By Lee, Xin Ying written on 09-Jan-2012
National Library Board Singapore

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One of Singapore’s dazzling young choreographers, Joavien Ng Bong Na, 黄梦娜 (b. 1973, Singapore -) is a dance choreographer on both local and international stages; her works have been presented and commissioned by various festivals and performances in Japan, Taipei, Hong Kong, Seoul, Canada and the USA. This feisty, independent dance talent has helped pushed the local dance scene beyond mainstream forms towards a multi-disciplinary stage. Through unorthodox dance creations, Ng sets the trend on how to experiment and break traditions in dance, blurring the boundaries between dance and other art forms such as theatre. Tapping into multi-media art and theatrical elements, she coins her own signature blend of dance theatre, embodying simplicity amidst injections of dark humour.

Education
Although Ng first obtained a diploma in Tourism Management, she subsequently realised she did not want to work in the hotel industry. Thus, Ng enrolled herself in the Contemporary Dance Diploma course in LaSalle School of Performing Arts, under the Singapore National Arts Council Study Bursary. Ng did not have a head start in dance, the self-professed late-bloomer started dancing only when she was 22. She began her dance career as a choreographer and performer in 1997 upon graduation. Six years later, Ng founded Crow Jane, her own dance theatre company. It has since produced diverse pieces, ranging from solo dances (Dream and Victoria), cross-disciplinary installations like (Ghosts) to multimedia dance theatrical works (Toilet and Conversation in the Park).

Themes
With much fastidiousness, Ng examines the world from multiple perspectives through an experiential framework. Drawing on her own experiences of being simultaneously an Asian and a global citizen, she delves deep into human nature and how we construct our identity. Recently appointed Associate Artistic Director of TheatreWorks, Ng is working on Body Search for its premiere in 2012—the last installation in her identity trilogy series following Body Inquire and Body Swap. Both are showcased as part of Singapore Arts Festival’s Forward Moves, a platform seeking to promote local choreography. Her pieces emphasize natural spontaneity, even if it is at the expense of grace and poise. Body Inquire saw dancers freezing parts of their body into deformed figures as they celebrate their lottery win. She raised the relevance of culture to identity in Body Swap, a dual with American choreographer Dani Brown in which the two exchanged identities. One of her most recent pieces exploring identity is The Diary of Alice, a piece created during Pointe de Point, the 6th Asia-Europe Dance Forum in Lisbon, Portugal. It was selected for further development with residencies in Alkantara (Lisbon) and Rimbun Dahan (Malaysia). In collaboration with Paloma Calle, a Spanish choreographer, Ng explored both real and fictitious meanings behind the name “Alice”.

Philosophy
Ng treats all body movements as a form of art, even if they do not fall neatly within a particular dance style. While she appreciates classical ballet, she finds it harder to innovate within the classical tradition. She is much more passionate for contemporary dance because it expresses how real bodies move, with its natural instincts and clumsiness. Ng consciously analyses recordings of her personal movements in a bid to re-align herself with basic, innate and raw movements she has cast aside while learning various dance forms. Seeking not to be restricted to dance and movement, Ng’s choreography takes on a theatrical twist, combining dance movements with props, design and multimedia dimensions. Her enthusiasm for authenticity and experimentation gave rise to multiple cross-disciplinary collaborations such as Dance Dance Dance (2008) with multimedia artist Choy Ka Fai and the V.IS.T.A Lab series (2008) with sound artist Zulfike Mahmod, writer-performer Ng Yi-Sheng and set designer  Torrance Goh, amongst many others.

Most outstanding work
One of Ng’s most acclaimed works to date, Lab was first performed as a solo piece in 2005 for ECNAD’s 10th anniversary festival Fireball, and subsequently showcased in the inaugural show of TheatreWorks’ Visual.Interactive.Sound.Text.Architecture (V.I.S.T.A). Lab explored how people respond to instinctual movements, with dancers moving heavy wooden blocks and constructing traps out of peculiar objects such as lightbulbs. This interactive piece monitors the audience’s reactions, for instance, by asking the audience to form part of her tableau by freezing in a position. Independent dramaturg and producer Tang Fu Kuen commended Ng’s efforts, naming Lab as the 2008 Best Dance Production in Singapore.

Performances and Achievements
2000 : Co-founded Creative Tree, a dance company for young Singaporean children.
2001 : Choreographed Thin Air for the Singapore Arts Festival.
2002 : Choreographed Black for the Singapore Arts Festival.
2003 : Founded Crow Jane, a cross-disciplinary platform for both solo and collaborative contemporary pieces.
2004-2005 : Her solo piece, Toilet, was chosen for final presentation in Sparks, Esplanade Theatre’s Creative Development Programme promoting the creation of fresh art pieces.
2005 : Choreographed and performed Victoria in Taipei, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore for the Little Asia Dance Exchange Network, a regional solo dance performance project encouraging cultural exchanges between dancers.
2006 : Choreographed Dream for the 2nd Fort Worth Dance Festival in USA and accepted into Creative, a TheatreWorks incubation scheme which provides logistics and financial assistance.
2007 : Participated in the Asia Contemporary Dance Conference as a choreographer, invited by the Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute (Tokyo) and choreographed and performed in Dance Dance Dance for TheatreWorks.
2008 : Lab presented under the Super-natural, The Studios (Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay) and Body Inquire was featured in Forward Moves, the Singapore Arts Festival's stage for young, up-and-coming local choreographers.
2009 : Body Swap, a collaboration with Germany-based American choreographer Dani Brown, was performed at Kampnagel Festival (Hamburg) and the Singapore Arts Festival and created The Diary of Alice for  Pointe de Point , the 6th Asia-Europe Dance Forum (Lisbon, Portugal), organized by Asia-Europe Foundation and Alkantara.
2011 : Performed in The Diary of Alice for TheatreWorks.

Family
Ng is married and has no children.



Author
Lee Xin Ying



References
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The information in this article is valid as at 2011 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.