Kho Yong Xiang

I chanced upon Mika Kindstrand's Acting with Puppetry workshop hosted by Wushiren. It had been a long time since I had interacted with puppetry, the last had being a puppet construction workshop with The Finger Players (2019) . The team re-working and refining with Mika after each mini presentation. HIGHLIGHTS The three 3-hour sessions were a creative challenge and stretch as I revisited the basics of puppetry with breath and expanded on the ensemble aspect of working together in teams to choreograph scores for movement as one puppet. Making an dead / inanimate object into a living, breathing thing is one of the most interesting creative tensions. First Puppet Improvisation View this post on Instagram A post shared by Yong Xiang (@yxkho.arts) In this exercise, we literally let a character unfold from random pieces of scrunched up paper. And then, 2 (or more) puppets met each other in an improvised scene. I was filled with such joy as...

Over 3 sessions in August, I learnt about Totsu-Totsu dance (TTD) from Michael Cheng. Across the 9 hours, I learnt the basic principles of TTD by experiencing some of the activities. The group also had a chance to try out facilitating TTD amongst ourselves. Personally, TTD's "unsophisticated" dance philosophy connected to my exploration of a non-verbal (performing) art form that engaged communities. In particular, some of my rudimentary understandings of Dance Movement Therapy with Movemental Co. (2025-2026) and Relational Choreography with Dik Danstheater (2025) . BACKGROUND Totsu Totsu dance practice originated from Japan and was designed with persons living with dementia in a nursing home in Kyoto (Cheng, 2026a, p.14). The practice is relational, initiating non-verbal, personable connection with persons with dementia who may or may not respond to activities. As such, some of the initial activities we did included exploring how we could connect through distance (...

On 15 August 2026, the Kaya Toast Playback Theatre group put up a second performance with [X] by Kita, for youths aged 18-35 years old. The sold out show was attended by more than 50 youths at the Stamford Arts Centre. The theme was "Seasons of...", evoking the imagery of seasons, to invite stories of the seasons in our lives that come unannounced, and provide a space for these unheard stories. BACKGROUND Like in In Between (2026) , the Kaya Toast Playback Theatre group was made up of members we have met at the SDEA Core Training a year before in August 2025. We were supported by the youth development charity, With Kita, that runs the third space, [X] by Kita at Stamford Arts Centre, "a third space for youths aged 18-35 to gather, create, rest & belong" through a variety of programming. I was surprised by the generosity of sharing from the audience that evening. While we started the evening with audience members sharing the long ...

Over the May Day weekend, I attended a 3-day Level 2 Playback course on Scenes, the long form within Playback Theatre. The course was led by Principal Trainer, Michael Cheng, and Assistant Trainer, Renee Chua, under the SDEA CET – School of Playback Theatre, an affiliated school with the Centre for Playback Theatre. BACKGROUND Playback Theatre is an applied theatre form where audience members are invited to share their personal stories. The Playback Theatre team would then reenact the story through improvisation and spontaneity. This course builds on my prior Core Training in 2025 . Scenes (also known as, Stories) is one of the long forms within a Playback Theatre performance where audience members are invited to share a longer story with personal significance. Classically, Scenes make up the latter half of the playback performance and is where the community dialogue and sharing deepens. LEARNING POINTS One of the greater learning points has been about the value of journeyin...