Dance battle: power relations within the Singapore dance scene

• Main Authors: Te, Hui Ley, Tjong, Vanessa Gabriela
• Other Authors: Md Saidul Islam
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Social Sciences; Dance; Singapore dance; Foucault; Governmentality; Discourse; State regulation
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177190
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Sociology literature in Singapore has paid scant attention to the experiences of the dance community, despite the highly-regulated nature of the arts sector. Hence, our thesis aims to unravel the power relations within Singapore’s dancescape. Our research questions are (1) How is Foucauldian governmentality exercised in the dance scene in Singapore? and (2) How do dancers negotiate and reproduce the discourses of governmentality, and how does this influence the development of dance in Singapore? Utilising Foucault’s concept of governmentality and discourse analysis, our thesis found that governmentality is exercised in the Singapore dancescape through the discourses that exist via state regulations and norms within the dance community. Stories of dancers’ negotiation and reproduction of these discourses also surfaced through interviews with 17 dancers, and a deeper analysis revealed that the power to govern the trajectory of Singapore’s dancescape is constantly shifting between dancers, the state and the larger dance community.