ASK Dance Company
Educating a New Generation of Dance Talent to Preserve the Nation’s Heritage
Established in 2011, ASK Dance Company (ADC), has been at the forefront of preserving culture and artistic excellence in Malaysia. As an important local incubator for young dance talent, the company has created jobs, organised award-winning shows, and trained young artists into becoming successors of experts in traditional Malaysian dance.
YSD’s funding has enabled ADC to conduct impactful educational outreach projects such as Connecting Communities, Get Dancing, and the Forging Traditions series. These initiatives have introduced over 24 traditional Malaysian dances through intensive workshops, reaching over 30,000 participants nationwide.
ADC presented ‘Tabula Rasa 2024: Reset, Reflect, Reimagine’ directed by Joseph Gonzales with creative production by Imran Syafiq, which premiered in April this year at the Damansara Performing Arts Centre, featuring choreography by five choreographers.
ADC is the first dance company in Malaysia to provide free traditional dance lessons and assessments, reaching 6,963 participants through five phases to date – and its online and physical dance learning platform has been recognised by the Ministry of Education’s Sports, Arts, and Co-curricular Department for school students to collect points for their “Pentaksiran Aktiviti Jasmani dan Kokurikulum (PAJSK)” requirement. As of December 2021, ADC has conducted over 40 online dance courses for 610 participants. ADC’s workshops and programmes have also opened doors for aspiring talent, who have since gone on to become dance educators, studio owners, and independent artists.
Alumni members, such as Bernadette Fontaine Banagua, continue to carry the torch as educators. Bernadette, a teacher from Sekolah Kebangsaan Banjar in Keningau, Sabah, has passed down her knowledge of the Joget Gamelan Timang Burung and Joget Gamelan Topeng, which she learned from one of ADC’s workshops, to her own students – and they regularly perform at state-level events at the invitation of the Sabah Education Department.
‘Forging Traditions: Beyond Borders 3.0’ participants learn Yangge and Bharatanatyam as part of our larger effort to expand dance education across Malaysia, offering free access and broadening cultural appreciation.
Aside from financial support, YSD also provided crucial aid in matters of governance and business sustainability, allowing ADC to focus on what it does best: teaching dance to communities and putting together amazing productions. In 2017, the company opened its own space–The Malaysian Dance Centre in Ampang–which offers dance classes and is available for rental by dancers.
The latest phase of YSD’s funding will support the expansion of Forging Traditions: Beyond Borders 3.0 (Phase 6: 2023-2025) series, which focuses on teaching Yangge and Bharatanatyam to 1,100 participants through 11 physical workshops across 8 states and engaging 150 international participants online. The programme also includes the production of a guidebook on these dances and a dance production “Setanggi Tari Melayu”. These efforts are supported by a RM1 million sponsorship and aim to broaden awareness and appreciation of Malaysia’s traditional dances.
‘Forging Traditions: Beyond Borders 3.0’ participants learn Yangge and Bharatanatyam as part of our larger effort to expand dance education across Malaysia, offering free access and broadening cultural appreciation.
45 full time dancers
and 45 interns trained since 2016
Organised multiple workshops teaching traditional dances which reached
30,000 participants
nationwide
Published “Forging Traditional Dance in Malaysia” by Prof. Dr Joseph Gonzales
Published “Empower Arts, Animates Communities” (2021) – available at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and at academia.edu
“Thanks to the Sime Darby Foundation, ADC is one of the few full-time private dance companies in Malaysia that has achieved recognition on international platforms. ADC is unique because it does critical work for preservation and transmission of traditional Malaysian dances. ADC brings dance to all Malaysians, especially those who may not be privileged to attend private studios, thus enriching lives, while igniting the flames of patriotism by taking pride in traditional dance.”
