PROGRAMME

WELCOME2DECA

SYNOPSIS

59:59 is a full-length contemporary dance work that asks a simple but urgent question: If you had one hour left to live, how would you spend it?

Developed through a five-week cross-cultural residency spanning Taiwan and Singapore, the work draws from personal reflections and research into predominantly Asian perspectives on death, impermanence, and the afterlife.

Choreographed collaboratively by Hsu Chen Wei (Hsu Chen Wei Dance Company, Taiwan) and Rachel Lum (Decadance Co, Singapore), and performed by dancers from both companies, 59:59 unfolds as a visceral meditation on mortality—moving from resistance and fear toward acceptance, presence, and the quiet appreciation of life’s fleeting moments.

MUSIC

PROLOGUE - RAN BAGNO
BLUES CON FUEGO - SUSIE HANSEN
DESIR - IDA TONINATO
OUST - MIKAEL KARLSSON
WINGS 1 - MICHAEL WALL
EGRESS V - AHO SSAN, RESINA
WE’RE ALL LEAVING - ARCADE FIRE OWEN PALLETT

CREATIVE TEAM

CREATIVE PRODUCER EDWIN WEE
CHOREOGRAPHER HSU CHEN WEI
CHOREOGRAPHER RACHEL LUM
ORIGINAL LIGHTING DESIGNER GABRIEL CHAN
STAGE MANAGER RACHEL CHNG

PERFORMER EDWIN WEE
PERFORMER RACHEL LUM
PERFORMER HSU CHEN WEI
PERFORMER HUANG JEN-HUNG
PERFORMER LIN YI-CHI
PERFORMER JOANNE SEOW
PERFORMER JOSEPH CHUA

PRODUCTION TEAM

HSU CHEN WEI DANCE COMPANY MANAGER TING YU YU
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT EILEEN CHEA
FRONT OF HOUSE EILEEN CHEA
FRONT OF HOUSE EMILY AW

SUPPORTEDBY

NATIONAL ARTS COUNCIL SINGAPORE
TOTE BOARD ARTS FUND SINGAPORE
NATIONAL CULTURE AND ARTS FOUNDATION, TAIWAN
DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, TAIPEI CITY GOVERNMENT
BUREAU OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, KAOHSIUNG CITY GOVERNMENT
FRANK CHEN FOUNDATION

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Edwin is the Co-founder and Creative director of Decadance Co. He graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts with a Diploma in Dance in 2008. His graduating choreography, The Shaman’s Cat, was presented at da:ns Festival 2008. Early in his career, he performed in Generations Spotlight: Moscow (2008) and for distinguished guests including Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev and Singapore President S. R. Nathan.

He joined Arts Fission in 2008 and was appointed Rehearsal Director in 2011. Since then, he has directed, curated, designed, choreographed, and performed in more than 20 original stage and site-specific productions, including The Rite of Spring: A People’s Stravinsky (2013), Temple Reimagined (2013), Future Feed (2014, presented in Belgium), In the Name of Red (2015, commissioned by National Gallery Singapore), and Fire Monkey (2016/2018, Melbourne).

In 2019, he co-founded Decadance Co with Rachel Lum and currently serves as its Creative Director, overseeing the company’s major productions and international tours. He also choreographed NUNO (2023), a contemporary and aerial dance production with Shirley Wong, and recently choreographed works for NUS Synergy at the NUS Arts Festival in 2025 and 2026.

Rachel Lum is a Singapore-based choreographer and co-founder of Decadance Co. Her work is marked by a distinctive movement language, creating physically rich choreographic works shaped by texture, rhythm, and strong visual composition. Working across theatre and site-specific contexts, her works have been presented across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In addition to creating work for Decadance Co, she created zer0 for Singapore Ballet and continues to expand her practice through collaborations with artists, companies, and institutions internationally.

Hsu Chen Wei is a choreographer and the founder of Hsu Chen Wei Dance Company. He holds an MFA in Choreography from Taipei National University of the Arts and currently teaches contemporary dance at the University of Taipei. He is also a member of Ku & Dancers.

Rooted in Taiwanese traditional culture and lived experience, Hsu’s choreographic practice explores themes of life, death and belief through a physical language that moves between strength and softness. Through close observation and embodied awareness, he has developed an organic movement vocabulary charged with subtle inner tension.

Hsu Chen Wei Dance Company was selected as a Taiwan Top performing arts group by the National Culture and Arts Foundation from 2023 to 2026. Hsu has received the Lo Man-fei Dance Scholarship and the S-An Aesthetic Award. His works, including Sàng Tsáu, Sunboom, Kidult and Dead Line, have been presented internationally in Singapore, Bangkok, Rome, India and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Huang Jen Hung holds an MFA in Dance from National Taiwan University of Arts. She is currently a dancer with Ku & Dancers, an independent performing arts practitioner, and a dance instructor at National Lan-Yang Girls’ Senior High School.

Huang has trained in Countertechnique in Amsterdam and studied Gaga movement language with Batsheva Dance Company in Israel. Formerly a full-time dancer with Dance Forum Taipei, she has collaborated with artists including Marina Mascarell, Iván Pérez, Ming-Lung Yang, Toru Shimazaki, Tsui-Shuang Lai and Yi-Wen Cheng. Her performances have taken her across Taiwan, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong and China.

Her independent choreographic works have received support from the National Culture and Arts Foundation, including Building Relationships and I Dream, and I Dream: An Infinite Cycle of Insomnia and Dreams. Her practice spans choreography, performance, interdisciplinary collaboration and dance education.

Lin Yi Chi holds an MFA in Dance Performance from Taipei National University of the Arts and is currently a member of Ku & Dancers and Hsu Chen Wei Dance Company. She has worked extensively as a dancer and choreographer, collaborating with artists across different disciplines and performing at festivals in Taiwan and internationally.

Lin has worked with Hsu Chen Wei Dance Company since 2014, performing in works including The Sacrifice of Roaring, Purgatory and Sunboom. As a choreographer, she received the S-An Aesthetic Award in 2018 and individual creation grants from the National Culture and Arts Foundation in 2019 and 2022. She was selected for Shinehouse Theatre’s Artist-in-Residence Programme in 2022 and invited to participate in a dance festival in Laos in 2023. Her practice continues to explore bodily experience and the possibilities of contemporary dance through performance, creation and cross-cultural exchange.

Joanne pursued her professional training at LASALLE College of the Arts, graduated with Distinction in 2021. During her time at LASALLE, Joanne stepped beyond the classical realm, immersing herself in genres such as jazz and street dance, allowing her movement vocabulary to grow in texture and breadth. Her training placed her in close collaboration with numerous local and international artists such as Rachel Lopez de la Nieta (UK), Ery Mefri (Indonesia), Eisa Jocson (Philippines), Susan Sentler (UK), Dapheny Chen (Singapore) and Melissa Quek (Singapore). These experiences extended beyond dance into disciplines like fine arts, fashion, film, and animation, enriching her artistic perspective.

Currently, Joanne is a full-time dance artist with Decadance Co, performing in all major productions and touring with the company at numerous international dance festivals.

Joseph received full-time pre-professional training at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, gaining rich performance experience—including performing in a work by Eileih Muir from Studio Wayne McGregor. Since graduating, he has been working as a freelance contemporary dance artist and continues to seek performance opportunities to further his technicality and artistry in dance.

From 2015 to 2017, he was part of T.H.E Second Company, and rejoined from 2023 to 2025 to continue refining his craft. He has had the opportunity to work locally with Kuik Swee Boon for T.H.E Dance Company and Angela Liong for Arts Fission, and internationally with Sung Yong Kim for the Korean National Contemporary Dance Company (KNCDC) in Seoul, South Korea, Ole Khamchanla from Compagnie KHAM and Francesco Curci for Amorphous Dance Company in Nice, France.

Joseph has also been given opportunities to choreograph, including a solo work “Whole Without You” performed and presented at Fang Mae Kong (FMK) International Dance Festival 2025 in (Vientiane, Laos), and for the comma Creative Arts Festival organised by *SCAPE, having worked alongside both international and local dance artists. He joined Decadance Co as a full-time dance artist in 2026. 

Recipient of the NAC Overseas Bursary, Gabriel graduated from Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with First Class Honours in Lighting Design. He was also awarded the Strand Lighting Scholarship, funding his training at the Metropolitan Opera, New York (’09 Winter Opera Season). He was conferred the Young Artist Award in 2019 for his artistic excellence and contribution to Singapore's performing arts scene. A chameleon of a designer, Gabriel is well versed in lighting for the theatre, dance, music concerts and live events.

In the dance scene, Gabriel has designed for Frontier Danceland’s main seasons since 2012, featuring an array of international choreographers. Other notable dance productions: Festival Lighting Designer for M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival 2016 (T.H.E. Dance Company) and Swan Lake 2015 (Singapore Dance Theatre). Gabriel also opened two European dance commissions in summer 2019 - Ballroom for Festspielhaus in St Pölten, Austria, and Dancing Mahler in the 21st Century, a double bill for Opéra National du Rhin, France. Signature theatre designs include Lifespan of a Fact, Constellations, Rising Son, Shakespeare in the Park: Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest (Singapore Repertory Theatre), The LKY Musical (Metropolitan Productions), First Fleet (Nine Years Theatre), A Dream Under the Southern Bough: Existence (SIFA 2021), Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, Sometime Moon, (Toy Factory Productions) and Fluid (The Theatre Practice). Lighting design credits for music include Pipa virtuoso, Wu Man, in Borderlands (SIFA 2016), SCO 25th Anniversary Virtuoso Series I, II, III (Singapore Chinese Orchestra), Nine Songs, Soul Journey Ten Years, (Siong Leng Musical Association), Eight, Heirlooms, (The Teng Ensemble) and Sound of Wisdom - Heal (IMMPAC).

Other design ventures include Symphony of Life, the Gardens By The Bay opening festival anchor, Marina Bay Countdown 2015: Drum Gaia, Halloween Horror Nights 2018 and 2019 theatre performances and last but not least, Singapore’s National Day Parade 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021. Gabriel also goes by the moniker Linesmith (www.linesmith.net) authorised directly by Vectorworks Headquarters based in Washington for conducting training of the Vectorworks software, the leading drafting solution for Entertainment and Performing Arts technical design.

Rachel Rui En Chng is a recent graduate with a Diploma in Dance from LASALLE College of the Arts. During her training, she worked with choreographers including Fairul Zahid, Shahrin Johry, Shahizman Sulaiman, Christina Chan, and scRachMarcs, engaging in a diverse range of choreographic processes and performance works.

Rachel joined Decadance Co as an intern from May to August 2025, before continuing her journey with the company through Decakids and various productions. She joined Decadance Co full-time in June 2026. She has performed in OMAKASE 4.1, choreographed by Joanne Seow, and has toured with the company, taking on both performance and stage management roles.