Jointly organised by: Singai Tamil Sangam and Tatva
Mrs Viji Jagadessh, President, Singai Tamil Sangam
In conjunction with the Tamil Language Festival this April 2019, we have planned to put up a dance theatre production titled “Nizhal” (Shadow) which will explore stories/characters from Tamil Literature. The performance will be crafted based on a refined adaptation from the Tamil literary text, to promote the proficiency and fluency of the Tamil language amongst youth as well as bringing forth moral values in youth and students in relevance to the social climate of today. This will be presented primarily by infusing the classical Indian dance form, Bharatanatyam, with other contemporary movements to create an original artistic illustration and be achieved through the collaboration of young and upcoming performing artists from various dance institutions and trainers in Singapore, which will also give them a platform to share/learn from each other. We will also be mainly reaching out to the youth from the secondary/tertiary institutions as audiences for the showcase, and engage youth communities through various pre-production and community engagement programmes (e.g Photo exhibitions, Campagins).
Preserving and Promoting Tamil
In today’s Society, students view their Mother tongue merely as a subject in school and a tedious criteria to complete in their curriculum. Its is a rarity that fluent conversational mother tongue is often spoken amongst the youth at current times, as they vastly converse in English as a language of comfort and convenience. Therefore, this project aims to promote, preserve and cultivate the importance of speaking in Tamil language amongst the Indian youth from secondary/tertiary institutions and at the same time assit students with strengthening their language command and knowledge on Tamil literary characters. Apart from this, we also aim to attract other races to understand and appreciate the Indian culture and Tamil language through the Tamil literary characters discussed in the production, via Photo exhibitions at public vicinities (which will be in both languages, English and Tamil), to promote cultural understanding and tolerance in our society since Tamil language is one of our four national languages.
An Avenue for young Collaborators
The project provides an important platform for young collaborative work. Upcoming performing artists are roped in from various dance institutions in Singapore, and Musicians/Percusionist who are known for their community contributions and engagements are roped in from various walks of life (e.g. Damaru Singapore and Mr. Raghavendram from RaghaJazz). In the process, we aim to discover and learn from each other’s expertise and encourage many more artistic collaborations for the Singaporean youth, in future.
Objective of the Production:
1. Promoting Tamil Language and Literature
The production aims to project a better understanding of the theme or concept addressed, by incorporating the usage of ‘Wayang Kulit’ or shadow play used in an ancient Malay or Indonesian artform. The puppetry would be idealised as the epic characters in Tamil literature, to provide a narrative synopsis in Tamil language throughout the showcase illustrating the stories coming alive. This will enhance the creativity, interactive and educational elements to uplift the quality of storytelling, engaging and indulging the audience further effectively.
Providing a platform for upcoming artistes
This will be achieved through the collaboration of young and upcoming performing artists from various dance institutions and trainers in Singapore, where it gives them a platform and an avenue to share/learn from each other through their different practices of Indian Dance. Soundtracks of scenes will comprise combinations of upcoming live percussionist (e.g. Flute by Raghavendran and Drum ensemble by Damaru Singapore), self-composed local music and existing pre-recorded tracks.
Community engagement
Sharing sessions with the Indian youth from secondary/tertiary institutions will be planned as part of pre-production work, to promote the understanding of the Tamil literary characters discussed in the production and as well as the significance of Tamil language. Students will be given segments from Indian epics that the dance production portrays to decipher in a game format. Through these sharing sessions, we aim to engage youth who will be our target audience, to appreciate, discover and receive further insights on Tamil literature.
Photo exhibitions will be organized in scope of the production, at selected community clubs, National Libraries and tertiary institutions to showcase pictures of our work in progress. The images and illustrations will depict the stories/episodes and characters that we will be focusing in our production. These exhibits will also comprise captions in English so that more people can appreciate Tamil epics and will trigger their interests to find out more about them.
To target a larger reach of the younger generation, we will be conducting a campaign where quizzes and games are planned to be posted on social media platforms such as on Facebook and Instagram about Tamil literature, in conjunction to the production. This will engage our followers to find out more about the project and Tamil language. Winners will receive personalized merchandise by us. The merchandise will be customized in relation to Tamil culture and traditions, as well as associated with the literary characters discussed in the production.
For the first time, Tatva the youth artists group join hands with one of the senior most Tamil organisations “Singai Tamil Sangam” with a strong belief that generations can be bridged.
- Students’ involvement
Republic Polytechnic’s Indian Cultural Group have been roped into this project as our production crew. Students will not only learn and gain experience through running a theatre production, but will also be engaged in the planning process of the project to promote Tamil language and literature as a whole. They will be required to write a reflection journal (as practiced by their school curriculum), to reflect on their thoughts, experience and participation during this project.
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