Discover the latest production of SIM’s Esprimere Singing Club, Into The Land of Zo and take a peek behind the scenes together with the President, Michelle. Explore with us the evolution of musicals through the years and dive into processes that inspired for their latest production!
In a lively celebration of diversity and cultural legacy, the Myanmar community gathered for a Cultural Fair held from January 30th to February 1st 2024. One of the objectives of the fair was to illuminate the diverse traditions of Myanmar, ensuring their rightful acknowledgment. Myanmar’s cultural heritage encompasses a wealth of distinctive customs, rituals, and artistic expressions, often overshadowed by the global spotlight on other cultures. The Cultural Fair served as a platform to bridge this awareness gap, nurturing a deeper comprehension of Myanmar’s intricate history and traditions.
The event showcased a variety of traditional art forms, such as mini umbrella painting, vintage toys, traditional costumes, traditional makeup, and Chinlone (Caneball). Visitors were given the chance to actively participate in these activities, gaining a deeper understanding of their cultural significance. Additionally, both students and staff had the opportunity to sample catered Burmese cuisine.
As the Cultural Fair unfolded, it evolved into a hub of cultural exchange, bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds to celebrate Myanmar’s distinctive identity. Discover more about Myanmar Community as they dispel misconceptions about Burmese culture.
The magic of ‘Naraya: A Song of Sacrifice’ extends beyond the stage, embodying the culmination of dedication, resilience, and creativity. Months of meticulous planning and collaboration paved the way for this musical masterpiece. From conceptualization to marketing and finally, the performance, the SIM Indonesian Community poured their passion into every detail, leaving the audience eagerly anticipating more.
As the curtains rose on January 19th and 20th, 2024, spectators didn’t just witness a performance; they experienced a piece of their culture and representation. Our backstage interview with the team offers a glimpse into the incredible journey behind the scenes.
SIM’s very own Dreamwerkz has very recently held their own production, Threading Through Time, in our campus! The performance showcased an energising range of items and sets, all centred around the concept of celebrating and reflecting upon the generations that have moulded peoples of different ages. The journey leading up to the final production was long, but the club and its members grew from the experience and were rewarded with the opportunity to show off their talents and test themselves.
Of course, talk is cheap. And simply recounting their performances wouldn’t do justice to their work! So instead, we’ve taken the time to ask our Dreamwerkz dancers more about what exactly goes into a production of this scale. Darwin Azhar, Dreamwerkz’s President for 2023, provided an illuminating recount of how the club put together Threading Through Time, and we hope that it’ll give you a better idea of the work our other dance clubs put into these productions!
The concept and theme behind our dance production was centred around bridging the gap between the older generation and newer generation. We wanted to show stories and portray how both generations perceive different aspects of life such as the use of social media, having a work-life balance as well as how each generation expresses themselves.
This theme was produced by our instructors. During the initial ideation, our executive committee (EXCO) and instructors discussed various topics to cover related to the theme such as how we use social media, what we valued while growing up, and what kind of music each generation enjoys.
Our production featured a variety of styles including Hip-Hop, Girl’s Hip Hop, Street Jazz, Open Choreography, as well as Experimental. The choreographers in the production used different styles as a medium to express the different topics of our production theme through their item’s choreography.
How much preparation and practice went into this performance?
We carried out 3 months of ideation and brainstorming sessions before practice started. Our DreamWerkz EXCO along with our resident instructors, Xue Hui (Hua), Bryan and Wee Ming selected various topics to convey our goal of bringing older and newer generations together. Afterwards, the selected choreographers were delegated to acts covering particular topics. They had to plan how they would go about portraying and choreographing their items to communicate these concepts as clear as possible for the production.
After the initial brainstorming sessions, our official practices and rehearsals with the dancers lasted for 5 months from June to October this year. This process also included a vetting process to go over the progress, flow, and design of each item.
We had to juggle both the production and its performances alongside liaising with external vendors for lighting, props, and sponsors. Marketing and promoting the production was also a heavy undertaking.Furthermore, we had club members and alumni who were either working or studying. Managing different responsibilities was a definite challenge for everyone.
However, we overcame this by ensuring that each aspect of the production was properly delegated to different sub-committees and members. We also received a lot of help from our club advisor, Amanda, who helped us manage rehearsal spaces, logistical needs, and liaising with the different departments of the school which greatly smoothed our production journey.
Do you have any memorable stories to share about the journey leading up to your production?
An important aspect of our production this year was our exhibition at the Performing Arts Theatre (PAT) Foyer. The exhibition featured different sets and memorabilia from the era of the old generation including an old HDB, kopitiam, barbershop, and office. To separate each set, we had to paint 9 big wooden partitions; working on them for almost every day of October so we could finish the sets in time for the actual show. It was tiring but fun as a lot of us experienced painting for the first time while doing this.
Each choreographer selected their music that would best showcase their acts’ concepts. This meant choosing songs according to the genre that they specialized in. Our creative director and artistic director, Hua and Wee Ming, also advised and provided creative direction to support the selection.
From songs of our parents and grandparents’ era to modern mainstream music, we included genres such as hip-hop, pop, country, R&B, soul, and instrumental indie music. Different genres of music were used to cover the themes of each act, “KAMPUNG”, “THE APP”, “SELF-EXPRESSION”, “WORK VS DREAM”, “WHEN OLD MEETS NEW”, & “OUR INNER VOICE”.
How did the dancers feel both before and after the performance? Were there any standout moments?
During the week of the production, there were a lot of emotions built up after months of hard work and the pressure of wanting to do well for the actual shows. Standing by on the sidestage, emotions were high as it felt like it may be one of the last few times they could dance together, on top of the excitement and adrenaline garnered as we all wanted to show our friends and family our hard work.
The teams were huddled with their choreographers for a talk before the performance and there were many nervous faces in the waiting area. After the performance, the dancers came out with wide smiles and would also praise each other for doing a good job on the stage. It was euphoric!
“To me, it means being part of a family and growing together alongside everyone. Dreamwerkz is my safe space. Life may get chaotic at times but coming back to Dreamwerkz gives me a sense of belonging. I definitely felt like I grew throughout the journey especially with help from my friends.”
“Being a part of Dreamwerkz is like being part of a big family. The sense of camaraderie built within the club creates an environment where everyone cares and supports each other. This inclusive atmosphere has allowed me to be open to trying various dance styles and continuously push myself to improve alongside like-minded individuals. Our tight-knit community celebrates each member’s success and thrives on this journey of constant improvement and exploration. Being part of Dreamwerkz has made the year much more fulfilling as it has provided a platform for self-exploration and a supportive network that propels everyone towards ongoing growth and development.”
Our dance productions are held bi-annually so do lookout for it too in 2025! We also hold our own internal showcase competition which highlights a different concept and theme every other year so audiences can still look forward to an exhilarating, and energetic show that features creative dance pieces from our current members in 2024.
Learning valuable lessons and gaining new skills is a big part of undergoing higher education, but it’s often a means to an end for a lot of students. Attending university is a good way to gain academic accolades, form relationships that can provide a leg up in the professional world, and even achieve more holistic awards in extra curricular fields as in our sports or arts clubs. What drives a lot of our most well-achieved students, and anyone for that matter, is a desire to achieve some sense of fulfilment.
However, our students don’t just seek personal fulfilment. Many of their initiatives are often based within the school to engage the student body to involve the greater community; something that RMITSC has been especially hard at work with their recent projects. Today’s article takes a look at 4 of the recent community involvement projects that the SIM-RMIT Student Council has executed.
Their initiatives included organizing food drives for less fortunate households, engaging the elderly in nursing homes with welfare and fun activities, and taking care of our local environment through beach clean ups – though this last one fell through, the students did their best to conduct an alternative event to make up for it.
Organised by our SIM-RMIT Student Council, this event was planned with the objective to promote community service and engagement among RMIT students. It gave their students an avenue to engage with and form bonds with the elderly in Active Ageing Centres; spaces for seniors to socialise, take part in recreational activities, access community health services, and contribute to the community. The engagement session provided a lot of value not just to the elderly, but to the student volunteers as well! Students cited developing a better understanding of communication skills as well as a greater sense of patience, empathy and compassion.
1 out of 10 Singapore households face food insecurity yearly. It’s a sad statistic, and one that galvanised our students to play their part in fighting this issue by hosting a Food Drive in collaboration with Singapore Food Bank. Singapore Food Bank is a local non-profit charity organisation that operates foodbank services locally. Utilising their expertise, the student volunteers organised a food drive where they compiled and distributed donated food items. The total yield was projected to be enough to support over 300,000 households. In addition to this, the student council strove to make this event an opportunity to raise awareness on food insecurity and educate on different ways that we can assist the underprivileged in Singapore.
This activity was organised by SIM-RMIT SC with the goal to share knowledge on protecting our environment and saving marine lives. As part of the community service, we hoped that our Councillors would also better understand the experiences of the cleaners charged with the upkeep Singapore’s beaches and parks to keep them clean and pleasant for the enjoyment of any one that visits. Unfortunately, due to inclement weather conditions, the students were not able to continue with the planned event. However, though the rain out an end to the original plan, the council was smart in quickly drafting up an alternate programme meant to inform and engage with the volunteers and other fellow students. Community Involvement team member Owen Foo writes that though this event had been an attempt to provide “a platform to reach out and give back to society”, the backup programme was a valuable “knowledge sharing session”.
This food drive was executed in partnership with Willing Hearts Singapore to give back to the community during the festive season. Willing Hearts is a secular non-affiliated charity run by volunteers and a small staff that operates a soup kitchen supplying 7,000 meals daily to beneficiaries including the elderly, disabled, less fortunate, and migrant workers in Singapore. RMITSC’s councillors thus had a very fruitful experience being a part of this largely volunteer led operation and contributing to their work. They cited how it was heartwarming to see the amount and extent of work that goes into helping the needy, and how sharing the volunteering experience as a team built strong bonds and an appreciation for the value that groups like Willing Hearts provide to our society
In summary, we can see that RMITSC has really put their back into community service projects this year. It’s no easy feat to juggle running a student council, studying and shouldering the responsibility of collaborating with external groups and charities, but the teams and volunteers involved in these initiatives have certainly come out better for it. On behalf of the school, we thank the students involved for being wonderful representatives of SIM and we’re all looking forward to announcing any future volunteer opportunities that RMITSC plans to organise!
Below, we have summarised a few highlights from this year’s SUNIG 2023 to celebrate our students’ hard work in both written form as well as through simplified graphics.
Bronze – Volleyball Men, Basketball Men, Soccer Men, Tennis Men, Floorball Men, Floorball Women, Squash Men
Silver – Cuesports, Bowling Men, Volleyball Women, Table Tennis Women
Gold – Tchoukball Men, Swimming Women
We’d like to extend a special shout-out to our Tchoukball team for their valiant efforts and stellar defense of their champions’ title, cinching another Gold after last year’s equally fierce performance.
If you’re a student, prospective or current, and you’re interested in making a name for yourself in our community of athletes, why not take a look at our list of Sports and Fitness student clubs? Click HERE to find out more about what other sports we have to offer and apply for our clubs via this link to join them today!
