​DrFil, as he is fondly called by his students, recently finished directing Unbound, an inclusive performance with the neurodiverse clients of Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore, Quinn Special Needs Student Care Centre and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). He became the president of the World Dance Alliance Singapore in 2020 and is currently collaborating with the Ministry of  Education to teach Dance Safety courses to continuing education constituents.  He is among the first batch of candidates of the Masters of Science of Learning (Educational Neuroscience) at the National Institute of Education Singapore where he also received his Post Graduate Diploma in Higher Education. In 2021, his treatise, Face-to-Face Dance Classes in Singapore During the COVID-19 Pandemic was a featured article for the Journal of Dance Education.  He created and restaged (B)Loom in 2019 and 2020 respectively as a collaboration between the dance alumni and students of dance, theatre and fine art schools  of  the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). He directed Belonging, a partnership with Quinn Special Needs Care Centre in 2019 and Hamon for the Esplanade Dans Festival in 2018. His first full-length piece, La-în, for NAFA's 80th anniversary in Crossings was restaged in 2018. In 2017, he collaborated with I'mSoulInc to produce Sweet Lee, a performance involving people of different abilities. Previously, he worked with At-Sunrice Global Chef Academy to direct Eat Pray Dance: a celebration of choreography and cuisine. He was invited as a guest presenter for World Dance Alliance in Korea and has taught for the Vermont International Dance Festival in 2016. He also represented NAFA at the Blackboard Asia 2015 conference. He choreographed  the opening piece for the 8th ASEAN Paragames, hailed as a "beautiful performance" by The London Times, and subsequently wrote about it in Stephanie Burridge's book, Dance: Access and Inclusion. He choreographed Monkey Goes West for Wild Rice! Company, which won best production in the Straits Times Life Theatre Awards 2015.  In 2014, he restaged Banwa in the New Prague International Dance Festival where the piece defended its 1st place awards in Dance Theatre and Audience's Vote award from 2013. He was last seen performing as Shakespeare in Asa Palomera's The Curious Lives of Shakespeare and Cervantes in Bangkok, 2014.  Other past creative credits include: Esplanade Dance Festival 2009-2014,  12th Night, Pinocchio, Jack & The Beanstalk, La Traviata, Annie, Santa Claus The Musical,  HONK!, Just So, Alice in Wonderland.  He has choreographed for Singapore Repertory Theatre, Singapore Lyric Opera, Marina Bay Sands, Chingay (2006-2008), Youth Olympic Games (Singapore), MDC, SOTA, Singapore Ballet Academy.

 

In 2010, his commissioned Ballet, "A Message of Peace," performed in front of His Excellency, President S.R. Nathan for the New York State Bar Association Gala, met with standing ovations. He has performed in Shanghai, Beijing, and Cannes for the Singapore Tourism Board. Locally, his performing credits include Everything But The Brain (Life Awardee for best playwright--original cast), Admiral’s Odyssey, Romanza Española, Mercury Rising, Beauty World, Snow White,  Much Ado About Nothing, Imelda's Boys, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Victor Victoria, Vision, Salome. While dancing for the Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Company Chicago. Fil performed in Chicago Dance Masters Association, Dance Chicago, The International Jazz Congress, at the Merle Reskin, Athenaeum & Daley Center. He has worked with international choreographers: Randy Duncan, Jon Lehrer, Davis Robertson (Joffrey Ballet), Eddy Ocampo, Natalie Weir and Csaba Buday.  In  Manila, he performed for Ballet Philippines and taught  the company in De La Salle University thereafter. He captained Repertory Philippines’s production of Fame. He is a full-scholar alumnus of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and danced for the Douglas Nierras Powerdance Company and toured Europe with the Filipiniana Folk Dance Company, essaying both singing and dancing roles. Fil has been professionally performing for over 25 years . He is a fully-certified Stott Pilates instructor with a focus on injuries and special populations.   

 

Fil, a Doctor of Medicine and a licensed physician,  is a full time senior lecturer with NAFA .