Creative Director
Benedict Soh
Benedict’s career as a performer, educator and choreographer span more than twenty years. He holds a MFA with First Class Honours majoring in Choreography from the University of Melbourne (Victorian College of the Arts).
Benedict has had extensive training in both Chinese classical and contemporary dance since 1987, under the professional guidance of renowned Singapore dance choreographer and educator - Mr Ng Chay Kuang. In recent years, under the tutelage and mentoring of highly experienced dance practitioners - Helen Herbertson and Dr Don Asker, he was able to further develop and explore his choreographic skills.
Benedict has also been credited as the creative director and resident choreographer of Dance Horizon Troupe (Singapore) since 2001 and has contributed more than 20 works and 2 full-length features to the company’s repertoire.
He was invited as a guest choreographer and dance teacher by the International Buddhist Dance Troupe (Jakarta-Indonesia) in 1996 and Telok Ayer Hong Lim Green Community Centre Dance Troupe from 1996-2001. Presently, he is devoting his passion as a Dance educator, lecturer, instructor and choreographer for schools.
Known for his distinctive originality, visually captivating and innate ability in connecting to his viewers. Benedict's works were well received both locally and internationally from Asia to Europe.
In 2007, the Hong Kong Culture Promotion Society and Hong Kong Art Troupe invited Benedict’s “Metamorphosis”, “Matsuri” and “Heartbeats” to be presented at the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong SAR exchange Activities and 2007 Hong Kong International Children’s Cultural and Art Festival, and were awarded with 2 Gold and 1 Silver, including the best performance award.
In July 2008, Benedict’s “Metamorphosis” came in 1st place and was awarded “Best Choreography and Contemporary Dance” in the 12th Europe New Prague Dance Festival 2008. He was the first Singaporean to receive this international award.
In 2013 and 2014, his works, together with the dance company was the invited as the first Singaporean dance representative to attend and perform at the most prestigious and largest international festival in Korea, “Andong international face-mask dance art festival”.
Believing that Arts grow from culture and vice versa, Benedict sees our world as the interwoven foundation from which many artists draw their inspiration. Our society therefore refers to the natural vastness of the culture and the arts as understood and expressed by the audience and artists, whereby they feel a nourishing community gathered under the same roof. Dance- the art itself, enables us to find its own unique role within the rapidly changing and expanding horizons of dance culture.