Singapore, 7 August 2025 — T.H.E Second Company, together with T.H.E Dance Company, returns to the stage with liTHE 2025 at the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre on 7 and 8 November. 

This year's edition presents a compelling triple bill: two brand-new works by Billy Keohavong and Klievert Jon Mendoza, full-time dance artists from the main company of T.H.E, created in collaboration with dancers and apprentices from the Second Company. Completing the programme is a guest performance by the main company: a restaging of Un-form, choreographed by Kuik Swee Boon, Founding Artistic Director of T.H.E Dance Company, and performed by dance artists from the main company. 

From fractured identities to emotional constraint and personal resilience, each work offers a different lens into the human condition:

Misfits, choreographed by Billy Keohavong, embraces the discomfort, humour and contradictions of those who never quite fit in. Drawing from personal experience and collaborative improvisation, the work moves through tension and release, revealing moments of vulnerability and resilience in equal measure. 

Klievert Jon Mendoza's Hawla (a Tagalog word for "cage") explores the emotional states of entrapment and liberation. Anchored in shifting group dynamics, the piece oscillates between force and fragility, as the dance artists negotiate the boundaries of control, constraints and self-determination. 

Originally created in 2013, Un-form questions the role and relevance of the artist in contemporary Singapore. Shaped through the lived experiences of its performers, the work strips away formal technique and aesthetic expectation to reveal the inner tensions between artistic purpose, identity and survival. It is a work that resists easy interpretation, instead asking audiences to sit with uncertainty and presence. 

The evening begins with a pre-show sharing at 7pm by participants of the Training Initiative—a 10-month developmental platform for aspiring dance artists aged 16 to 30. They will present excerpts from Spare Room by Yarra Ileto and Silences We Are Familiar With by Kuik Swee Boon. Presented in a stripped-back setting on the main stage, this introduction foregrounds honesty, process and presence. 

For the first time, liTHE 2025 brings together all three of T.H.E's platforms: the Training Initiative, Second Company, and Main Company. It offers a rare glimpse into how T.H.E supports different stages of a dance artist's journey in Singapore—from foundational exploration to creative growth and professional-level practice. 

As Associate Artistic Director of the Second Company Silvia Yong puts it: "This year's three works each explore, in their own way, the idea of navigating struggle, boundaries, and how to find one's place and voice amidst the chaos. What I'm most looking forward to is not just seeing a performance on stage, but witnessing something lived—dancers responding with honesty and presence to the world they carry within them."

First launched by T.H.E Dance Company in 2009 under the Emerging Choreographers, liTHE was rebranded in 2012 and has since evolved into a vital incubator for new choreographic voices. Initially a testbed for short-form creations, it expanded in 2017 into a three-year development cycle, and has operated as a two-year incubator since 2020—supporting bold experimentation and the development of original works by emerging choreographers. 

liTHE 2025 will be staged at the Auditorium of the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre for two nights only. Tickets go on sale from 7 August 2025 via BookMyShow, and the production is also eligible for the SG Culture Pass, a national initiative that offers all Singapore Citizens aged 18 and above S$100 in credits, redeemable for local arts and culture events. From 1 September 2025, audiences can use their Culture Pass credits to purchase tickets for liTHE 2025 exclusively via BookMyShow. 

For media enquires, interview requests or reviews, please contact:

Crispian Chan

Communications Strategist (Part-time), T.H.E Dance Company

crispian@the-dancecompany.com