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A LOW murmur is coming from a
function room at Toa Payoh Central
Community Club (CC) one Sunday evening:
'Five, six, seven, eight... five, six,
seven, eight.'
Suddenly, a man raises his voice and chides:
'No chicken wings, please.'
The scene is a ballroom dancing class where a
group of aspiring dancers - most of them
middle-aged types - are learning how to
foxtrot.
And no, someone isn't firing up a barbecue at
the sidelines. The said 'chicken wings' are
really a reference by the dance instructor to a
student's drooping elbows in her stance.
'KFC,' whispers security supervisor Ten Ng
Kiong, 56, much to the bemusement of his dance
partner, housewife Suzanna Chan, 46.
The Mandarin-speaking pair, who have their own
respective spouses and children, have been
dancing together since meeting at a social
dance class at Sembawang Community Club about 1
1/2 years ago. Since then, they have taken
eight dance classes with various CCs,
travelling from their Nee Soon neighbourhood to
Toa Payoh and Sembawang.
Now hooked on ballroom dances such as waltz and
foxtrot, they attend two classes a week but are
looking to take up three more.
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Quips Mr Ten: 'My wife doesn't
like to dance, but she can't stop
me.'
Madam Chan adds: 'My husband, daughters and
mother-in-law all support me. I do it because
it's good for the mind and body.'
From the heartlands to the CBD, dance fever
appears to be ripping through Singapore.
Indeed, as the Republic continues to up its hip
quotient with a growing nightlife scene,
integrated resorts and an upcoming Formula One
night race, its denizens, too, are dusting off
their inhibitions - and dancing shoes.
The scene here is thriving, with more dance
classes being offered at all levels, and to
people across all economic and social
strata.
Among the genres of dance that are now popular
among Singaporeans are ballroom dancing, line
dancing, hip-hop, salsa and Lindy Hop.
And that's excluding the more 'exotic' types
popping up, such as belly dancing and pole
dancing.
An essential social skill
All 105 community clubs under the People's
Association (PA) offer dance classes ranging
from ballroom to Latin dance to hip-hop.
The number of sign-ups for these activities has
been climbing steadily, says a PA spokesman.
Though no absolute figures are available,
interest in ballroom and Latin classes has been
increasing by as much as 25 per cent every
year, while the demand for hip-hop classes more
than doubles yearly.
A LifeStyle check of eight privately-run dance
studios of different niches throws up a similar
picture. At Shawn & Gladys Danceworld, a
long-time establishment that teaches ballroom
dancing, its instructors teach up to 600
students a week, compared to half this figure
five years ago, says its owner Shawn Tay,
50.
Jitterbugs Swingapore dance studio started out
10 years ago teaching Lindy Hop once a week
from a rented room in Singapore Chinese Girls'
School. It has since upgraded its premises to
the much swankier Millenia Walk, where more
than 60 mainly jazz and hip-hop classes are
conducted a week.
And just last week, the inaugural Singapore
Asian Open Dance Championships 2008, a
ballroom dancing competition at the highest
level, helped drive home the message that
Singapore may well be experiencing a dance
revolution.
Organised by The Hour Glass boss Jannie Tay, an
avid ballroom dancer herself, it was a
Dancesport event - the name given to
competitive ballroom dancing activities - and
part of an Asian Open Dance Tour series that
spanned seven host countries last month and
this.
Of the 170 competing couples, some of whom were
the world's best, 40 were Singaporean.
The explosion of interest in dance can be
credited to several factors, say those in the
business.
For one thing, being able to shuffle your feet
in some form has become an 'essential social
skill', says Shawn Tay. 'A lot of people have
to attend company functions these days. It
would be embarrassing if you don't know how to
dance; it's almost not sociable.'
Adds Ms Aleena Tan, 53, who runs Sunny
Low Dance Studio: 'When you go to corporate
events, you don't want to be a wallflower.'
The influence of goggle box talent quests such
as So You Think You Can Dance and its local
equivalent The Dance Floor, together with
dance-related movies such as Step Up 2 The
Streets, have given people a 'broader vision of
what dance really is', reasons Jitterbugs'
chief executive officer Lim Sing Yuen, 46.
'It's no longer just ballet, ballroom or
cha-cha-cha. There are so many different kinds
of dance now.'
Singaporeans are also getting more
opportunities to discover their rhythm and
musicality at a younger age, points out Ms
Carol Cheong, 34, co-director of dance school
Studio Wu, which specialises in street style
dances such as jazz and hip-hop.
She credits efforts by the National Arts
Council (NAC) to introduce dance into the
school curriculum. 'Many of our students join
our classes after getting exposed to some form
of dance in school,' she says.
Indeed, under the NAC's Arts Education
Programme, 93 dance programmes are made
available for schools ranging from primary to
tertiary institutions, says a spokesman. Last
year, more than 300 bookings for such
programmes were made.
sandral@sph.com.sg
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