Melyn Chow
Maker
Singaporean Melyn Chow (1994) creates interdisciplinary performances that are physical, intimate and provocative that explore the ‘female gaze’, sensuality versus shame, and the erotic as a source of power. She combines mime, contemporary dance, performance and video.
Biography
Melyn studied at Lasalle College of the Arts (SG) and the Mime School at AHK Amsterdam University of the Arts. Melyn has performed with RAW Movement dance company and worked with makers including Nicole Beutler, Davy Pieters, and Dries Verhoeven. Her own work explores the intersection of unease and desire, using the body in relation to movement, space and image as its foundation.
For her 2022 graduation project, Melyn collaborated with Kim Zeevalk on I happen to be doing this for you, a ‘mime porn’ video installation inspired by Audre Lorde's essay Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power (1978). She continued this exploration in Shaking shame, where a group of mime performers revealed new found expressions of eroticism, pleasure and sensuality while investigating connections between shame, pleasure and liberation. The result was a pulsating, ever-evolving landscape of bodies that won Melyn the VSCD Mime/Performance Prijs 2025. The jury called it "a liberating exercise in vulnerability."
Where earlier projects like To have & hold (2019) and To have & hold (2020) examined family dynamics and the transgression and dedication inherent to performance—both filmed and live—Melyn returns to these themes in becoming god (2026).
Awards and nominations
“Shaking Shame as the winner of the VSCD Mime/Performance Award 2025. According to the jury: "The visible joy and freedom with which the performers move is contagious, but it also sharpens the tension between shame and pleasure. A liberating exercise in vulnerability.’”
Press
“Chow calles Shaking shame a performance exercise, and it turns out to be an absolutely fascinating exercise.” Theaterkrant
"As a maker, I have come to realize that if I put myself in the space between physical discomfort and desire, there arises a sense of aliveness." Interview with Subbacultcha
Productions
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