BA(Hons) Animation Art students strike a pose in front of the Geneva Flower Clock during their trip to Annecy, France.
As global travel resumes in the aftermath of the pandemic, international exchanges and study trips have also restarted in earnest. In the summer of 2022, undergraduate and postgraduate students across various programmes from LASALLE embarked on journeys to a diverse range of destinations, including France, US, Australia, Thailand and Cambodia.
These trips have helped to reignite and reassert a sense of interconnectedness of the arts and cultural industries as students mingle with artists, fellow emerging practitioners and industry professionals from around the world. “Looking at new artworks and spaces provides us with mental, intellectual, embodied and spiritual fuel, reinforcing creative differences and similarities in the way we look at the world,” explains MA Fine Arts Programme Leader Dr Ian Woo, who led a study trip to Bangkok for his students.
For other programmes, these trips are long-awaited opportunities for exchange with fellow students from arts universities around the world. Our BA(Hons) Acting students, for example, visited Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), touring their performance spaces, taking part in voice, movement and acting workshops and sharings with their counterparts in WAAPA’s BA Acting, as well as their peers in the Aboriginal Performance Programme and Diploma Programme in Performance.
“Apart from the classes, one of my biggest takeaways was the cultural exchange we shared with the students of WAAPA and the friendships I've forged. I truly enjoyed bonding with the WAAPA students and talking about our views on theatre, actor training and life in general,” shares LASALLE student Tejas Hirah. “As young budding artists, this opportunity has opened many new doors for exciting cross cultural theatre collaborations in the future.”
Whether it’s building the foundations of regional networks and friendships, or mingling with industry greats at international festivals, these study trips and exchanges are opportunities for adventure and discovery, enabling our students to recontextualise and reframe their training.
Standing tall on a global stage: Annecy Festival (France)
LASALLE students represented their college and country at international festivals, with 10 BA(Hons) Animation Art students presenting their works at the world’s largest animation festival, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
For the Animation Art students, their participation at Annecy is part of a high-profile global collaboration project conceived in 2019 between LASALLE and two top animation schools in France – Atelier de Sèvres in Paris and École Émile-Cohl in Lyon. The three schools produced films sharing the common theme of ‘Live Elsewhere’, which were screened under the Annecy International Animation Film Market (MIFA) Campus platform.
Participating at Annecy also gave the students unprecedented access to industry bigwigs in attendance. Famed animation studios such as Skydance Animation, Laika and the Walt Disney Company exhibit at Annecy every year, setting up recruitment booths to woo the best and brightest in emerging talents.
Meanwhile, our dance students took to New York’s long-running Battery Dance Festival to present the world premiere of Allocentric, a work exploring the hierarchy of multiple social identities by Fairul Zahid, award-winning choreographer and LASALLE adjunct lecturer. Fairul had been invited back to the festival by artistic director Jonathan Hollander after premiering work there in 2007. Seeing great potential in his dance students at LASALLE, Fairul decided to create a new piece with them in mind to take to New York.
It is notable that despite featuring students as performers, Allocentric is presented alongside programmes by professional dance companies in lieu of the festival’s youth platform. “This is a great opportunity to showcase our students globally and the calibre of the festival is an affirmation of how our students are on par with international standards,” says Melissa Quek, Head, School of Dance and Theatre. “Performing together overseas builds confidence in the students and offers them the opportunity to experience touring as a company.”
The path to New York was a rigorous and demanding one, as Allocentric requires very high stamina and technique. The piece runs for about 19–20 minutes, throughout which the students need to maintain a consistent energy. The process of rehearsing for this work throughout the semester break when students would otherwise have been resting or slowing their pace was also part of a learning curve for them.
Says, student Natasha Koo, "Up until the moment we walked on stage, it was months of stress and anxiety, constantly worrying about how every run will turn out. I was afraid initially that this would affect my performance, but stepping onto the stage and taking in the energy from the crowd and the beautiful space allowed my body and mind to process what was happening. It also helped that I was able to have so much faith in the rest of the cast, and know that we will have each other’s backs in every run.
"This opportunity to be in New York has also allowed us to observe many different works from other countries, all of which were so inspiring. It was also nice to interact with dancers and choreographers from various countries, to support one another and connect through our shared love for dance."
Being together: MA study trips to Cambodia and Thailand
For the postgraduate programmes under the McNally School of Fine Arts, international study trips are an opportunity to delve deeper into the richness of the Southeast Asian region’s artistic networks. Both the MA Asian Art Histories and MA Fine Arts programmes boast a long history of relationships with artists and curators from around the region, which opened doors for studio tours, gallery visits as well as valuable dialogue sessions.
For the Asian Art Histories study trip to Phnom Penh, alumnus Reaksmey Yean served as a guide, taking students not just on a tour of art spaces and galleries, but into the private homes and studios of prominent Cambodian artists, including Sopheap Pich and Leang Seckon. The students were afforded an invaluable opportunity to experience first-hand the purpose of art and its relevance from the social spaces of artists.
Meanwhile the MA Fine Arts programme’s Bangkok itinerary was advised by Thai artist Nipan Oranniwesna, an old friend of the programme and previous visiting artist at LASALLE, who served as an important industry link with the Thai arts scene.
The students, led by lecturers Dr Ian Woo and Adeline Kueh, visited an array of museums, galleries and artists’ studios including some of the newest art spaces in the city, such as the Jim Thompson Art Center, XSpace Gallery and Bangkok Citycity Gallery. The group was fortunate to catch key works of major Thai artists such as Wasanti Petchkuyl, Jirapatt Aungsumalee and Apichatpong Weerasethakul at the galleries.
While taking in art was a big part of the trip, what was even more important was the bonds being forged in the process. Explains Ian, “The MA Fine Arts study trip has always been about being together and developing friendships through discussing and looking at art, and meeting with art directors and curators from all around the world. Transparency and trust is important for artists to grow and develop among their peers.”
Cultural ambassadors: BA(Hons) Acting’s residency in Australia
Level 2 acting students spent a week’s residency at the Western Australian Academy of the Arts (WAAPA) in Perth. As the residency coincided with WAAPA’s production season, it offered students a rare window into another institution’s actor training regime as well as insights into the cultural differences in acting and performance, as they watched productions by Level 1 and 2 WAAPA acting students.
LASALLE also presented a 15-minute excerpt of Kuo Pao Kun’s Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral, directed by lecturer Alvin Chiam, to a large audience of WAAPA’s students and staff, receiving warm praise for their performance.
This was a watershed moment for some of the students, reflects Programme Leader Dr Peter Zazzali. “I cannot stress how significant it was for our actors to share their work with respected peers and be recognised for its quality. The students come to appreciate the quality of their training through the compliments of their peers, reaffirming their passion and hard work. The fact that it was an excerpt from a play written by Singapore’s dramaturgical pioneer also made the students realise that they were representing much more than their acting or LASALLE – at that moment they were cultural ambassadors for Singapore.”
