welcome to

Established in the early eighties, the NUS Malay Dance was renamed the NUS Ilsa Tari in 1998. With its new identity, the group aims to stage more challenging pieces. Under the guidance of tutor/choreographer Osman Abdul Hamid, the People's Association Malay Dance Group's choreographer and Singapore's Young Artist Award winner, the group performs traditional dances such as inang, ronggeng, zapin, lambak and silat. It also blends contemporary dance forms - where dancers move with free flow of sharp movements - with its traditional pieces. This results in traditional and contemporary dance.

It's Cikgu's birthdayyy! @ 12:23 PM

Amidst all our preparations for the upcoming production, we must not forget a very important man's BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!! :)

Whatever it is that you wished for Cikgu this year, we hope it will com true and from the whole of NUS ILSA TARI, we wouls like to wish you the best state of health and best wishes for the upcoming year ahead!

WE LOVE YOUU!!!

Check out our birthday SURPRISE for cikgu! :)








Presenting the Male Cast :) @ 7:54 AM

hello everyone!

I know you must have been thinking where is the acting in this drama-dance performance of ours! well, no worries! today I will introduce you the 3 male casts for Fitrah: Nature of the Self.

We have Matin as Tanggang, Dinie as Kelana and Fadhuli as Kencana!
The special thing about them is, not only do they have to act.. BUT they are expected to dance as well as SING! omg, how exciting is that! :D

I cannot admit for the rest of the dancers, because I do not know for sure their excitement level for the performance! BUT I must tell you that I am feeling sooo excited and nervous at the same time! I am sure you all have been anticipating for our performance as well!!

Well, have you bought your tickets yet? IF not, do get your tickets from all SISTIC counters today! We are selling fast, so if you DO want to watch the show, go get your tickets now! :)

Enjoy the short clip!



XOXO,
farahin
Practice Practice!! @ 3:50 PM

As per usual, we had our ritualistic Monday practice yesterday!

We have the song! We have the song! okay the recording of the song.. :) You do know that we are having live musicians during the performance day itself right? I'm sure you knew already! BUT if you have not gotten news about this, I'll just inform you. We are very honoured to have Dzul Rabul Jalil be our Music Director once again for this upcoming production! :) And we have Rafaat Hamzah as our lightng designer! It feels like Bubbles all over, but of course better and with MORE oomph!

Anyways, practice yesterday was fun. We are currently at stage of beefing up our dance sets and basically were trying out different moves which would fit nicely with the dance!!

I'm excited all over just telling you about the practices for the production! Don't you feel it from where you are sitting and reading this entry? I'm sure you are! Why don't you join us for this fantabulous event on 14th March 2010, 8pm at UCC Theatre?

Tickets are still available, but get yours before they sell out!

XOXO,
farahin
3 weeks and counting! @ 1:31 AM

OHMYGAWDDDD!!

3 weeks to THE SHOW! I feel the excitement all over!
have you bought your tickets yet? Well if you have yet to go and buy the tickets, get yours now, before they sell out! :)

Practice was interesting just now. We are still working on putting some meat into the scenes to make it more visually stimulatng for our dearest audiences! And the dancers are quite excited because we have hope that the moves that we are going to use will provide us with necessary training for toned hands and thighs after the show! HAHA.

Missed the last training because of a school trip to Padang, but as usual the other dancers are more than happy to recap and teach the steps to those who were unable to make it the last practice! We can see the scenes becoming more exciting and interesting with the addition of singing and dancing parts for the show!

Of course, a dance without its costume is no fun! Thus, we are starting to finalise the costumes as well as finetune the production side of things! Coming back from Padang, the land of the Randai dance, has enriched me spiritually to inspire others as how the Minang people have introduced their culture to me when I was in Padang. Hopefully, their ever pride in their culture would be showcased through our rendition of the Randai dance.

We hope to see you on 14th March! :)

XOXO,
Farahin
First Practice after the Workshop! @ 7:37 AM

Okay so let's just say for the last 4 days we (okay, actually just me) have been slacking, taking a break from the vigourous dance workshop that lasted for 6 days and ended with us learning fantastic steps and got us singing songs (albeit a bit off pitch for some *ehemMEehem*).

It felt a bit weird not having Pak Tom and Pak Piter being there with us while we did our steps, singing along. Thus we decided to TRY (the strong emphasis on try) to remember the tunes that they sang.. Well, that was sure interesting. Most of us was humming the same song for different dance sets and we had to think real hard to find out which song was matched with which dance steps, which was interesting since our last practice was a mere 4 days ago! HAHA.

ohwells, we shall just blame it on the fact that school has started and everyone has been busy doing their readings, charting their lab reports etc. that we tend to forget things easily. (:

The whole practice was basically recapping the moves and Cikgu correcting our posture to make the steps more elegant and more obvious. A few changes here and there, but overall it felt like we had to get our body back into sync with the randai moves that had been taught to us during the workshop! The practice has been captured by the video below! :)



So now you know, we have shed brain cells and perspiration in the process to bring you an enjoyable show, aren't you EXCITED!! so don't forget to check out SISTIC and buy our tickets, what with the many discounts available; it should be more than affordable!!

much love,
farahin :)
Dayang Daini @ 8:55 AM




Si Marantang @ 8:52 AM


have you heard THE song of the year yet? @ 1:44 AM

Okays, so it is not really THE song of the year BUT once you've heard it you will be hooked because of the nice rhythm which it has! During the practices with Pak Tom and Pak Piter, we were taught two songs that we will be singing forour upcoming show in March! Oh how exciting! Let the audience hear our melodious vocals, err.. yeah right. :)

We will upload the lyrics soon! But it should be up together with the video below!
Listen to us practice the song and hear the start of our voices yeah.. no LAUGHING! haha. :)

Do check it out and we hope that you have bought your tickets through the Keppel Nights Scheme! :)) See you on 14 March 2010!


Practice 4 :) @ 11:09 AM

The other dancers have been training hard while I whisk myself away for a holiday with the family for the first few practices. :) Alas, I know I was going to pay for my absenteeism through the sheer pain my body felt after the end of training. The body has been dormant for quite a while since after DR and everything.

BUT, the steps that have been taught were fundamentally more exciting and more colourful (not literally of course, or else you would see colours coming out from our moves while we dance. okay sidetrack.)

Dancers, okay maybe just me, have always thought that sounds have 8 beats to make it complete. This time around, Cikgu taught us steps that was I call 'The 5 Step', just because I think it sounds creative. I had to get a hang of counting to just 5 and not end it at 4, and I swear it took me forever to get it. The hand just likes to end it at the count of 4!

We learned the "Knee Dance" at the carpark with addition of the night sky and the night breeze to let us be in the mood to be learning the steps. It had a strong feel of martial arts and I felt myself trasnported to the kampong scenes that can be seen from old movies and such. I know, very the drama. HAHA. The moves were fun to execute and it gives me this false security that I can so beat up any person who intends to do me harm. HAH. If only that was true. :)

Finally, back in the aircon studio we practiced our back rolls and it felt easier to do it after having practiced doing it for the productions before. :) You feel like a pro one moment and KABAM! wrong execution. I should stay in reality more often.

Anyways, the whole practice has been captured by our handy-dandy camera and is below for your viewing and practicing pleasure! :)



XOXO,
farahin :)

NAF 2010: Fitrah - Nature of the Self @ 2:01 AM



Fitrah narrates a tale of a son’s dream and a mother’s hope for a better life. The opportunity comes for the son to sail the seas with the King’s fleet of ships, impressing the authorities with his diligence and hard work. With his virtuous ways, he quickly rises through the ranks and he reaches the ultimate station when he takes the Princess’ hand in marriage. But the long periods of her son’s absence, the mother eagerly awaits his eventual return. The filial son’s good fortune is heaped upon the mother, until greed eventually blooms and consumes all. This deadly sin triggers a litany of events, spirally to a devastating climax.

A son’s sacrifice. A woman’s greed. A family’s harmony in jeopardy.

Does the nature of self determine it all?

Fitrah hopes to explore the complexity of human emotions and relationships through revisiting the traditional Malay folklore Si Tanggang, with pertinent updates for the modern times. Through the seamless integration of music, drama and dance, the audience will be captivated by this reworked postmodern tale. Fitrah blends the traditional art of ‘Teater Randai’ with a contemporary mindset. A Teater Randai guest specialist from Indonesia, Tom Ibnur, will be lending his expertise to the production. Choreographed by acclaimed artist Osman Abdul Hamid, scripted by Muhammad Ruzaini and accompanied by original music from contemporary musicians Dzul Rabul Jalil and Alhafiz, Fitrah brings you through a journey of self-discovery. NUS Ilsa Tari, in collaboration with Teater Tari Era, invites you to delve into the world of ‘Si Tanggang’ and come be part of this revival of the community theatre experience.

Fitrah – Nature of the Self

A Dance-Drama Production by NUS Ilsa Tari for NUS Arts Festival 2010 WHEN: Sunday, 14^th March 2010, 8pm

WHERE: University Cultural Centre Theatre

Tickets at $16 and $12 (including SISTIC Fee) is available from www.sistic.com or SISTIC Authorised Agents Islandwide (Hotline: 6348 5555)

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