Syafiq Faliq Alfan, also known as SEFA, is a theatre and performance studies scholar, performing artist, educator, and cultural researcher specialising in cultural change in Asian traditional performing arts. He is particularly interested in how traditional forms transform across time, media, and space, and how these shifts relate to culture, society, and the lived experience. He earned his Doctoral Degree from the Faculty of Integrated Arts and Science at Hiroshima University, Japan, in 2022, through research on the methodological construction of analysis towards the traditional dances of Mak Yong and Noh using motion capture technology.
As an outsider-artist, SEFA has been a member of the Ipoh artist-collective Projek Rabak since 2011, where he currently serves as director. Since 2007, he has actively participated in numerous local and international performances as a solo artist, focusing on the intersection between Corporeal Mime and other forms of art.
SEFA is also a creative writer, with works such as Melankolia Bisu (2014) and Novel Eksperimental (2013), among others.
Currently, his research interests revolve around the study of Mak Yong history and its multiple trajectories across the Nusantara region. As a performance and theatre studies scholar, he believes the role of performing arts extends beyond the discourse of performance and performativity, and should also engage critically within the wider society at large in an integrative manner.
Potential postgraduate students should be prepared for an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, and be willing to develop practical and high-impact research that benefits society while remaining sensitive to culture, history, and the evolving realities of performance.