February 04, 2020
As a large institution, NUS has an abundance of student opportunities to enable a holistic education. Indeed, NUS Centre For the Arts (CFA) has long championed the benefits of extra-curricular involvement as part of a well-rounded education.
The Cultural Activities Clubs (CAC) at NUS support this mission, and there are 12 CAC sub-clubs under the CFA umbrella. They cover the genres of music (Amplified, Angklung, Resonance, Voices) and dance (Ballroom, BreakiNUS, d’Hoppers, Funkstyles, Jazztitudes, Lindy Hop, Salsa, Viva LatiNUS) . Each sub-club not only furthers the students creative interests within their selected clubs, they also exemplify the essence of #NUSLife.
We had the privilege of catching up with the Management Committee of the CAC to understand the activities that take place within each group, the passion and the diversity of talent within the CAC sub-clubs, and to learn more about the well-loved up-coming annual concert CAC+US 2020 ‘TAKE A CHANCE’.
There are a good variety of student interest groups found at NUS. What would make students want to be part of one of the CAC groups?
We believe that the following the reasons are why the Cultural Activities Clubs (CAC) are able to attract the student population to participate with us.
- It is common at Universities to see clubs seeking and selecting members who already have some background and experience in an activity of choice. Unlike these clubs, the CACs are beginner-friendly; in fact we especially welcome students with no performing background to join us, as long as they have a strong interest. In addition to offering opportunities for participants to hone their craft through weekly sessions, we also provide a multitude of platforms for students to showcase their talents, with the most established platform being CAC + US (pronounced ‘cactus’), our annual flagship concert.
- The variety of CACs offered caters to a large range of interests, covering both the traditional and modern performing arts. Within the CAC, there are two core genres – dance and music – with the option to specialize, as we offer 8 dance and 4 music sub-clubs. Members are free to join various sub-clubs so long as they are able to commit to each of these clubs. Each year, the CAC Management Committee strives to organise our ‘Modern Arts Camp’ and masterclasses offered by each of the sub-clubs. At these masterclasses, potential students who are curious to know what takes place within the sub-clubs have the opportunity to participate and experience the different types of dance and music genres. These classes are excellent trials for students who are interested inany one of the sub-clubs, but are still unsure of what to make of this interest, as well as for the curious who are keen to try but perhaps are too busy to commit throughout the entire academic year.
For the uninitiated, please introduce what is CAC+US?
Essentially, CAC + US is the largest performing arts concert held on campus annually. Each year, we would bring together all our sub-clubs specializing in different genres of dance and music to present a refreshing, themed production.
The theme of the concert varies year to year, and the selected theme is based on a group decision. All the sub-clubs come together to discuss and make this decision. Typically, the CAC + US committee would brainstorm and introduce several themes to the sub-clubs for consideration, and the sub-clubs would then be given some time to see what they can extrapolate and explore with these themes, before deciding on one theme with the best potential for all the sub-clubs to expand on. After the theme has been decided, the sub-clubs are given complete artistic freedom to present the theme through their performances in ways they see fit, so long that there is conceptual clarity.
The committee would then string these performances together and arrange them to produce an overall story-line.
Is there a theme for this years’ CAC+US and what can the audience expect from this year’s annual concert?
Yes, there is a theme and it is titled CAC+US 2020 “Take a Chance”. This year’s concert seeks to explore the theme of serendipity, describing how one can find joy and success in the unexpected.
In support of this theme, our audience can expect to see a large variety of performances. Our dancers will showcase styles including Breakdancing (also known as b-boying), Hip-Hop, Latin Dance, Popping & Locking, Swing Dance, Street Jazz and Ballroom. Alongside the dancers, our musicians would present hard rock, mandopop, cultural music, as well as acapella music!
How is this year’s concert different from the last?
Other than a change in themes from ‘luminous’ in 2019 to ‘serendipity’ in 2020, this year’s concert also presents a revitalized artistic direction. We have attempted to bridge the different sub-clubs to produce collaborative pieces, and we are elated to share that there would be a segment by the alumni of Viva LatiNUS and Funkstyles! Rather than simply having each sub-club putting up their own performances, this is the year where we are starting to experiment with more ways to integrate the different sub-clubs together, so that we could work to produce a concert truly by ONE Cultural Activities Club.
Please look forward to exciting versions of CAC+US from here forth.
To find out more about each of the sub-club under Cultural Activities Club, please refer to this link.
CAC+US 2020” Take a Chance” will take place on 15 and 16 February at the University Cultural Center. Please refer to this link to find out more about this performance and to register for your tickets.