Per / cent

• Main Author: Lee, Ginnie Ziqi
• Other Authors: Joan Marie Kelly
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Visual arts and music::Drawing, design and illustration
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/158727
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Many Asian cultures as well as subversive cultures have emerged through the engagement of public spaces in the urban environment. Street dance is an activity that was developed in the streets, where dancers are first seen coming out of the ghettos of The Bronx in New York in the early years. Street dance was a style that was adapted and evolved from dance learned from formal dance studios, through improvisation in informal spaces such as a street, a club or a party. It evolved from the pop culture and social dance in the 1970s (Maxwell, 2009), with Michael Jackson first popularising street dance in the 1980s, creating a new subversive phenomenon in the global culture. Musicians such as the American cellist Yo-Yo Ma have also recognised street dance as an art form through his collaborations with American street dancer Lil-buck. While this subversive culture grows overseas, the street dance community remains relatively hidden in Singapore. Overseas, dancers are gaining more and more popularity due to the pop culture in these countries, where dance reality shows and idol survival shows are popular. This allows dance in some countries to be seen with more importance and hence more validated and acknowledged. With Singapore’s focus on monetisation through our careers, dance is not seen as an ideal career and hence less validated. However, there are still a handful of these dancers, donned in oversized t-shirts and baggy sweats, being pushed further into subversive behaviour by the pandemic as they seek out public spaces to hone their craft. For these dancers, they embody the spirit of street dance, improvising on the streets with just their bodies and the interactions they have with the environment. With this improvisation comes a part of self-expression and a silent protest against what society wants us to be, and against not having the social space to be who we really are. Their baggy, oversized fits symbolise the protest against what society deems us to be, signifying clothes being a fraction of what we think and our ideals and identity as people, representing us physically. This project aims to understand how dance is manifested in the public spaces of Singapore’s urban landscape, the difficulties these dancers may face and hence create a unique clothing line that caters to the needs and wants of these dancers. PER / CENT can offer an option for these dancers to infuse their own identity into their clothing through customisation, at the same time not deviating too far from offering comfort. Hence, PER / CENT is a project that explores the possibility of clothing defining people for who they are, and clothing as a label of a person, especially in the context of these dancers who own the streets.