The Malay Dance Scene Gears Up For MUARA 2014

By Soultari Amin Farid

noramin_dd@yahoo.com

It seems the Malay dance family in Singapore is all geared up for MUARA 2014: Malay Dance Festival By The Bay @ the Esplanade.

Quietly I observe this intense moment online when every group is hard at work to ensure that they give their best for the 3 day festival this coming weekend. I appreciate it very much that they have entrusted the documentation of their works, knowingly or unknowingly, onto social media. Overseas practitioners such as myself, at the very least, are able to witness the splendour of their artistic journeys without having to be present real-time.

Yes, watching excerpts of their trainings make me emotional. Why? Because it means that the Malay dance scene in Singapore is active and, inevitably, flourishing. The coming together of the young and old, revival of dance pieces of the past performed by today's youths, the appreciation of tradition ultimately shows that Malay arts in Singapore continue to remain relevant and practised.

Groups despite their differences and implicit (sometimes explicit) competitiveness understand the importance of the arts towards the realisation and awareness of that Malay identity -- particularly considering the restrictive constraints of a Modern Multicultural society.

That when faced with the promises of modernisation which privileges popular culture, Malay artistic expression (exemplified through the hard work of Malay dance groups) has proven that it exist in the present and ever ready to move alongside modernity.