Front Row

Storytelling can be a powerful way of providing a voice to communities that often don’t have platforms for self-expression. As part of the Freedom FilmFest 2018, a participatory storytelling workshop is being held for Orang Asli girls and young women, they will be encouraged to explore their challenges with education through storytelling and performance. We speak to the trainers of the works...

Lee Ren Xin and Lee Mun Wai, unrelated, met and developed a dance together. One from Malaysia and the other from Singapore. The dance exploration started without preconceived premises. No overarching existential questions. But out of that devising process, doing tasks, the emergence of themes and ideas that focus on the relationship between two people(s), two genders, two bodies, two objects when...

What do a sarong, pottu, and wantan mee have in common? Well, they’ve each inspired a performance in the third edition of “Tiga”, a platform for new and emerging performing arts practitioners by the Five Arts Centre. In every edition, the creators are given three objects to create a performance around. We speak to the folks behind this latest edition on their creative process. Se...

A dance production called “Aadya” by Suvarna Fine Arts celebrates the female energy of the cosmos, by bringing together bharatanatyam, carnatic music, and verses and stories from ancient Hindu texts. We speak to the creators of the show, Ajith Bhaskar Dass, and Achyuthan Sashidaran Nair, about the many ways in which such classical works can continue to be relevant in contemporary times...

Most people would assume that babies had no business being at a theatre performance. One production, however, doesn’t only welcome babies, but is created especially for them. “Journey of a Baby Butterfly” is the first theatre production in Malaysia specifically for babies, from a relatively new approach called baby theatre. We speak to the creators of the show to discover how exa...

Is photography only for the sighted? A group of seven visually-impaired photographers beg to differ, with an exhibition of their works that employ sensory photography - photography that employs senses other than just sight to create images. We speak to Vivien Kwek and Svivabalan Selvarajan, two of the photographers on show, and Ken Goh, one of the organisers, about sensory photography and how it c...

In the exhibition “Liku-Liku”, artists Nicholas Choong and Muhammad Hafiz Azizi focus on cityscapes, using their individual techniques to frame urban life and spaces in particular ways. We speak to Nicholas, Azizi, and the show’s curator Raja Anuar Sifuddin about capturing the city, in all its contradictions, on canvas. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With Malaysia Day just around the corner, there is a lot of conversation happening about East Malaysia. But why do Sabah and Sarawak mostly come to our minds only when it is time to celebrate Malaysia Day? The arts and culture industries, too, are not exempt from being problematic with issues like inclusion and representation when it comes to Sabah and Sarawak. So do artists and creators from East...

Kayhan Kalhor is a Grammy-winning master of the kamancheh, a Persian string instrument also known as the Iranian spike fiddle. He is bringing his skill with the instrument to a Malaysian audience in a concert called “Under the Persian Musical Sky”, alongside Kiya and Ziya Tabassian of the acclaimed Constantinople Ensemble. The concert is the first in a planned series by Pusaka and the...

Back in the country for the third year running is a magician, clown, mime artist, dancer, acrobat, juggler, musician, actor and all-round you-can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him performer. Beyond lifting the curtain a little to give us a sneak look at his one-man family-show ‘Cloud Soup’, which is holding its World Premiere here, he tells about the need for children to spend time in the...

The artist who has often made nature the subject of his works now presents nature as the object of global warming. He documents with his brushes, paints and canvases “the effects of environmental degradation linked to climate change.” Adding to the changes are man-created deforestation and the building of concrete jungles in the name of development. This seventh solo exhibition by the...

Indian singer Benny Dayal has been making waves for his unique vocal stylings and his performances in some of Indian cinema’s recent hit films, particularly his collaborations with acclaimed music composer A.R. Rahman. Benny and his band, Funktuation, will be performing in Kuala Lumpur at the Malaysia Independent Live Fusion Festival. We speak to him about his unique approach to music, his j...

When we talk about the conservation of heritage sites, we often talk about it as being separate from the people and communities who are linked to those places. Sarmistha Chatterjee is a conservation architect from India who emphasises and works with those connections. We speak to Sarmistha about her work and the importance of communities in the conservation of cultural heritage. See omnystudio.com...

The Ramayana is one of the best known Indian mythological epics, and it continues to offer fresh angles of exploration for artists and performers. “I Am Ravana” by Australian company Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya is a dance-drama production that explores this story by focusing on the character positioned as the villain, Ravana - and by doing so, questioning and complicating notions of good...

The Kota Kinabalu Arts Festival is an initiative by SPArKS in an effort to assist in the development of the Performing Arts industry in Sabah. It is holding its annual festival. Our producer talks to its president about the performing arts scene in KK, the opportunities and challenges and the offerings for this year’s festival. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The tradition of the wayang kulit has been passed down through three generations in this family of practitioners, from “tok dalang”, the late Hussin Yusoff, to his young grandson who is currently training for the role himself. We speak to the family about keeping this traditional Malaysian art form alive, and sustaining it for a new generation of performers. See omnystudio.com/listener...

One of Malaysia’s most renowned artists, Latiff Mohidin, became the first Southeast Asian to be featured in the Centre Pompidou in Paris earlier this year, in an exhibition presented by the National Gallery Singapore. The retrospective, called “Latiff Mohidin: Pago Pago (1960-1969)”, is now being shown in Kuala Lumpur at the ILHAM Gallery. We speak to Latiff Mohiddin and curator...

For Raja Ahmad Aminullah, words are a means to resist. What is the point of poetry, he asks, if it isn’t to question the injustices of the world? As Malaysia prepares to celebrate its first Merdeka Day under a new government, we speak to Raja Ahmad about his latest books - both poetry and prose - and why it is essential for writers to continue questioning the system. See omnystudio.com/liste...

Jasmine Chen is a jazz musician and songwriter from Shanghai who brings China’s rich musical heritage into the world of jazz. One of China’s leading jazz musicians, she combines Western compositions with Chinese lyrics. Most recently, Jasmine performed in and recorded the soundtrack for Hollywood film “Crazy Rich Asians”. Ahead of her performance in Kuala Lumpur, we speak t...

The photographer walks our producer through the exhibits detailing why he has decided to make a visually-challenged the subject of his black-and-white works. He tells about his process and the person who is the subject of his works: a visually impaired 70-year-old who was formerly a school teacher turned trainer at the Malaysian Association of the Blind, now a happy busker. See omnystudio.com/list...

Photographer Kenny Loh began the “Born in Malaysia” photography project in 2010 as a way to document the people, places, and stories that make up the country. In its latest iteration, he focuses specifically on Kuala Lumpur, and captures through his lens the spirit of this ever-changing capital, as well as the pockets of history that still lay hidden within. We speak to Kenny about cap...

Kevin Bathman is a Malaysian-born curator, storyteller, and social change advocate who has been based in Australia. He is perhaps best known as the founder of ‘The Chindian Diaries ‘, a project that combines visual and oral history to document cross-cultural stories between the Chinese and Indian communities. The project has since spun off into various forms, including exhibitions and...

The Tuyang Initiative works with the indigenous communities of Sarawak to promote culture and heritage, with the aim of both preserving these aspects and creating sustainable economic activities for these communities. The initiative is taking part in this year’s Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival, and one of the performers who will be featured is Mathew Ngau Jau, renowned sape master who was d...

What is it about Tchaikovsky’s iconic ballet “Swan Lake” that continues to fascinate choreographers, performers, and audiences alike? With Ballet West UK staging the Asian premiere of the show here in Malaysia, we speak to lead dancers Jonathan Barton and Natasha Watson about their roles and the experience of bringing one of the most popular ballets of all time to the stage.&nbsp...

This musical first premiered in 2010 and ran for 35 performances. This tale about HIV/ AIDS is set in Malaysia and so captures the local responses to the disease and to those affected by it. The writer, Mark has updated the story on account of the medical progress made against this illness. And as the story is updated, so is the music to capture a more Broadway-show tune feel. See omnystudio.com/l...