Habitat of a Singaporean dancer: Kai Eng

In February, I went to the home of a Singaporean dancer, who had just moved back from living in Stockholm for a number of years. She had just moved into this apartment she shares with her boyfriend and her landlord that has typical Singapore views of government-subsidized housing called HDBs in an area that I'm not familiar with. Even though I've grown up living in Singapore, I didn't have many local friends as I attended an International school and an American school later on. Almost all of us lived in private condos and no one I knew lived in an HDB flat from my schools. I had very few local Singaporean friends who I'd met through the dance studios I trained at and through the ice rink (I used to be a figure skater). This particular dancer, I had met at the ice rink. She and I were rink buddies back in those youthful days. We sort of lost touch after I moved away from Singapore to the US but reconnected on Facebook. She became a modern dancer while in Sweden.

When we look at the Habitat we place ourselves in, it reflects a physical place of where we our in our life in that current moment. I had asked Kai why she didn't move back "home" with her mother and she replied that she was going to live with her boyfriend that moved with her from Sweden and didn't want to burden her mother. She chose her living arrangements. I believe that when we get to choose our own living arrangements, we are much happier wherever we are. We get to unleash our truest selves 24/7 instead of just behind closed doors.

Photo Credit: Alistair Chew (Visit his Tumblr blog with AMAZING Dance Photography! Tonight We Dance)

 
























 


Photo Credit: Alistair Chew (Visit his Tumblr blog with AMAZING Dance Photography! Tonight We Dance)

Her current habitat is humble and simple. Her landlord was excited to have us film and photograph in her apartment.


A BIG Thank you to Alistair Chew (Seriously check out his blog: Tonight We Dance) and Kai Eng for this photoshoot! I'll have more pics highlighted from that shoot that will be used as part of the backdrop for Habitat.