ArtScience Encounters with T.H.E Dance Company: Searching Blue

Join us for an intimate and immersive encounter with Singapore’s leading contemporary dance company, T.H.E Dance Company, through their site-adaptive performance Searching Blue.

Delving into the intricate relationship between the self and the other and centred on the profound theme of “oneness”, this exclusive iteration—honed from insights gleaned during last year’s monthlong Southeast Asian tour—offers a refined interpretation tailored exclusively for ArtScience Museum.

Searching Blue draws inspiration from art, science and philosophy. The evocative performance is an invitation to rediscover the often-overlooked capabilities of the human body: sensing, perceiving, pondering and connecting with the world—and reconstructing the relationships that we as individuals share with one another and the wider environment around us.

Choreographed by founding artistic director Kuik Swee Boon and accompanied by Kent Lee’s stirring musical score, brace yourself for a contemplative journey of unity and personal discovery as we take you on a walk within and around ArtScience Museum.

Choreographer’s Notes

If we all had the ability to reach a nirvana-like state of “oneness” with the world and a sense of being at peace with all that happens, would you be willing to give it a try? Would you have any concerns about relinquishing your sense of self in turn?

Drawing inspiration from the Extended Mind Thesis¹ and Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight², Searching Blue is an attempt at rediscovering and understanding the body’s oft-neglected capabilities of sensing and perceiving as we ponder, and reconstruct, the relationships individuals share with each other and the world.

About the Company

The Human Expression (T.H.E) Dance Company was founded in 2008 by Artistic Director Kuik Swee Boon. Rooted firmly in Singapore yet universal in its perspective, T.H.E's contemporary dance works reveal the body as a medium for exploring and celebrating the human condition.

Dance artists at T.H.E are immersed in the Company's signature methodology, HollowBody™, which guides them to access their deeper instincts and impulses through movement. The Company's movement vocabulary is distinct in its intensely personal aesthetics yet thrilling in its diversity. Driven by a sincere desire to uncover the intricate, complex and oft-times overlooked dimensions of human existence, the Company's incisive observations on the human condition and its original creations are an essential mirror to the issues and rhythms of contemporary life.

As one of Singapore's seminal contemporary dance companies, T.H.E has performed and toured at many major and prestigious festivals in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, India, France, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Latvia, United Arab Emirates, Australia, and New Zealand.

Based on its vision of contemporary dance as a medium for nurturing human potential, T.H.E has also actively initiated numerous platforms to engage young artists and the wider public. Since it was founded, the Company has also started its semi-professional wing, T.H.E Second Company, which identifies and mentors dance artists who aspire to reach a professional standard of contemporary dance. In 2010, T.H.E also founded the cont·act Contemporary Dance Festival (previously known as the M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival) — the country's first annual contemporary dance festival to showcase local and international artists. The Company also regularly runs public classes, workshops, and customised programmes for schools and the community.

About the Choreographer

Founder and Artistic Director of T.H.E Dance Company (est. 2008) and its annual cont·act Contemporary Dance Festival (est. 2010), Kuik Swee Boon rose from performing in Singapore People’s Association Dance Company and Singapore Dance Theatre to becoming the principal dancer of Spain’s Compañia Nacional de Danza (CND) from 2002—2007, performing in works by then Artistic Director Nacho Duato, as well as renowned guest choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin and Wim Vandekeybus.

Under Swee Boon’s direction, T.H.E has become a seminal dance company with a signature voice derived from training in his HollowBody™ methodology, developed from 2016. This methodology informs Swee Boon’s repertoire of works for T.H.E that has toured many international festivals, including a 360° virtual reality (VR) adaptation of PheNoumenon (2019) created during the pandemic. His numerous commissions include Infinitely Closer (2022) for Esplanade’s da:ns festival, which also marked the opening of the Singtel Waterfront Theatre.

Swee Boon is a 2007 Young Artist Award recipient, a 2003 Benois De La Danse Award nominee, and a 2021—2023 fellow with the International Society for the Performing Arts.

About the Sound Artist

Kent Lee is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist currently based in Malaysia. Having started out with his indie-pop band Fast Food Generation, it was through his frequent sessions with ambient artist, flica (aka Euseng Seto) that he found himself gravitating towards the experimental side of music.

For the past few years, Kent has composed, recorded and performed for various dance and musical theatre productions in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, including award-winning Seni Tiga’s multi-disciplinary performance, Impermanence; and Singaporean ground-breaking contemporary dance company, T.H.E Dance Company’s PheNoumenon, Everyone, A Beautiful Day and Infinitely Closer.

Besides his musical output, Kent constantly pushes boundaries with other mediums, including a series of performance art under his latest multi-disciplinary collaboration, Shaman Tearoom.

Artistic & Production Team

Concept & Direction: Kuik Swee Boon

Choreography: Kuik Swee Boon in collaboration with the performers

Performers: Klievert Jon Mendoza, Haruka Leilani Chan, Chang En, Jhou Han-Wei, Carmelita Nuelle Buay

Rehearsal Assistants: Fiona Thng, Billy Keohavong

Sound Design, Composition & Performance: Kent Lee

Dramaturg-in-Training: Shridar Mani

Production Stage Management: Lee Xinzhi

Production Intern: Low Anthea

Performance Photography: Bernie Ng

Documentary Videography: Weilee Yap

Producing Team

General Manager: Athelyna Swee

Executive Assistant to General Manager: Sim Yan Ying "YY"

Business Development Manager: Kevin Yeoh

Communications Strategist: Crispian Chan

Communications & Festival Manager: Kwek Yixuan

¹Extended Mind Thesis, coined by Andy Clark and David Chalmers (1998). In philosophy of mind, the Extended Mind Thesis says that the mind does not exclusively reside in the brain or even the body but extends into the physical world.

²My Stroke of Insight is a book and a TED talk by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor which detailed her experiences of “oneness” and metaphysical connectivity with the world in the immediate aftermath of suffering from a stroke.