Dance me through the Dark

“ Dance me through the Dark is a labour of my first love, abetted by the mistress of my destiny”- Tan Ngiap Heng

For Tan Ngiap Heng, an established photographer on the local scene, photography was almost incidental. Having returned from London with a doctorate in Nonlinear Dynamics and one year of contemporary dance training at the prestigious London Contemporary Dance School under his belt, he proceeded to begin work as an arts administrator at The Esplanade Theatre. His love for dance led him to start taking photographs of dancers at Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts. Impressed by his work, his then colleague Phan Ming Yen, editor of The Arts Magazine, asked him to shoot for the magazine. Thus, Tan entered into full time photography and subsequently, a successful career as a wedding and corporate portrait photographer, most recently receiving accolades from the International Photography Awards and the Toscana Photographic Workshop.

It is 2008, 8 years later and happily Tan has come full circle. Dance me through the Dark is his first book and exhibition of photographic dance portraits which will be launched on 13th February at The Arts House Gallery. This series of photographic dance portraits is lovingly rendered for Dance which Tan credits with bringing him through some dark periods of his life:

“While doing my doctoral thesis in London, in the cold dark winter days, dance was the spark that kept me going. Coming back to Singapore and working unsatisfactorily in arts administration, it was dance that led me to my accidental career as a photographer. After several years, struggling to be a wedding photographer, and feeling completely uninspired to shoot anything more, dance photography has once again rekindled my love for the arts, my love for photography, and most importantly, my love for life.”

For this series, Tan photographs ex and present dancers from the Singapore Dance Theatre. Since what Tan appreciates most about dance is being able to be in total control of one’s body and how that makes one feel truly alive, most of the photographs are inspired first by the dancers’ physicality – what they can do with their bodies – and then by their personalities and lives. Hence the pictures of dancers like Robert Mills and of Chihiro Uchida captured in postures only dancers can achieve and other more textured photographs like the one of Toru Okada with his favorite books projected onto him or the piece ‘Sakura on Sakura’. Tan also reveals his romantic side with his pictures of real life couples like Kelly van der Ploeg and Zhang Jun caught up in intriguing pas de deux at unexpected locations.

Truly inspiring, the series is emotionally captivating and most satisfactory especially for those who already have a place in their hearts for dance.

The Dance me through the Dark exhibition will be held from 13 – 28 February 2008 at The Arts House Gallery. The book launch will take place on 13 February 2008 at the same location.