SOTA students from the Dance Faculty were privileged to attend a masterclass conducted by Mr Han Kee Juan, Director of the Washington School of Ballet and a winner of many teaching awards. He is also a well-known judge at International Dance competitions. This masterclass was held at Singapore Chinese Girls School from 6 to 10 December 2011.
Initially, I was apprehensive as I had been out of training for the few weeks leading up to the masterclass. I also had an impression of Mr Han as a terrifying teacher from when I took his class many years ago. But all of it turned out to be a pleasant surprise and a very enriching learning experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed and learnt much from his series of classes.
I liked that he arranged his classes such that it built up in the degree of difficulty over the four days, and also how he consciously created exercises at the barre that would explicitly become the fundamentals of technique required to attempt the combinations in the center. This teaching technique was very effective and it made me understand the connections of movement more comprehensively.
Mr Han was also effective in the way that he was able to very quickly and accurately pinpoint why the execution of a certain movement went wrong. He is a great teacher and provided many new insights to approaching ballet technique.
I think it is always vital to learn from different perspectives about dance, especially in such a structured dance form like ballet. Having this experience to enhance and supplement my bank of knowledge has allowed me to grow as a dancer, and I am very grateful for the opportunity.
- Ma Yue Ru (Year 5, Student from SOTA’s Artistically Gifted Program)
The few weeks approaching this ballet masterclass series, we had classes ack in school to keep us in shape, and to tune our bodies. I haven’t had class with Mr Han before, but according to the teachers, he was known to be rather strict and demanding, and to give more difficult steps that I might not have learnt before. Thus, before the masterclass, I constantly tried to learn and practice steps that he could possibly give with my school-mates.
During the masterclass, Mr Han did give us some steps that I didn’t really know how to do. However, with the detailed and precise demonstration he gave, it allowed me to figure out how. As anticipated, Mr Han was strict and exacting, but also generous in giving corrections and encouraging the class. This gave us the environment to explore, and yet, motivate us to push ourselves to reach higher standards. I liked how he taught us to position our bodies in the angle that makes our dance-lines look best, and how we should shape the way our body looks (e.g. not to "sickle" our feet).
One thing Mr Han constantly stressed about was not giving up. If we were doing pirouettes, he would not see us putting our working leg on the ground, even if our turns were off. If you do, you would have to repeat it until you don’t. He would say, “Once you put that foot down, you’ve given up. If you have to hop, you hop. Your body then remembers that it has to keep that leg up.” He told us that it was a part of being professional about dancing.
He also taught us to dance not just with an arm or leg or the whole body, but also with the eyes and the imagery of how you would carry out the movement. I have thus learnt how the eye line can nuance or transform how the dancer looks on the outside. Mr Han also reminded us that our dancing should also transcend beyond the studio.
Going forward, I would most surely apply what I have learnt from this masterclasss to the daily classes back in school. This experience definitely helped me to improve as a dancer and I am very thankful for this wonderful opportunity.
- Ruth Chiang (Year 2, Student from SOTA’s Artistically Gifted Program)