Front Row

A dancer, choreographer and curator of dancers herself Bilqis Hijjas eats, drinks and breathes dance. She is at almost every dance performance in the Klang Valley. In today’s conversation, she not only shares with us the dances to be performed in ‘Dancing in Place 2016’ but also dance and the stirring of social awareness. Dancing in Place features 12 short dance works performed outdoors in the lush tropical garden at Rimbun Dahan.

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Pop Pop Music is presenting “Canto-Jazz Extravaganza: Hong Kong TVB Theme Songs Revival” this weekend, and Lim Soon Heng attended a rehearsal and watched the dancers choreograph their moves around the veteran singer Evon Low. The rehearsed dances suggest that the show will take its audience back in time to the glitz-and-glamour days of the chanteuse with her bevy of followers in tow.

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Our guests tell about this documentary which kicked off its public appearance at the KBS and Busan International Film Festival’s Power of Asian Cinema series on 4th October 2015. The director, Ming Jin represented Malaysia as one of the 10 selected Asian filmmakers to participate in this segment. And ‘A Return to Nostalgia’ is the only Malaysian film to be featured in the Busan International Film Festival in 2015. The premise of the film revolves around Ming Jin and his crew who are attempting to recover an old film titled Seruan Merdeka which is the first film made after the Japanese Occupation that has now been deemed as lost.

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A rendering - straight-up and/or rearranging - of a recorded song or music first made popular by another is called a cover. Our guests tell about the whys and hows they’ve decided to stage a covers-only performance when they are composers themselves. Go under the cover with us to uncover how this covers-show has evolved as it is in its third manifestation.

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PAN Productions is reprising its maiden show, Always in Wonderland? The producer and actors tell of  changes made to the script, the music and changes in the lineup of performers. 

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Our guest participated in the 10th Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival and walked away with some accolades. He tells about the birth of the story and the making of the film.  Are ‘Jagat’ released just this past month (December 17, 2015), and this film ‘The Incredibly Strange Tale of the Man Who Lost His Love but Bought it Back with a Packet of Duck Rice’  in close tandem, harbingers of good things to come out of the country?

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Marble Hearts is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear that will open klpac’s 2016 season, and coincides with the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s passing in 1616. While some continue to debate the relevance of works by dead white men, the local writer-director couldn’t have staged something more timely - begging the question of how loyalty is expressed. We are joined by two of the three female cast members - Christina Orow and Marina Tan.

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The reviewers look over their shoulders to evaluate the year of performances, sharing their delights and disappointments; and then anticipate the year to come.

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 The university professor’s wide interests--literature, theatre, culture and languages--have led her into looking at new works. Her most recently explorations take her into eco-literature and eco-theatre that few have heard of - let alone understand. Hear her take on the importance of theatre as a vehicle for highlighting ecological issues that plague our environments through her work with Kinnari Ecological Theatre.

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Front Row invites some local groups to provide the music for the holiday season. And interspersed between the songs, some time to reflect.

Christmas Party - Russell Curtis
Deck the Halls - Monday Show Entertainment
Let’s Decorate the Christmas Tree - Philharmonic Society of Selangor
Jingle Bells - Young KL Singers
The Twelve Days of Christmas - Young KL Singers
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Monday Show Entertainment
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Young KL Singers
Ding Dong Merrily On High - Young KL Singers
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day - Monday Show Entertainment
Do You Hear What I Hear - Juwita Suwito, Elvira Arul & Joy Victor
Silent Night - Dennis Lau
Silent Night - Young KL Singers
O Holy Night - Michael Leaner & Russell Curtis, feat Dennis Lau
White Christmas - Young KL Singers
Christmas in the Sun - Elvira Arul
We Wish You Merry Christmas - Monday Show Entertainment

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