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Our Story
Our Story
howone (pronounced "how one") is derived from the Chinese characters 好玩, meaning ‘good fun’. howone is a Creative Health social enterprise and we believe in the power of play and finding joy in every aspect of health.
As dancers, we have experienced how dance is an incredibly powerful instrument, one that we can use to improve cognitive, physical and mental wellbeing, a sense of connection to ourselves and to others.
It's not just about building strength and balance — it's also about fun, playfulness,
and creative expression.
We believe movement is essential to health and we’re sincere about making it fun.
Ethos & Philosophy
We believe in making dance and movement accessible to all and our programmes are designed with play,care and growth in mind.
PLAY
When it comes to learning, play is non-negotiable! Whether you’re 5 or 50, we believe that a playful and lighthearted orientation makes for a better learning experience. Through a mishmash of games, creative tasks, music, we encourage a playful, fun and supportive environment to explore and learn more about our bodies, movements and the ways in which we interact with and experience the world.
CARE
Caught in the hustle and bustle of our time scarce society, we experience a gradual erosion of care. A sincere, attentive presence is often hard to come by. We recognize the value of collective artmaking and creative practice as sites for restoring care.
The experience of dancing and moving together — engaged joyously in a creative endeavour — creates openings for mutual relating, nurtures connections between people through the relational qualities of touch, which in the process, allows us to enact gestures of care. We offer invitations to come into more care-full ways of relating to one another, paving ways for more equitable, just and caring societies.
GROWTH
We’re interested in nurturing growth and creating a container for safe exploration through our dance and movement programmes. Whether it’s about becoming a more articulate dancer, building creative confidence, or simply finding more ease in the body … we’re interested in uncovering and celebrating these milestones with you! We care about and hope to create a supportive environment for your development.
Our Approach
We are constantly seeking to expand the possibilities of dance beyond aesthetics and performance so that we can bring the benefits of dance and joyful movement to everyone and every-body possible.
Through our programmes, we make dance accessible by breaking it down into an approachable and creative repertoire of functional movements for everyday life.
Dance & Movement as Intervention
More than just a complementary or alternative intervention modality, dance and movement is hugely powerful and can offer opportunities for transformation. We see it as a rich resource and medium for the
cultivation and restoration of health.
Are we talking about dance therapy here? How do howone’s programmes differ?
While dance therapy is great, engagement is sometimes viewed through a treatment lens and participants, too, can come to see themselves as patients — a situation which is extremely limiting and constraining considering the potential for dance to be transformative.
The activities in our programmes may take similar forms, but our orientation and intention differs from that of dance therapy sessions. We want to see our participants not as patients, but as dancers. When they’re moving with us, they're simply Uncle Roger or Aunty Annie. Not Uncle Roger or Aunty Annie with Alzheimer's. Our focus is to get our participants moving creatively and joyfully, often in community. In doing so, we believe therapeutic effects will flow naturally.
We are constantly seeking to expand the possibilities of dance beyond aesthetics and performance so that we can bring the benefits of dance and joyful movement to everyone and every-body possible.
Through our programmes, we make dance accessible by breaking it down into an approachable and creative repertoire of functional movements for everyday life.
Dance & Movement as Intervention
More than just a complementary or alternative intervention modality, dance and movement is hugely powerful and can offer opportunities for transformation. We see it as a rich resource and medium for the
cultivation and restoration of health.
Are we talking about dance therapy here? How do howone’s programmes differ?
While dance therapy is great, engagement is sometimes viewed through a treatment lens and participants, too, can come to see themselves as patients — a situation which is extremely limiting and constraining considering the potential for dance to be transformative.
The activities in our programmes may take similar forms, but our orientation and intention differs from that of dance therapy sessions. We want to see our participants not as patients, but as dancers. When they’re moving with us, they're simply Uncle Roger or Aunty Annie. Not Uncle Roger or Aunty Annie with Alzheimer's. Our focus is to get our participants moving creatively and joyfully, often in community. In doing so, we believe therapeutic effects will flow naturally.
Meet Our Team
Denise Leong
Founding CEO and Artistic DirectorMeet Our Team
Denise is a community dance artist and arts manager whose heart goes out to communities in need. As a firm believer that dance is integral to healthcare, she is passionate about exploring the rich possibilities that exist where the arts and the sciences overlap. As a self-professed late bloomer in dance, she doesn't have highly technical skills. Although as a strong advocate of community dance, Denise believes that gives her an edge in connecting with the people she seeks to share dance with and also allows her to embody what she so often shares about dance — that dance truly is for every body.
Denise is a recipient of NAC Arts Scholar (2022) and TCL Scholar pursuing a Master in Dance Leadership and Community Practice. She graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Community Dance in Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (UK) in 2019 and was awarded the Trinity Laban Dance Award in 2018/2019. As a community dance artist, Denise worked with acclaimed arts companies and diverse community and health organisations in UK and Singapore, including Trinity Laban, Dance Umbrella, Royal Ballet, Breathe Arts Health Research, Dementia Singapore, Singapore Association of Mental Health, Methodist Welfare Services Girls’ Home, St. Luke’s Eldercare and St. Luke’s Hospital, Jurong Community Hospital, Tsao Foundation, Presbyterian Community Services to name a few.
In addition to her work as a community dance artist, Denise has also served as an arts manager for the National Arts Council (NAC) of Singapore, The Human Expression (T.H.E) Dance Company, and cont·act Contemporary Dance Festival.
She holds certifications in An Introduction to Safe Dance Practice in MOE Schools from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), En Route to Inclusivity: Working with Children with Disabilities in and through the Arts from Rainbow Centre, and Dance for Parkinson's Disease Dance Teacher Certification from Mark Morris Dance Group (USA).
Yu-tzu Lin
Dance Artist