an MA in Dance (1979) from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. She has studied traditional, modern, and contemporary dance in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, London, and New York. One of the pioneers of contemporary dance in Malaysia, her work has gone through many phases – the search for a Malaysian identity in contemporary dance, the socio-political commentary, working with ‘non-performers’, the democratization of the artistic space. She has broken many rules and continues to do so in search of interesting projects that empower performers and audiences alike. More recently, she has been creating unique performance structures that allow artists and non-artists to come into and tell their stories.

Marion teaches fulltime in the Dance Faculty of the National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage (ASWARA – Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan). She is manager of the Krishen Jit Fund (est. 2006), and continues to produce, perform, and choreograph.

 

CHOONG WAN CHIN is Founder and Artistic Director of KL Dance Works. She co-founded Ballet Theatre Malaysia in September 2020 and was the Artistic Director till December 2022.

A graduate of the Shanghai Dance School, she has danced with the Singapore Dance Theatre and Shanghai Ballet Company. Upon receiving her Master Degree of Fine Arts in Dance and Integrated Media at California Institute of the Arts, USA, she joined Ena Ballet Studio, Japan as Resident Choreographer and Principal teacher and co-founded Ena Ballet Studio Company.

Since 2010, Wan Chin has been invited to bring her choreographies back to Malaysia. She has staged 10 major productions, full-length ballet repertoires and International Ballet Galas at the Istana Budaya Kuala Lumpur and in 2015 collaborated with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in creating ‘Carmen in Dance and Paquita Grand pas Classic’.

Wan Chin has been invited to guest teach and present her choreographies in USA, Japan, Colombia, Thailand and Singapore.