Humans of RI

Arts, CCA Events, Features, Student Features 12 June 202612 June 2026

Raffles Street Dance Showcase 2026: Timeless: A Journey through the Eras of Dance

Reading Time: 7 minutes

By Lee Yi Ning Megan (27A01B) and Tran My Linh (27A01B)

All photos courtesy of Raffles Art and Photographic Society

From nostalgic 2000s hits to energetic Bollywood numbers, Raffles Street Dance’s (RSD) latest showcase, Timeless: A Journey Through the Eras of Dance, proved that dance transcends generations.

Held on 6 May at the Performing Arts Centre (PAC), the showcase brought audiences through different musical and dance eras from the 1980s to the present day, blending genres, styles and cultures into one cohesive performance. Inspired partly by the concept of different “eras” popularised by Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, the idea for the showcase emerged spontaneously during a practice break.

What began as a casual conversation gradually evolved into a full-fledged exploration of how dance styles and music have transformed over time. For the RSD Exco, the theme Timeless also reflected a broader cultural nostalgia.

“A lot of old songs are coming back,” Riddhi Pradhan (26S06C), Secretary of RSD explained. “People are yearning for the 2010s and the 2000s, and I think our CCA shares that same feeling. We enjoy both old music and new music, and we wanted a theme that could cohesively bring all these songs and styles together.”

Rather than restricting themselves to a single genre or aesthetic, the dancers embraced the diversity of street dance across decades. Each item was carefully crafted to embody the identity of a particular era while ensuring it still flowed naturally into the overall programme.

*The ending pose of “The OGs”, a throwback piece to bands such as MC Hammer and Backstreet Boys.*

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Compilations, Culture, Features, Humans of RI, Special Editions, Student Features 5 June 20265 June 2026

To Speak the Language of Home: Raffles Dialects

Reading Time: 9 minutes

By Koh Shin Robbie (26A01A) and Tok Kai Xue Traven (26A01B)

In 1959, Singapore saw the first of many key developments to its education system: a bilingualism policy. Its premise was simple—English, as the language of international business, would be mandated to be taught in all schools. Alongside this, the study of one’s mother tongue (namely Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil) would also be made compulsory to ensure students did not lose touch with their cultural roots.

In an instant, dialect languages were taken out of official usage. Radio stations switched to purely official languages, and an entire Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched with vigorous dissuasion of dialect use.

*Photo from a speech by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Source: Zaobao SG*
*Text in the background translates to “Speak Less Dialect”.*

For Mandarin, however, this line of reasoning proved rather ironic. In the face of institutional pressures to adopt Mandarin as their home language, what would happen to the dialect-speaking households which relied heavily on Hokkien, Teochew or Hakka to communicate on a daily basis? How would the precious, dialectal tongues which served generations upon generations of ancestors manage to maintain their relevance?

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Compilations, Features, Go Where?, Humans of RI, Nature Features, Special Editions, Student Features 5 June 20265 June 2026

Wading Through the Wetlands with Project Naturalia (CE01 Spotlight Special Edition 2026)

Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Cherie Khoo (26S03B) and Tara Sim (26A01C)

$3.50 might only be able to get you one meat + two veg at the Caifan stall in the RI canteen, but for 50 cents less, you could spend your Saturday morning on an insightful guided tour to Sungei Buloh led by our very own Rafflesians from Project Naturalia.

After discovering his newfound love for nature walks and cataloguing wildlife from attending an international course on ecological research in Malaysia during GAP Semester in Year 4, this VIA project was founded last year by Koshik Basak (26S03J) and heartily supported by many of his friends from Y14.

*Some of the Project Naturalia members with their tour’s attendees*

Since then, their love for animal discovery and nature has shone through the development of Project Naturalia and its team’s dedication to providing guided tours to the community. This project sets itself apart from typical nature walks by teaching participants how to truly appreciate the world around them—going beyond a jog through your neighbourhood park or the obligatory school learning journey to the Botanic Gardens to learn about sustainability that most of us would rather sleep through.

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Compilations, Features, Humans of RI, Special Editions, Student Features 5 June 20265 June 2026

Project Horizon: Helping Children Widen Their Horizons (CE01 Spotlight Special Edition 2026)

Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Gladys Koh Wei Le (26A01B) and Irene Eva Thomas (26A01B)

When the term ‘disadvantaged children’ is mentioned, we would often focus on the tangible resources they are unable to access.

Yet, barriers to social mobility extend far beyond food or shelter. Family struggles and limited foundational support frequently result in a lack of cultural capital — the non-financial assets such as skills and knowledge that help individuals succeed in society.

One important type of cultural capital is embodied cultural capital, which refers to the internalised habits and dispositions that shape how individuals behave. For example, confidence in public speaking is a form of such cultural capital, as it influences how individuals express themselves in social settings.

Recognising this, Project Horizon—a CE01 initiative in RI led by Cecilia Wong (26S03K) Rosaline See (26S06A), Bryan Sim (26S03D), Syabil Muhammad (26S03D), Rino Hossain (26S03L) and Angelina Chang (26A01D))—seeks to strengthen disadvantaged children’s confidence in public speaking in Singapore. By equipping these children with the skills to communicate and think effectively, they are empowered to express themselves more confidently.

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Compilations, Features, Humans of RI, Special Editions, Student Features 5 June 20268 June 2026

Project Oopsie Daisy: More Than Just an “Oopsie” (CE01 Spotlight Special Edition 2026)

Reading Time: 5 minutes

By Tan Yan Qi (26S06M)

If you asked me two years ago about where my CE01 project would go, I never would have been able to guess that we’d be doing what we are now.

Project Oopsie Daisy started out as a simple VIA which aimed to promote horticulture as a method of improving mental health. Fast forward to Year 5, downsizes in the core team left only 5 members: Alice Chen Anhan (26S03L), Cecilia Wong (26S03K), Jyoti Adithi Narayanan (26S06M), Looi Ee Xin (26S06M) and me.

I vividly remember how the search for a partner organisation went back then. We sent emails to community organisations (the usual targets), hoping to expand our range of beneficiaries beyond children, and somehow landed up on the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) volunteering website.

“Why not?” was the general consensus when we reached out to IMH. To be honest, it seemed rather laughable that we were even trying, but it was a last-ditch attempt after failing to hear back from our other prospective partner organisations, and there was no harm in trying, right?

Less than a week later, we received a reply. And thus, we started our volunteering journey at IMH.

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