She's making space for artistes with disabilities to shine on Singapore's biggest arts stage

CNA

27-05-2025

The pre-pandemic 2010s were a blur of excess. ZoukOut transformed beaches into pulsating raves, Marquee re-imagined nightclubbing as an adult theme park replete with a towering slide and Ferris wheel, stadiums heaved with pop and K-pop heavyweights.
Audiences demanded bigger names, louder beats, grander spectacles, and the entertainment industry obliged.
It was amid this maximalist race that a single quiet voice cut through the noise.
A festival and arts producer, Audrey Perera was not interested in big headliners or bright pyrotechnics.
Instead, she assembled some 100 of the most diverse artistes with disabilities from 22 nations – many of whom most Singaporeans may not have heard of.
There was the Canadian one-armed violin virtuoso Adrian Anantawan; Australian singer Tony Dee, who has cerebral palsy; New Zealand wheelchair dancer Rodney Bell; as well as visually-impaired musicians and wheelchair dancers from Singapore.
Together, they launched the first True Colours Festival in March 2018. Presented by UNESCO and the philanthropic Nippon Foundation, ticketed shows drew more than 12,000 people. It was groundbreaking.
Shortly after, the world was gripped by the pandemic, and the festival went virtual with film festivals, documentaries and music videos. Then, in 2022, as the world emerged from the pandemic, Perera produced a True Colors live concert in Tokyo, Japan.
This year, True Colors is returning to Singapore, from May 30 to Jun 1, 2025, as part ofthis year's Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA).
A blend of dance, music and behind-the-scenes footage, COLONY – A True Colors Project is inspired by an ant colony.
The dance production features a cast of artistes without and with disabilities, including loss of limb, mobility impairments and Down syndrome, from Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines.
The storyline revolves around a community of people living in the same tenement. They are different, yet the same – though they don't realise it. It follows the characters' journey as they confront prejudice, fear and conflict those differences stir, ultimately forging a deep human connection.
NOT A CHARITY SHOW
One thing Perera wants you to know upfront: This is not a charity show.
'The mindset (in Singapore) is, when you see people with disabilities on stage, it's usually in the context of a fundraising show,' the 63-year-old lamented.
'There is nothing wrong with a fundraiser – organisations have to raise funds, and that's one way.
'But it can also be disempowering if you keep putting people with disabilities into that category – to think that first, a sad story about their life must be narrated, then you watch them play the drums badly, and then the cheque book comes out.'
Many also think that artistes with disability 'are not at the same level and hence lower their expectations', but that is simply not true, Perera said.
'When you have different bodies performing together, obviously not everybody's going to be technically perfect. But dance is not just about technical perfection. It's about self-expression, communicating emotion through that movement,' she told CNA Women.
'The fact is that in every human, there is the desire, the need to self-express. And dance is a way to self-express. Watching this is very powerful and poignant,' she reflected.
But don't watch it through a lens of pity. Artistes with disabilities want to be seen for who they are, not defined by their disability, Perera stressed.
'The thing I'm learning from these artistes is that we are the ones who fixate on their disability. They don't. They get on with their lives. They express themselves, they work, they live, they find their ways around the disability,' she said.
That is also how the True Colours Festival in 2018 got its name. And no, it has nothing to do with the well-known Cyndi Lauper song.
At that time, Perera was struck by something two artistes with disabilities from different parts of the world said in separate media interviews.
'They said that although social media appears to have made the world more connected, it actually had the opposite effect because it was dictating what was acceptable and cool. As a result, people like them did not feel welcome at the table – they never get to show their 'true colours',' she said.
Perera wanted to give them that platform.
'The reality is, more than 15 per cent of human society is made up of people who have a disability, according to the United Nations,' the producer noted.
'If we are saying that one role of art is to reflect society, shouldn't this be more represented on mainstream stages?' she asked. This diversity better showcases the full spectrum of human experiences.
Disability or no, humans are by nature unique and diverse, reflected Perera. 'Conformity is an enforced condition.'
But art has the power to cut through those barriers, she said.
As a journalist and editor, Perera went on a media trip to Australia three decades ago for the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival. She vividly remembers watching Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a singer from Pakistan, performing religious music in Arabic to a predominantly white, Australian audience.
'Nobody understood a word he sang. But the power of his voice and emotions crossed all the barriers. I felt like this voice was coming from a higher power through him. The crowd was rapt, and asked for encore after encore until he couldn't perform anymore. He was on the verge of collapse. I was very struck,' she reminisced.
At the same festival, Perera watched Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo performing in Pali (the scriptural language of a branch of Buddhism).
'She is very small-sized and looked tiny on stage. But she sang with a beautiful voice, clear as a bell. This was 1am in the morning, and there was pin-drop silence. I wish more people could experience this feeling of connection,' she recalled.
Later, when Perera interviewed the founder of WOMAD, she learnt that he wanted to bring WOMAD to Singapore. Though she had no festival-producing experience, she volunteered for the job.
Returning to Singapore, Perera began knocking on doors and pitching the idea. Many doors slammed in her face. But by sheer determination, three years later, she pulled it off. In 1998, Perera launched the inaugural WOMAD, a four-day festival that took place at Fort Canning Park.
'I remember the opening night (of WOMAD in Singapore), there was a group from Scotland called Shooglenifty that played the fiddle. I wondered if anybody would dance because in Australia, New Zealand, UK, (festival-goers) danced. But I knew Singapore was a tough audience – shy.
'At the opening beats, people already went up to the front to dance! It was a thing of beauty to see people feeling free and un-self-conscious enough to just dance,' she smiled.
Over the years, Perera presented Hungarian musicians and Burundi drummers to Singapore audiences. 'I feel that it is important to be in a space where we appreciate art and culture beyond our CMIO (Chinese Malay India Others) script,' she reflected.
Before leading the True Colours Festival, she produced several smaller festivals, all while raising her now 25-year-old daughter.
'I want to create spaces and worlds that take people out of their everyday world and uplift them – where they can experience moments of joy, connection and exhilaration,' she said.
Live performances are powerful, she added. 'You are in the presence of hundreds of people who are experiencing a whole welter of emotions, just like you. It makes you feel more connected to everybody else.'
In the fractured world we live in right now – divided by trade wars, protectionist policies and fear – Perera said such connection and collaboration are more vital than ever before.