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By Tara Tan, arts reporter
Private ballet schools in Singapore see about 20,000 young people who go through the Royal Dance Academy ballet syllabus every year.
The Esplanade's da:ns festival, a two-week programme dedicated to dance, attracted about 60,000 fans last year. Attendance at the festival has been robust, reaching 90 per cent last year, compared to 80 per cent in its inaugural year in 2006.
In September, the prestigious Genee International Ballet Competition will be held here for the first time.
The 2,600 tickets, priced between $40 and $110, to the semi-finals and finals at the University Cultural Centre are sold out.
At first glance, dance seems to be thriving here. Look closer, however, and the scene is really in dire straits.
There are only three contemporary dance companies here that employ full-time dancers: the Singapore Dance Theatre (SDT), the newly formed T.H.E. Dance Company and the Arts Fission Company.
Only two of the 24 dancers in Singapore Dance Theatre are Singaporean. Four out of six full-time dancers in T.H.E. and four out of six Arts Fission dancers are local.
Other dance groups such as Odyssey Dance Theatre, Ecnad and Frontier Danceland hire dancers on a project basis.
There are also a few independent dancers and choreographers, such as Daniel Kok and Joavien Ng. There are also ethnic dance groups such as Bhaskar's Arts Academy.
This is a stark contrast to the thriving theatre scene, which has more than 20 active groups, with about 40 full-time playwrights and artistic directors, not to mention a pool of full-time actors to draw on.
A pattern has emerged on the dance scene: Small but artistically intriguing dance companies start up, only to fold after a few years.
Ah Hock And Peng Yu, for example, closed last year after seven years and the Tammy L Wong Dance Company lasted from 1998 to 2002.
Why has the dance scene weakened?
Practitioners Life! spoke to blame the lack of what they call a healthy ecosystem where young dancers are trained and can carve out professional careers.
Singapore Dance Theatre artistic director Janek Schergen, 57, whose stable of Singaporean dancers has dwindled from five in 2008 to two, says that having training facilities, such as the equivalent of the Australian Ballet School, is essential to train local dancers.
The Australian Ballet School is a vocational classical dance school which trains dancers and dance teachers for a professional career.
'People are always asking, where are the Singaporean dancers? But they are not being trained. Until they are trained at that level, I have no choice but to hire foreigners,' he says.
Institutions here such as Lasalle College Of The Arts and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa) do not offer the kind of training needed for those at professional levels, he adds.The Singapore Ballet Academy, he says, cultivates young people who are interested in dance but if they are serious about dancing, they have to go overseas to train.
Take Miss Ginny Gan, 22, one of two Singaporean dancers with Singapore Dance Theatre. She enrolled at the academy when she was 11 but went to New Zealand to further her training. She says it will take time for the dance scene to develop.
Ms Elaine Ng, director of performing arts development with the National Art Council (NAC), agrees. 'We need to increase the talent pool of professional dancers. Given that dance is such a rigorous art form, we need to train them from young,' she says.
She adds that there are plans to increase the budget for the Gifted Young Artist bursary, which funds one to two aspiring artists a year.
Although many youngsters enrol in dance classes, most people treat it as a hobby rather than as a professional pursuit, say dance teachers and artists.
Dance instructor Sharon Liew, who is in her late 30s and teaches students aged from eight to 21, says: 'Most students don't see that you can make a career out of dance, since it is such a short term career, as well as the fact that there are few full-time companies around.'
Without professional companies which offer a support network of dance-related jobs such as artistic direction, producing or schools, few turn their passion for dance into a career.
Lasalle has 16 students enrolled in its dance programme last year, a fraction of the 300 students in its performing arts faculty which includes courses in music and acting.
The physical demands of a dance career are daunting. A dancer can perform until he reaches his late 30s or 40s and that is if he does not suffer any serious injuries which may further reduce his career's life-span.
Many who do make it to dance school or are able to dance in a professional capacity may end up choosing the path of least resistance.
Mr Lee Mun Wai, 27, who graduated with a dance diploma from Lasalle in 2006 and is now a dancer with T.H.E., says: 'Out of my cohort of 10 dancers, only two of us are in the arts scene. The rest are teaching or doing commercial work.'
Ms Angela Liong, artistic director of Arts Fission who set up the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts dance department in 1989, says: 'It has to do with the economic environment and mentality in Singapore.'
A full-time dancer with an arts group gets about $1,500 a month. A commercial dancer who dances at corporate events can earn between $4,000 and $6,000 a month. A freelance dance instructor gets about $3,000 a month.
The situation will worsen when the Integrated Resorts open in 2012 and demand for revue dancers goes up.
Mr Schergen says: 'The salary of a New York City Ballet dancer is comparable to that of a Wall Street banker. An apprentice's salary is more than S$1,450 a week. We don't have that kind of budget.'
30 years later...
There is also a chicken-and-egg issue when it comes to the development of the dance scene.
Ms Low Mei Yoke, artistic director of Frontier Danceland, which stages about three small shows a year, says local dance groups are hindered by a lack of funds.
If groups had enough funding to hire the best designers or composers, the works will be of better quality, which would attract more funding, she adds.
NAC's Ms Ng says: 'It may be harder for contemporary dance groups to raise funds to sustain full-time staff members because they are not in as mature state of development as other artistic fields.'
Fission's Liong, whose dancers teach dance to sustain the company, says: 'It's difficult to see down the road when running a dance company is such a struggle.'
It does not help that dance is a demanding art form which requires a lot of resources.
Properly equipped studios and dance shoes take up the bulk of costs. A professional ballet dancer, for example, can wear out a pair of $80 pointe shoes in a week.
The financial strain means that there are few companies here which can match the resources of the 21-year-old SDT, widely regarded as the flagship dance company in Singapore.
Its premises at Fort Canning Centre include four dance studios and the company receives at least $1.5 million in grants annually from the NAC, in addition to other funds and sponsorships it raises on its own.
A small dance group here runs on about $100,000 to $200,000 a year.
Mr Aaron Khek, who is former artistic director of Ah Hock And Peng Yu and now a freelance choreographer, says: 'The flagship company is not leading by example or sharing its resources.
'Shouldn't they also bear the responsibility of driving dance or nurturing local talent?'
While the SDT runs dance classes and takes on apprentices, it is a dance company and not a dance school. It does not have a certified programme like the Australian Ballet School.
SDT's Schergen adds: 'It is not our responsibility to produce local choreographic talent. Do you want to do something that is not as good just because it is local?'
He points out that most major choreographers worldwide had to find success overseas first before being recognised in their own country.
Given the financial burden which has led to a shortage of professional dance companies, it is no wonder that home-grown dance talents have to leave the country to pursue their passions.
The late choreographer Goh Choo San, for example, left in 1970 and made his name with the Washington Ballet. He became its resident choreographer, and later, its associate artistic director.
Han Kee Juan, director of the Washington School of Ballet, also left Singapore in 1978 and found success overseas.
'I left because there was nothing in Singapore for me at that time. I wanted to do dance professionally. The SDT was not even set up then,' he said.
The situation does not seem to have changed 30 years later as young dancers are still leaving for the same reasons.
Ballerina Lim Meiyi, 21, who was accepted for a training stint at the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, says she would rather pursue a dance career overseas.
'The dance scene is not very active at the moment and I'm not thinking about joining the SDT because their repertoire does not have that many classical works, which is what I want to do,' she says.
'It will take time for the industry to change and evolve into a more mature scene.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
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