About the Storyteller: Kamini Ramachandran Background

About The Storyteller: Kamini Ramachandran Background

Kamini is one of few contemporary storytellers who experienced a master-and-apprentice process of inheriting her repertoire of stories. It became her aim to keep her grandfather’s craft alive. In 2004, she cofounded MoonShadow Stories to revive and preserve the waning art of the oral narrative tradition. Kamini is the artistic force behind MoonShadow Stories, one that works to demystify the prevailing perception that storytelling was limited to reading aloud from a book, meant only for children, solely practiced in libraries and schools, a craft that anyone could pick up at will.

Expertise & Experience

MoonShadow Stories organizes storytelling performances and workshops for both adults and children. MoonShadow Stories provides customized storytelling training, content creation, publications and research advice for private organizations and government entities, educational and commercial institutions, literary and storytelling festivals, counselling and therapeutic agencies.

Kamini’s craft has taken her far afield from a sitting at her grandfather’s feet as he told a story. She has performed at schools, community centres, libraries, arts venues, concert halls, studios, restaurants, lofts, parks, in the jungle, in tents, on stages, inside a giant inflatable fish, homes, temples and churches, outdoors, in castles, malls, museums, galleries and more. She is also the first storyteller to organize dinner theatre storytelling in Singapore.

Credentials

Kamini is a veteran Singapore storyteller with deep knowledge and training in her field. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts with a Bachelor’s degree in English Language & Literature (Hons) from the University of Reading, Berkshire UK and a Master’s degree in Arts Pedagogy & Practice from Goldsmith’s, University of London UK. She also holds a Human Subjects Research Professional Certification from CITI University Miami. Her Master’s dissertation covered her own teaching practice and her final study examined Modelling through Exemplar Videos as a Tool for Enhancing the Scale of Authenticity in Performance Storytelling.

She is the founding director of non-profit arts organisation The Storytelling Centre Ltd that fosters and advances the art of storytelling through the Young Storytellers Mentorship Programme and other activities. She is also creative producer of StoryFest: International Storytelling Festival Singapore that showcases the best of artistic and applied storytelling globally.

A founding member of the Storytelling Association (Singapore) she served as a four-term President from 2008 to 2012 and has served as Vice President from 2012 to 2017.

She has written numerous articles on storytelling for local newspapers and magazines and been interviewed and featured by both Singapore and foreign media.

Heritage & Culture

Kamini is known for her retellings of traditional oral narratives for contemporary audiences. She is acclaimed for her work in alliance with museums and galleries. She has told stories in nearly all the main museums in Singapore from National Museum Singapore, Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore Art Museum, The Peranakan Museum, Reflections at Bukit Chandu, Old Ford Factory, Singapore Philatelic Museum, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall to the Indian Heritage Centre. She was also the first storyteller to perform outdoors at Gardens By The Bay in 2012 for their opening celebrations. Kamini has held residencies at The Art Science Museum, National Museum of Singapore and currently at the National Gallery Singapore from Aug 2016 – Feb 2018.

She was part of the Indian Heritage Centre’s opening celebrations with Folktales of India, and Folktales of Singapura for SG50, and at the launch of Children’s Season 2016 with Amazing Animal Tales. She was commissioned by Art Walk Little India 2016 to promote the Little India precinct through art. She produced Temple Tales where she told stories from Hindu mythology inside the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple followed by a group activity in garland weaving. She also guided the audience on a mini-tour of the temple and continued her story at different sites within the temple. For AWLI 2017 she returned with the sell-out series The Flickering Flame where she performed Indian folktales in an unused shophouse. She is currently researching her next AWLI 2018 project on Urban Myths related to the area. To celebrate Deepavali 2018 she shared the story of The Ramayana accompanied by an exhibition of related artefacts from her private collection for A Lighter Side of History at the National Museum Singapore.

Kamini has conducted workshops for the Hindu Endowment Board, the Islamic Council of Singapore (MUIS), and produced Stories of Faith as part of WSD 2014.

Besides performing traditional tales, Kamini has conducted workshops and training sessions for National Heritage Board, Asian Civilizations Museum, Preservations of Monuments Board, Friends of the Museum and Raffles Institution Monument Ambassadors sharing her expertise in site-specific, object- based and in-institution storytelling for guides, docents and programmers.

She was storyteller-in-residence conducting family audience storytelling tours for Stories in Art at the National Gallery Singapore in the second half of 2016 focusing on the South-east Asia and Singapore galleries. She continues her residency from 2017 March to 2018 February where she performed amongst Yayoi Kusama’s installations and the Impressionists paintings of the Century of Light special exhibition.

Performance Storytelling

MoonShadow Stories were the pioneers in performance storytelling and storytelling for adult audiences. Through rigorous programming that started at The Substation (with 7 thematic performances of 3-nights each in 2005) focusing on Storytelling for Adults, to producing a collaboration of oral storytelling and gamelan musicians in Archipelago: South East Asian Island Stories & Music, MoonShadow Stories has grown to become a household name for performance storytelling in Singapore and globally.

Kamini works closely with The Esplanade on programmes for children’s storytelling and has been resident storyteller for Octoburst Children’s Festival from 2012 – 2014, commissioned twice for Kalaa Utsavam Indian Arts Festival for Forest Fables: Animals of Mischief (2013) and Hanuman: The Tale Behind the Name (2015) and is a regular storyteller at PIP’s PLAYbox since early 2016. Hanuman was selected by Out of the Box Festival for Children to be showcased in Brisbane, Australia in June 2016.

Her longstanding relationship with The Arts House is multi-layered with her roles in SISF where TAH has been venue supporter during her three year term as Artistic Director, and as co-presenter for MoonShadow Stories’ annual World Storytelling Day productions for the last 5 editions. The Arts House has also engaged Kamini for their annual anniversary celebration’s family programming, for Is The Book Better Than The Movie, their Silver Writing programme for seniors, and Text in the City literary outreach. For TAH’s 10th anniversary Kamini was commissioned to create Night Walk With The Storyteller – an interactive tour of The Arts House that took audiences into previously inaccessible spaces like the garden, the chamber behind The Chamber and the rooftop. She told stories that were site-specific combined with sensorial experiences that included food, drink, scent and ambience.

Currently she is working on her site-specific performance for the Singapore International Arts Festival 2018 (SIFA) based on Monuments of Singapore.

Kamini is also a content provider for commercial entities that require storytelling programming. Mainly for children’s storytelling, she has worked with public spaces such as The Forum Shopping Mall, Timbre Group, Cluny Court, Elephant & Coral (Mandarin Gallery), Fraser Suites, City Square Mall, Refinery Concepts Pte Ltd and PICO Art International.

Artistic Collaborations

In addition to Singapore arts institutions, Kamini has partnered with international talent. She has co- directed and co-performed with international storytellers like Japanese rakugo storyteller Shinoharu Tatekawa, British Indian storyteller Peter Chand for Twist in the Sari (performed in Belgium and Wales) Javanese dalang Bapak Midiyanto, Thai-Lao storyteller Dr.Wajuppa Tossa, Singapore storyteller Verena Tay and many more. Recently she collaborated with Eqyptian actress Lamya Tawfik in UAE as her Arabic translator for bilingual performances at Tales On The Island festival in Sharjah.

Storytelling and the Other Arts

Kamini has collaborated with artists and arts groups from other disciplines to blend the beauty and magic of storytelling to create inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary works.

For the Patron of the Arts 2017 awards night, she was commissioned by NAC to direct the evening’s performances. She collaborated with The TENG Ensemble musicians, Riduan Zalani and percussion group Drum Gaia, and kathak dancers from Apsaras Arts.

She has worked with diverse visual artists like sand artist Lawrence Koh, charcoal artist Tang Ling-Nah, water colourist Regina Tuazon, Deon Phua from collective Tell Your Children TYC, wood craftsman Lloyd Chia, illustrators Yante Ismail and Sumaya Mahadevan, textile designer Maria Walf, legendary batik artist Sadali Musbah, balloon sculptor Lily Tan, and art directors Charles Rezandi & Christopher Purnawan from C+C &Co

Kamini has been involved in collaborations with musicians as early as 2005 with gamelan orchestra Gamelan Singa Nglaras from NUS Centre for the Arts under ethnomusicologist Dr. Thomas Manhart’s direction for MoonShadow Stories production Archipelago: South East Asian Island Stories held in the cloisters of The Armenian Church. She has continued to collaborate with sound artist Bani Haikal, percussionist Syed Ibrahim, keyboardist Serene Tan, flautist Raghavendran Rajasekaran, tabla player Kumaran Sinniah, Chennai based piano virtuoso Anil Srinivasan, guitar maestro Rick Smith and multi- instrumentalist Derrick Tay.

She was narrator for musical ensemble Promise –Jazz on Strings at The Esplanade Recital Studio where she wrote and narrated short stories inspired by the various pieces of music. She performed alongside violinists Yap Shu Mei and Yong Kia Lin, percussionist Pablo Calzado, cellist Robert Choi, double bassist Felix Phang, violist Lim Chun, vocalist Richard Jackson and composer guitarist Rick Smith. She played the narrator’s role for Yong Siew Toh Conservatory’s L’Histoire Du Soldat (by Stravinsky) under conductor Adrian Chiang. She was also the narrator for The Philharmonic Winds first ever Fun With Music family concert held at The Esplanade Concert Hall where she told the story of Alex and the Phantom Band (by David Maslanka) under conductor Leonard Tan. In 2017 she collaborated with conductor Moses Gay and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra blending traditional Chinese music and Chinese folktales told in English especially for young listeners below 6 – Concert for Little Tots – Tales & Legends.

She was also narrator for The Necessary Stage’s play Gitanjali: I feel the Earth Move held at SOTA Theatre where she narrated as Kadambari for Bani Haikal’s Tagore. For The Substation’s 25th anniversary she was asked to be the narrator for the audio tour Hearing Things: Ghosts of The Substation compiled by Tania De Rozario. She has also collaborated as a narrator with bharathanatyam dancer Priyalatha Naidu. As early as 2006 she collaborated with renowned wayang kulit dalang (shadow theatre puppeteer) Bapak Midiyanto from University of California, Berkeley where she was the co-storyteller translating into English. She worked alongside Dr. Thomas Manhart of Artyfakt on this project which was showcased by NAFA’s Music Department.

For her Kalaa Utsavam commission in 2013 she collaborated with sand artist Lawrence Koh to compose a sequence of live-drawing visual images as she told the stories to audiences aged 4 – 7 years. She also worked with three accompanying musicians (Ragha, Serene and Kumaran) for music, sound effects and foley. In 2015 for her second commission, she coordinated three classical Indian dancers, Ponnamma

Devaiah, Minal Merai and Ramassamy to dramatize through dance her narration of the story. Pianist Anil Srinivasan and tabla player Krishna Kishore accompanied with live music. The performance was illuminated through Regina Tuazon’s water colour sketches

Writers, Books & Reading

Publishers, authors and literary festivals have sought her skills in adapting and performing text-based works to new audiences. She has worked closely with writer Felix Cheong and publisher Ethos Books on his book launch for Singapore Siu Dai: The SG Conversation in a Cup as well as for Singapore Siu Dai 3: The SG Conversation Dabao!, with Tulika Press for their local book promotion, the book launch of A Monsoon Feast as well as S. R. Nathan & S. Rajaratnam’s books promotions. She was asked by MOE to adapt and perform S. R. Nathan’s biography based on the book he authored 50 Stories from My Life, for the Singapore Teacher’s Academy Conference. A regular at Singapore Writers Festival, she is often asked to perform readings and dramatizations of selected writers’ works.

In 2011 she was approached by the Singapore Writers Festival organizers to adapt and retell The Tiger from writer and former MP for Tampines Ms. Irene Ng’s book The Short Stories and Radio Plays of S.Rajaratnam. She performed the piece at The International Summit of The Book at Raffles Hotel where Prof. Tommy Koh called her ‘Singapore’s most mesmerizing storyteller’.

In early 2017 she released a series of curated videos that feature her reading aloud from selected translated texts by local authors. This project was part of the inaugural Buy SingLit Campaign spearheaded by NAC to promote Singapore books. The bilingual videos (Malay and English) are available on her YouTube channel under ‘A Storyteller Reads’.

Kamini has a personal library of approximately three thousand storytelling related books. She is aware that access to storytelling resources is scarce and that repertoire development is vital for any professional storyteller. Her Instagram account @kaministoryteller is a curation of her collection of books under #storytellerslibrary available for public education.

Storytelling Far and Wide

Kamini has been invited as a featured storyteller, speaker and workshop leader at all the leading European storytelling festivals: Scottish International Storytelling Festival (2010) and (2017), Federation of European Storytelling Conference (2013), Festivale Internazionale di Storytelling Roma in Italy (2013), Festival at the Edge UK (2013), Alden Biesen International Storytelling Festival in Belgium (2014), Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival in Wales UK (2016), Sharjah International Storytelling Festival UAE (2017) and the Hans Christina Andersen International Storytelling Days Festival in Denmark (2017). She has also been featured at the Sydney International Storytelling Conference (2012) and Chennai Storytelling Festival (2013).

Her participation in the Asian Congress of Storytellers harks back to 2003 culminating in her role as consultant for the inaugural Singapore International Storytelling Festival in 2006. She has been a key player in SISF as a content provider, consultant, storytelling artist as well as Artistic Director from 2012 – 2014.

She has also been invited to share her work at other festivals like the Singapore Writers Festival since 2009, Asian Festival of Children’s Content, Art Walk Little India, ASEAN Puppetry Festival, Causeway Exchange, George Town Festival in Penang, Philippines International Literary Festival, The Cooler Lumpur Festival in KL and Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival in Sarawak.

World Storytelling Day Singapore

MoonShadow Stories has produced World Storytelling Day in Singapore every March since 2005. Through the WSD platform she has provided public performing opportunities for local storytellers as well as her Young Storytellers.

Storytelling Mentor

Kamini has taught her course The Storytelling Intensive to Diploma in Performance students at LASALLE College of the Arts for the last 6 years. She is also the director for the students assessed final performance Stories Through the Mind’s Eye since 2012. She is the only storytelling artist in Asia teaching storytelling as a performing art form in an arts education institution of higher learning. She teaches storytelling to BA Arts Management, MA Art Therapy, BA Fashion and BA Animation at LASALLE. She has also lectured the Communications Module for BA Arts Management focusing on semiotics, argumentation and intercultural dialogue in the arts.

Her mentoring also encompasses intermediate storytellers and members of Story Lab and the Storytelling Association (Singapore). Through Verena Tay’s Beyond Storytelling 101 workshops, the MoonShadow Stories Alumni Shows have supported and platformed numerous local storytellers. Story Lab is a special interest group that developed out of these BS101 workshops and Alumni Shows. The pioneering Storytelling for Adults performances at The Substation featured a guest storyteller for each event. MoonShadow Stories was instrumental in mentoring and platforming the local storytelling community in performing for adult audiences.

Storytelling Apprentice Programme

Kamini also mentors Young Storytellers by providing them with real world work experience as well as platforming them through MoonShadow Stories productions. Her students have performed for Singapore Writers Festival, at The Arts House, for commercial clients such as Timbre Group and Cluny Court, for pre-schoolers at ECDA’s President’s Challenge Start Small, Dream Big 2016 initiative for Singapore Kindness Movement and also alongside her at WSD performances. She also spearheaded Mother Tongue Tales for SISF 2014 featuring three students who performed in Malay, Tamil and Chinese.

In 2017 the inaugural Young Storytellers Mentorship Project under NAC’s NOISE took place between March – June culminating in a graduation showcase A Tapestry of Tales during StoryFest 2017 featuring eight emerging talents.

Terrific Tales featuring Young Storytellers is a weekly Sunday programme at children’s arts space, The Artground, targeted at young audiences 3 to 6 years. This ongoing programme provides a rigorous and professional platform for the development of emerging talent. Kamini coordinates customized storytelling performances featuring Young Storytellers for various arts events such as Tanjong Goodman open houses etc.

Storytelling and Education

Kamini is a respected and devoted teaching artist who has presented and performed at numerous local and international schools in Singapore and overseas. She is comfortable and experienced in sharing stories to all ages ranging from early childhood, primary, to secondary and all the way to tertiary level.

She has worked with Tampines Junior College as workshop leader and judge for the S.Rajaratnam Storytelling Competition from 2012 to 2015. She has also trained GCE A’ Level Theatre Studies and Drama students from Anglo Chinese Junior College in storytelling.

Kamini is an accredited storytelling artist under the National Arts Council’s Arts Education Programme (AEP). She offers special storytelling programmes for the preschool sector. For SWF’s schools outreach programme Words Go Round 2015 she had the most number of bookings spanning preschools to primary schools.

Kamini has presented and performed at the Malaysia International Conference on English Language Teaching (MICELT), International Drama In Education Research Institutes Conference (IDIERI), UNESCO-NIE CARE, Singapore Teachers Academy Conference, International Summit of The Book,

MCYS Parenting Seminar, NTUC ESU Early Childhood Appreciation Day, NTUC Educational Services Union Jamboree, International English Language Academic Heptathlon and is a regular presenter at ECDA’s Early Childhood Conference. She was also invited to speak at TEDx United World College SEA. Recently she was a keynote speaker for the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) 31st Annual Conference ‘The Art of Storytelling’ and also the 6th Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) Rector’s Conference.

She is also a Pathfinder under the Ministry of Education’s new volunteer initiative to link industry experts to selected schools. Kamini has shared her skills and experience as a Partner in Education for the Applied Learning Programme for English Language at Mayflower Secondary School and Juying Secondary School.

She has also worked closely with the Ministry of Education’s Character and Citizenship Education Board to conduct storytelling training sessions for department heads.

Kamini is a seasoned artist educator qualified with an MA Arts Pedagogy & Practice and with training from The Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts (Virginia), The Kennedy Centre’s (Washington D.C.) Arts Integration programme for teaching artists and advanced workshops with Eric Booth.

Kamini was a panellist for the NAC Children’s Art Centre Assessment Panel. She will be part of the Gifting Every Child workshop in Edinburgh for the festival’s Education Day at the National Library Scotland.

Applied Storytelling

Kamini is an advocate of applied storytelling, especially in the community and has taken workshops in Time Slips Creative Storytelling with Dr. Anne Bastings.

She was a joint keynote presenter at the IAEVG Conference 2010 in Bangalore where she collaborated with clinical psychologist Dr. G. Arulmani in storytelling and counselling. This translated into a joint master class Touching Tales: Storytelling as a Culturally Resonant Counselling Technique for SISF 2011. She also co-authored the chapter Mind the Twist in the Tale: The Story as a Channel for Culture-Resonant Career Counselling in the Handbook of Career Development: International Perspectives by Springer International.

Storytelling in the Community

A regular storyteller for NAC’s Arts For All , Arts @ Work and Arts in the Neighbourhood programming, and the Silver Writing Programme, she is a seasoned community artist with experience in libraries and community centres.

She also collaborates with independent organizations to bring quality storytelling and literacy awareness to less privileged audiences. Through the Tan Chin Tuan Foundation’s More Than Words programme she has reached out to care centres and children’s homes. Through the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund she has reached out to Ang Mo Kio Family Services centre.

Storytelling at Work

Kamini is also experienced and skilled in facilitating customized training for the corporate and non-arts sector, having conducted storytelling workshops for organizations like Keppel Corporation, Greenology Pte Ltd and Singapore Human Resources Institute.