They: Ms Tan Chai Hwang

I am starting to love blogging in serial! So in this series, I will be blogging about people or maybe things who/that has made an impact in my life or important components of my life.

This time, the person first to be highlighted is Nan Hua Dance Society's current Chinese Dance instructress, Ms Tan Chai Hwang 陈彩芳老师.

Instructress Profile:

Ms Tan Chai Hwang graduated from Chung Cheng High School (Branch) and her first dance teacher was Ms Yu Jia Hua (余佳花). Ms Tan joined Shao Zhen Shan Wushu Troupe's dance division (少镇山武术团舞蹈组) in 1977 where she was trained under Ms Lee Shu Fen (李淑芬), an important figure in the growth of chinese dance in Singapore. In 1979, her fellow friends in the troupe including Mr Tay Poh Soon (郑宝顺) formed a troupe called 民族舞蹈团. In the same year, she also participated in the National Theatre Trust's (国家剧场信托局) Mr Cheng Shu Jing's Dance Training Programme, a prominent figure in Hong Kong dance arena and became the first batch of dancers from National Theatre Chinese Dance Company (defunct). Ms Tan had also participated in the 1st International Dance Camp organised by Hong Kong Chinese University (香港中文大学) in 1980, during which she practiced Classical Chinese Dance and Chinese Folk Dance with Professor Sun Guang Yan and Ma Li Xue.

Ms Tan is also an experienced member of the Theatre Arts Troupe which she had represented to perform in Malaysia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, Europe and other countries. She had participated in China's Overseas Teachers' Course co-organised by Singapore's Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and China's Beijing Dance Academy which she became a certified overseas Chinese Dance Examiner. She is currently teaching dance in many schools, including Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

No doubt Ms Tan is truly a teacher who has weathered many storms through her journey of dance. Personally, I knew that she has been teaching chinese dance in Nan Hua for about 10 years or so. To many juniors and seniors, she has been a mentor, someone who always gives a big hug to her students when they visit her. She may not remember all the names of students she had taught before but she never fails to spread her kind of affection to her students.

She may be very fierce at times, never reluctant to reprimand any who does their stuff wrong but she never fails to put up a variety of dances in Nan Hua, such as handkerchief dance, 傣族舞, Mongolian dance, chou, fan etcetc, exposing people to more of chinese dances. She helps to give the girls at Nan Hua Dance a foundation for them to be able to perform better while with the dance family after Sec 1. And this important experience-gaining stage is done well under Ms Tan.

The relentless pursuit of dance is never easy and its dance teachers that pave the way for us.

Anyway, below are some pictures of Ms Tan's Chinese Dance lessons.

From this post, I really hope juniors can treat her as a experienced instructress and not one who is just part-time even though she is not in charge of the main group. There are many things to tap from Ms Tan and I hope all will learn as much as possible from her.