Cirque de Singapour

There isn't one. But there should be.

We are investing quite substantially in arts and sports education. The new campus for the School of the Arts at Dhoby Ghaut is nearing completion and, I believe, is scheduled to admit its first intake in 2009. Post-secondary education in the arts has been available for a long time, through the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and Lasalle College.

Dance as a discipline, for example, is offered by all three.

The Singapore Sports School has been running for a few years now. It provides secondary education for boys and girls with a talent for sports. But what happens after that? From the school's website, I see

1. A route via a 3-year course at Republic Polytechnic to Nanyang Techological University. However, it doesn't say what the available courses are, selling the idea more as the goal of a paper qualification ("You get a degree!") than focussing on a passion and sports discipline.

2. A route to a Diploma in Sports Management and Exercise Science from the EASB Institute of Management, beyond which there is a further option for a degree course at the Auckland University of Technology.

It is right that students should continue to have wide options even though they go through a specialist secondary school. Some of them may eventually decide to pursue more academic or management careers after their teenage years.

But there will also be those who aren't cut out for book learning and sitting for exams. They just want to run, leap, pirouette or kick a ball. For them, we will need to ensure that there are career paths that are just as satisfying and rewarding. Yet, beyond football teams, what else pays?

Singapore parents, caring as they do about stable, well-paying jobs for their children -- and status too -- need to be assured of these considerations. Otherwise, our specialised schools may struggle to attract students.

One option we should seriously consider is to create a Cirque de Singapour. No doubt, it's far from a comprehensive solution either, as the skills it calls for are quite narrow too, mostly in the form of gymnastics, acrobatics, dance and choreography. But it can be one more piece of the jigsaw puzzle, one more set of options for graduates of sports and performing arts schools.

There are side benefits to the idea:

1. It also creates employment for musicians, composers, stage technicians, wardrobe designers and video artists.

2. It boosts Singapore's home-grown arts and entertainment industry.

3. It becomes another attraction for tourism.

4. When the Cirque de Singapour travels, it adds to the country's soft power.

Of course, it shouldn't be a copy of the Cirque du Soleil. In fact, "Cirque de Singapour" shouldn't even be its name, lest it sound like a copy. I'm just using it as a working title, so that most readers will have an immediate idea what I am referring to.

For those who may not be so familiar, these two videoclips may give you an idea. The first one is basically a show of sheer gymnastic prowess -- traditional Chinese pole acrobatics (the modern soundtrack was added separately):

The next two videoclips (Parts 1 and 2 of one performance) shows how the same physical techniques, arguably perhaps a shade less polished than the above, but infused with music, lighting and choreography, becomes art. This is the kind of show that I am proposing:

Our "Airborne Opera", "Extravaganza of the East" or whatever we call it, should take its inspiration from the rich cultures of Southeast Asia and perhaps beyond. Our region has innumerable performance traditions for us to tap into, including the Wayang Kulit (shadow theatre) and fire-dancing from Indonesia, the art of water puppets from Vietnam, kite-flying and Khon (masked dance) theatre from Thailand.

From just a little further afield, we have Chinese acrobatics, wushu and the martial arts from Manipur and Kerala. Imagine the tapestry we can create with all these influences.

However we should only use these as take-off points for creating contemporary dances and spectacles. We shouldn't try to perform any of them in the traditional style. That's for each of those countries to preserve as their own heritage.

Wayang Kulit (shadow puppetry)		Shadow dancing
Acrobats from China		Acrobats from China

Don't be silly, some readers will say. With just 4 million people, where will we find sufficient talent to pull it off?

But that's just it: Our talent pool should be all of Southeast Asia (population 560 million in 2006) and even China and India. Some we recruit from young into our arts and sports schools, others we hire as trained performers. Dance instructors we headhunt from all over the region in order to acquire the techniques, choreographers from all over the world.

Vietnamese water puppets Martial arts from Manipur Fire dancing Pichet Klunchun and Thai Khon dancing

If there is any place outside of China with the money and the vision to do something like this, and on a sustained basis (because that is what it will take to be successful) it is Singapore. Furthermore, if the slick productions at every National Day parade are any indication, we do know how mount shows without a hitch.

Indeed, we should do this. If we do not create rewarding careers for graduates of our specialised schools, then they may well head overseas. In such a scenario, we would be the foolish ones, spending money to train young athletes and artists, only to benefit the cultural industries of other countries. It is far better that we should be the place where others migrate to for better opportunities, far better that we tap into the talent available in the region for our benefit.

Is it an audacious idea? Yes. But no more audacious than attempting to be among the top financial capitals of the world, or being a centre for bioscience research. What it does take however, is a conscious effort to break out of the mindset that "success" is either monetary or academic, and to see excellence in entertainment and the arts (including the physical arts) as similarly great achievements.

In fact, I daresay a successful Cirque de Singapour would capture wider popular imagination and stir greater national pride than more banks and more stem cells.

© Yawning Bread 

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