Sim Pern Yiau

Pern Yiau is a graduate from the pioneer cohort of Theatre Training and Research Practice (TTRP); the predecessor of ITI.

He is also an alumnus of the National University of Singapore’s Theatre Studies Programme (1997).

Pern Yiau has been an active actor, writer and director in Singapore theatre since 1994; and has worked with the likes of The Necessary Stage and Drama Box even before he began training at TTRP, learning from practitioners such as Alvin Tan, Haresh Sharma and Kok Heng Leun.

Since 2005, Pern Yiau has turned his focus towards teaching Taiji (Taichi); he is a certified 7th Dan Senior Shifu under the Wu Tu Nan Taijigong lineage. Pern Yiau has taught Taiji in a wide number of countries from Chile to Italy. He also researches how traditional Taijigong has modern applications in contexts from healing to enhancing performance in dance, acting, singing and music. From 2012 to 2014, Pern Yiau had taught Taiji to ITI’s students in the “Taiji for Actors: Natural Conditioning for Open Applications” module.

Occasionally, Pern Yiau still returns to the stage, as he did for the Esplanade-commissioned production of Ten Thousand Tigers by Ho Tzu Nyen in 2014, and its 2016 run in Festival Theaterformen in Braunschweig, Germany. In 2016, Pern Yiau also assisted in Jean Ng’s and Joavien Ng's work, Intrusions, a production of The Studios (Esplanade) season.

Recent works: 
1. Speaker, Exploring Prana and Qi for Wellbeing (2021, Canvass Life; YouTube)

Last updated: 19 January 2022