Dr Adelina Ong

BA, MA, PhD
Job title
Lecturer, Applied Theatre Practices

Profile

I am an applied performance researcher and performance maker who works with young people from low-income families in Singapore, Hong Kong and London.

I completed my MA in Applied Theatre in 2013 and submitted my PhD in Applied Theatre and Performance in 2018. Both my MA and PhD were undertaken at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Central). I have taught Applied Theatre at Wimbledon College of Arts, Brunel University London and Kingston University London. In Singapore, I began working as a freelance performer on stage, television and film in 1998. I’ve also worked as a counsellor, a community partnerships manager at a government linked non-profit organisation and a centre director for an interdisciplinary arts school for children from low-income families.

My research draws inspiration from urban arts (parkour, art du déplacement, breakin’/breakdancing, skateboarding and graffiti) to develop a theory of negotiated living that I call Compassionate Mobilities. Over 25 workshops in London and Singapore, undertaken with young people between the ages of 15 and 25, I used urban art-inspired place practices to explore alternative ways of understanding and negotiating mobilities in a hypercompetitive environment that disadvantages young people from low-income families. Many of the young people I worked with were struggling with depression. My postdoctoral research explores the reimagining of the future of mental wellbeing in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore and London. My current research interests include: Chinese and Japanese philosophies on death, the employment of artificial intelligence (AI) to support mental wellbeing, cosplay- and urban arts-inspired place practices. 

I have been invited to speak at the inaugural MIND HK CoolMinds Youth Summit in Hong Kong (2020) and Pushing Boarders 2019 (a skateboarding conference) in Malmo, Sweden. I served on the Executive Committee of the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) as a postgraduate representative from 2015 to 2018. I am currently the Early Career Researcher Representative at TaPRA.

Areas of Expertise

  • Applied Theatre and Performance

  • Urban Arts (skateboarding, parkour, art du deplacement, breakin’ and graffiti)

  • Philosophy and practice of place and space

  • Chinese and Japanese philosophies on death, fear and loss.

Key Publications

2020. ‘Placemaking Through Parkour and Art du Déplacement (ADD) as a Singaporean Applied Performance Practitioner in London’ in Courage, C. (ed.) The Placemaking Handbook, London, UK, Routledge.

2020. ‘Being Imperfect: Breakin’ Away from Relating Competitively in Singapore’ in Abraham, N. and Prentki, T. (eds.) The Applied Theatre Reader, 2nd edition, London, UK, Routledge.

2020. ‘Dossier: Climate Change and the Decolonised Future of Theatre’, Theatre Research International, Vol. 45, No. 2: 179-208, with Lisa Woynarski, Tanja Beer, Stephanie Beaupark, Jonah Winn-Lenetsky, Rulan Tangen, Michelle Nicholson-Sanz

2019. On Access, edited by Colette Conroy, Adelina Ong and Dirk Rodricks (London: Routledge).

2018. ‘Editorial: On Access’, Research In Drama Education: The Journal Of Applied Theatre And Performance, Vol. 23, No. 3: 335-339, with Colette Conroy and Dirk Rodricks.

2018. ‘The Limits of Access: The Messy Temporalities of Hope and the Negotiation of Place’, Research In Drama Education: The Journal Of Applied Theatre And Performance, Vol. 23, No. 3: 467-478.

2018. ‘Essais: Falling Slowly: Stumbling Towards an Urban Art-Inspired Place Practice in London’, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1: 124-125.

2016. ‘The Path Is Place: Skateboarding, Graffiti And Performances Of Place’, Research In Drama Education: The Journal Of Applied Theatre And Performance, Vol. 21, No. 2: 229–241.

2015. ‘Creating Places of Radical Openness in Singapore’, Research In Drama Education: The Journal Of Applied Theatre And Performance, Vol. 20, No. 3: 271–277.

External Practice

As an applied theatre practitioner, I’ve been working with young people from low-income families in Singapore since 2003. In London, I’ve worked mostly in universities as a Visiting Lecturer in Applied Theatre, but I’ve also facilitated workshops for vulnerable adults in mental health recovery (2018) and people in recovery from addiction (2012 - 2018). I have documented my research practice, including:

Chalk/dust, a COVID-19 chalk graffiti poetry project, London. 2020 (ongoing).

‘Creative Approaches to Mental Health’, a parkour-inspired applied performance workshop with Society Unlimited, London, 10.08.2018.

Art du Déplacement x Applied Theatre workshop, Whitley Secondary School, Singapore. 05.01.17.

Signing Off Studio One, a graffiti x applied theatre workshop at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London. 12.07.16  

Traces of Lost Places, a graffiti x applied theatre workshop at Rose Bruford Symposium 2016, Kent. 14.04.16 

Breakin’ x Applied Theatre workshop with Recognize Studios (Felix Huang) at a secondary school in Singapore. 05.01.16

Graffiti Walk, Singapore. 25.07.15

Breakin’ x Applied Theatre Workshop with Recognize Studios (Felix Huang) at Lakeside Family Service Centre in Singapore. 10.07.15. 

Streets of London graffiti workshops with Femme Fierce (Artists: Jarvis and Zina) for 360 students from Year 1 to Year 6 at Leake Street and Britannia Village Primary School, London. 9, 18 and 25.06.15

Parkour Dance Main Company theatre workshop, London. 27.05.15 

Monthly theatre workshops for ParkourDance Youth Company towards their year-end showcase, London. January - June 2015. 

Art du Déplacement (ADD) x Applied Theatre workshop with Move Academy Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic’s Diploma in Applied Drama & Psychology 2nd and 3rd year students. 16.12.14 

Parkour x Applied Theatre workshop with Parkour Generations for young people from Immediate Theatre, London. 01.07.14