Book Launch: The Routledge Companion to Dance in Asia and the Pacific: Platforms for Change

The Routledge Companion to Dance in Asia and the Pacific: Platforms for Change documents and celebrates artistic journeys that exist within the framework of rich and complex cultural heritages and traditional dance practices. Selected chapters that first appeared in the Routledge Celebrating Dance in Asia and the Pacific series have been modified and updated – these are central to this book including Australia, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and the South Pacific. The scope is widened to include accounts of dance from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. A special feature of the volume are the embodied experiences of the writers – almost all are from the countries they write about and they bring decades of expertise in research and creative practice. The authors share multiple perspectives and insights from their roles as performing artists, choreographers, producers, teaching artists, critics, curators, researchers, and university faculty.

From 3 Nov – 2 Dec 2021, get 30% off the book with code RCDAP30. 

Contributors: Jala Adolphus, Priyanka Basu; Vanini Belarmino; Stephanie Burridge; Anna C.Y.Chan; CHEN Ya-Ping; Chey Chankethya; Angela Conquet, Pornrat Damrhung; Peter Gn; Bilqis Hijjas; Kathy Hong; Ophelia Jiadai Huang; Sarah Knox; LIN Yatin; Rose Martin; Marilyn Miller; Hun Pen; Mohd Anis Md Nor; Melissa Quek; Michael H.B. Raditya; Urmimala Sarkar; Lowell Skar, Jill Sykes; Faith Tan and Emily Wilcox.

Image credit: Performed by TAO Dance Theater, ca. 2017. Photographer: Fan Xi. [Used with permission]

Schedule of events

5:30pm Welcome address by Dr Stephanie Burridge 

5:40pm Keynote by Professor Dr Mohd Anis Md Nor

6:00pm Chapter writer presentations from Singapore with Melissa Quek (Head, School of Dance & Theatre, LASALLE) and Peter Gn followed by a conversation from Thai writers Professor Pornrat Damrhung and Lowell Skar, Chulalongkorn University, in conversation with renowned international dance artist Pichet Klunchun

6:30pm Q&A, chaired by Dr Stephanie Burridge

About the keynote speaker

Professor Dr. Mohd Anis Md Nor is a retired Professor of Ethnochoreology and Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, and is currently an Adjunct Professor at Sunway University. He is the Managing Director of Nusantara Performing Arts Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur, a non-profit organisation, which awards grants to individual scholars and focuses on research, documentation, and publication of traditional and contemporary performing arts of Southeast Asia. Although his foremost research area deals with Malay dance and music in Southeast Asia, his current studies are on the interfacing of dance traditions among the Malayo-Polynesian societies in Southeast Asia and Polynesia and the making of new traditions through contemporary performances. He has published more than 20 books, 93 chapters/articles, and 151 keynotes/conference papers on the performing arts of Malaysia and Southeast Asia focusing on music, dance and theatre.