Arts In Your Neighbourhood is an initiative by the National Arts Council that brings arts such as dance, music, theatre and visual arts right to our door steps. Since one of the location was held at a rather centralised location of Toa Payoh Central, I had no reason not to make my way down to immerse myself with the series of free performances held there. Just make sure to check out their event highlights before making your way down (in future for other #ArtsInYourNeighbourhood programmes) since there would be multiple different performances/activities from 10-27 March 2016.
I headed over to the iconic dragon playground which was located at Block 28 of Toa Payoh Lorong 6
with the other instagrammers. This dragon playground is one of last few remaining/surviving in Singapore before getting extinct since their habitant has been eyed for other development plans. For some people, it would represent a nostalgia of their childhood while I had no impression of it at all. My childhood just does not revolve around playgrounds.
Despite the sun not showing any mercy on us, many of us were seated on the mats scattered across the grass patch enjoying the story telling session about how this dragon lost its eyes. The context of the story was further enhanced by the musicians playing for added sound effects. Young children were getting really excited over the performance.
Back at Toa Payoh Central, a band of musicians performed a series of songs such as ‘Rasa Sayang Hey’ and ‘Xiao Ren Wu De Xin Sheng’ (小人物的心声). The performance was harmonious and soothing and the lead singer was a beautiful lady being a bonus. Toa Payoh is definitely a good place for such performances since it is a pioneer generation populated residential area and they would support such an event.
Last but not least, another performance that day by ‘The Rainbow Toymaker’ was located at Ang Mo Kio Central Stage, near Jubilee Square. It was a colourful performance by the 3 men act that involved colourful costumes and elaborated props that were mostly handmade. Towards the end where the actors looked for volunteers to participate in simple games and dance moves, there was an overwhelming response from these children as they excitedly rushed up to stage.
After the performance, audiences were allowed to borrow their props for photo taking purposes. That was how I got my picture taken with the blue teddy bear!
