Kho Yong Xiang

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...

From October 2025 to April 2026, I participated in the Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) course by Movemental Co.'s founder, Chan Shi Han . Across 10 sessions of 3h each, the non-credential course that introduced some basic theories, concepts and activities of DMT to professionals in the mental health, social work, healthcare and education sectors. I have been drawn to the idea of dance as a non-verbal (performing) art form that could be used to engage participants/communities - as compared to a sometimes more verbal/text heavy form such as theatre.  In a way, I was building on my encounters with dance and communities through my experiences with Helping Hands, Moving Bodies (2022) and Relations (Live) (2025) . Part of my journey with more frequent dance classes in the past year has been to be more aware of my body and to maintain a physical body for performance. However, the vocabulary for dance and the impact on a participant / community has eluded me. BACKGROUND The Dance...

I volunteered in the final phase of Styled Together , a community fashion show with 6 residents at Cassia Crescent held on 17 January 2026. The event was held at the void deck of Block 54, a big open space at the ground floor, with over 100 residents in attendance, and a photo exhibition at Block 52. In the lead up to event day, we had 2 rehearsals with the seniors to prepare their poses and rehearse walking down the aisle with confidence! A group photo of the creative team, volunteers and partners on the "runway" in the void deck at the end of the event. The residents - and myself! - listening to Artist-Facilitator, Auderia Tan, as she gives them final directions. Retrieved from Drama Box's Facebook post (2026, January 23) . BACKGROUND Styled Together was a fashion-based community programme that used fashions as an entry point for residents to rediscover their confidence and self-worth, led by a friend and artist, Auderia Tan (read more about her c...

Over the 2 weekends of August 2025, I joined the first Playback Theatre Core Training, led by Michael Cheng. I revisited the basics of the applied theatre form, Playback Theatre. The course was under Singapore Drama Educators' Association, its first as the affiliate school of Centre for Playback Theatre. Pictures from our mini showcase on Day 3 which we had titled, "The More We Get Together". Permission has been sought from the Teller and the actors involved, please do not circulate the pictures further. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Singapore Drama Educators Association (@sdeaofficial) The first batch who completed the Playback Theatre Core Training. BACKGROUND Playback Theatre is an applied theatre form where audience members are invited to share their personal stories. The Playback Theatre troop would then reenact the story through improvisation and spontaneity. Usually the performances are done wit...

In June 2025, I participated in the Relational Choreography masterclass by Dik Danstheater . The masterclass culminated in a dance performance, Relations (Live) ,  on 14 June to nearly 200 audience members as part of the International Community Arts Festival Hub in Singapore (ICAF Hub Singapore). A picture with the Dik Danstheater team (Left to Right): Jordy Dik, Vincent Dankelman, Sjaak van Dam, Loura van Krimpen Core members from the Relational Choreography  masterclass. Picture with the audience at the end of Relations (Live) BACKGROUND Drama Box hosted ICAF Hub Singapore: The Gathering from 12 - 15 June 2025. in Singapore. The festival which originated in Rotterdam, the Netherlands is held once every three years to showcase community arts organisations, professionals and practices from around the world. The masterclass by Dik Danstheater was a sharing of their  Relational Choreography method that the company developed over the last 5 y...

Since September 2024, I have been taking up weekly 1.5h sessions of Jazz Intro with Jazz.Artistry.Movement (J.A.M.)'s Mel. I admit that I was responded to the dance form through an Instagram ad, (perhaps naively) hoping to find a more accepting dance form. I had felt like my body was too old to conform to the demands of ballet. So imagine my surprise when I entered class and was told to do plies and pas de bourrees ! My flexibility (and pas de bourrees ) need a lot more work and I am still trying to figure out what has made me stay on. I wonder if it has to do with the more contemporary (pop) sound and the openness to blend with elements from other dance forms. Or perhaps, it is to do with the focus on conditioning, to slowly nudge my body into form. Or maybe even perhaps, the intergenerational crowd of fellow attendees. I might not have said it aloud but it is encouraging to be in the such a space and that my body can continue moving.

[Side note: I watched this play with a friend. And we were reminiscing all the times we have gone to a theatre show together. And I actually forgot the name - and venue - of the first show we watched. It made me recall why I started doing these "reviews" in the first place. I knew my memory was bad, and at a younger age, it was so expensive to go watch the theatre! I want to remember what I paid money for, what I liked and the questions that the performances left me with. This space is firstly a personal record for myself. And secondarily, maybe an informal record of the transient performance that passed.] National Day Charade written and directed by Thomas Lim re-imagines Singapore's National Day Parade, the annual parade which celebrates Singapore's nationhood. The play imagined an alternate National Day from the usual curated parade and glamour we see on our TV screens. Within the Ngee Ann Kongsi theatre, a contingent for the LGBT community, migrant workers and act...