ECNAD ARTISTS' PROFILES

LIM CHIN HUAT Artistic Director Director (Creative Services)

Chin Huat is a recipient of the Young Artist Award (2000). He founded Dance Dimension Project, now ECNAD, with Tan How Choon in 1996. His dance teachers include Colleen Darby, Janet Sturman, Boon Teo, Angela Liong and the late Tony Llacer. Even as a student, he demonstrated exceptional fortitude by breaking his flat feet into their present arches to dance. Chin Huat dances, choreographs, conceptualises and designs. His original training in fine arts at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts has a profound impact in all his creative endeavours with ECNAD. He seamlessly assimilates Asian sensibilities with Western disciplines in his choreographic works, as evident in B-Cycle (1996). He leaves his inimitable imprints on stunning set designs, costumes and illustrations seen in ECNAD's theatre and site-specific productions, such as Sheep (1997, 2003) and Ontogenesis - Dawning on the Source (1997). He brought his works a-the-bird, Floating Mirror (Caution: Hippo Crossing!) and Tales from the Giant Blanket to festivals in New Zealand, the former Yugoslavia and Indonesia in 2001. In 2005, he was invited to Beijing, China to choreograph and perform in Confession, a collaborative project involving artists from China, Japan and Singapore, staged at Chaoyang Cultural Center. He also conducted movement workshops during this visit. His other invaluable contribution to local arts has been to provide upcoming artists of any discipline, platforms for development and expression. FireBall (2005, 2006) was his latest brainchild for such talents. His fearless artistic experimentations, spirit of perseverance and unflagging enthusiasm are widely admired among local arts practitioners and supporters. Chin Huat was a part-time lecturer with NAFA Theatre Department and co-directed the 2008 Graduation play. He was also apinted the NDP choreographer for year 2007 and 2008. He was awarded Professional Artist Grant (1999) given by the National Arts Council.

TAN HOW CHOON Artistic Director Director (Education)

Gymnastics provided How Choon with an early physical and mental foundation for his artistic career. He received dance training in the United States of America and Singapore with Colleen Darby, Anna Sokolow, Mary Anthony, Angela Liong and Boon Teo, and also at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. He founded Dance Dimension Project, now ECNAD, mainly with Lim Chin Huat after their first choreographic collaboration on ZerO'Clock (1996). This partnership has resulted in 30 multidisciplinary productions over 10 years. His choreographic outputs are as much expressions of his intellectual musings as they are creative explorations of movement. His oeuvre is regularly characterised by wit, elegance, quirkiness and a surprise element. His groundbreaking site-specific outreach productions Ontogenesis - A Wish TO Utopia (1997) and Terrestrial Beings in Spherical Analogy (1998) liberated dance from conventions and altered perceptions about the art form. He conceptualised the use of cartoons, live video feed, iconic images and fluid environments with dance choreography, as seen in Plastic (1998), Water Story (2001), Missing In Tall Pillars (2002) and Ego Flamingo (2004). An adventurous individual, he is a process-based artist that continuously explore with variety and subtleties in areas such as voice-movement integration, sound/music, choreographic variables and body contact into a new style of movement. How Choon facilitated the dance jam segments in Fireball (2005 & 2006) making the improvisation process the performance itself. He led 2 actresses and 2 dancers in a process-based production entitled In The Name Of Dance (2008) and presented a fun and comedic performance comprises cohesive variety of singing, acting and dancing. He also showcases his own recorded music and a song through this performance. In 2009, How Choon achieved another artistic breakthrough in Songs For Gaia showcasing singing dancers in a performance comprises mainly his original a cappella songs and music. As a teacher of technical dancing, he has approached trainings in several perspectives. His teaching experiences include being Dance Master for full-time international team of dancers from Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Malaysia. From 2005 to 2006, he was invited as a part-time lecturer for the Dance Faculty of LASALLE College of the Arts. He is currently mainly in charge of ECNAD Education and the design of New Talent development programmes. He was awarded Professional Artist Grant (1999) given by the National Arts Council.

EILEEN LEE Instructress

Eileen stumbled into dance while sitting in the primary school hall, waiting for her friends to finish dance training. Igniting her interest, she then began her ballet training with Tony Llacer at Dance Arts (Singapore) and has since graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2005 with a Diploma in Dance. She has performed in The last supper (Horvath Evening), choreographed by Krisztina Horvath, Carmina Burana by Bernd Michael Teichmann and others. She has taught at various secondary and junior colleges and is currently teaching at Jurong Junior College.

ESTHER KONG Instructress

Esther started ballet at the age of 4 and has attained her Intermediate Certificate with Royal Academy of Dancing and Elementary Certificate with The Commonwealth Society of Teachers of Dancing. She took on Contemporary, Jazz and Hip Hop as she trained as a student. Her dance teachers include Ann Ang, Ravenna Tucker, Caren Carino, Ix Wong and Aaron Khek. She has been performing in various dance performances with LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts such as In-Between, Ménage à Trios, Invisible Threads and Emotions in Motion, where she also took on the role as choreographer. Esther went on to work with various choreographers and directors such as John Mead, Gani Karim, Jeremiah Choy, Jonathan Lim, Richard Chua and Moe Kasim, not only in dancing but as well as acting. Since 2003, with the help and guidance of Tommy Wong, Esther was introduced to backstage work in various theatre productions. Thus, over the years she has taken on many roles like Production Manager, Stage Manager, Sound and Light Operator, Crew and Dresser. In 2010, she was Stage Manager for ECNAD's dance production,Bun & Stone.

JAMUS LIM Instructor

Has been instructor for Social Dance, Latin American dance, Rock N Roll, Line Dance, Salsa, Merengue, Disco Rock, Mambo, Jamus is quite a popular instructor for his cheerful and fun character in teaching for the past 14 years. A qualified and registered dance instructor under People Association, he has been conducting various types of regular dance training and workshops for community clubs/centres, churches, residency centres, associations and organisations since 1997. He received Gold Star 1 certificate for Rock N Roll and Gold certificate for Latin American Dance in 1994. He was awarded “Professional Line Dance Trainer” under Professional Association of Linerdancers in 2003. He won the first prize for Singapore Ballroom Dancing Championships in 1990. He performed frequently in many occasions as well as special events like Singapore Festival of dance, Chingay, NYUC Income Dance To a World Record 2002 (The world’s biggest line dance event) and many more.

WEE SHEAU THENG Associate Designer

Sheau Theng has two passions in life: making things with her hands and history of art. She knew from a tender age that she was good with her hands but never went beyond the conventional, until she began working on projects with ECNAD. A volunteer with ECNAD since 1997, Sheau Theng spent much of her tertiary education days balancing school and working on ECNAD's performances. Starting out with set and props making, she gradually ventured into stage and production management as well as an instructor of ECNAD's Little Arts Explorer. Through the years, she found her place in costumes creation and her skills and responsibilities in wardrobe have increased over the years. She recently received her third degree, a Master of Arts (specialising in Buddhist Art and Archaeology) from the National University of Singapore and is contemplating a fourth in the near future. In the mean time, she continues to take on the many challenges presented to her, in realising visually stunning designs and has, to her delight, achieved what was thought impossible on several occasions. She put up an exhibition of costumes from ECNAD's past productions that she helped design and make in FireBall (2005), and in FireBall (2006), collaborated with ECNAD's graphic artist, Chua Ai Hua, to put up 55x10, an exhibition celebrating ECNAD's 10th anniversary.

CHUA AI HUA Associate Designer

Ai Hua is a (object) conservator and an accomplished commercial graphic designer. She is a founding member of ECNAD. She is also the company's graphic artist, designing most of ECNAD's publicity materials and pivotal in shaping ECNAD's distinctive image. Ai Hua believes that culture, environment and heritage are key elements of a society that must be preserved. She hopes to share her unique vision and educate people on the need to treasure and protect their lifestyle and surroundings. She hopes to transfer her concern through exhibitions. In FireBall (2005), her art installation The Price of Neglect was exhibited. The aim was to create greater awareness of the preservation of the performing arts. Ai Hua holds a degree in conservation studies from the City and Guild of London Art School, United Kingdom.