After graduating from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) in Biotechnology, Phua Sze Ping decided to pursue her first love — dance. She chose to specialise in teaching dance, and earned herself a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Dance Education from the Royal Academy of Dance in partnership with the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. Later, she obtained a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where the focus of her study was on the arts in education. Sze Ping also had the opportunity to broaden her interest in dance by studying dance improvisation with Jill Johnson during her time at Harvard.
Prior to joining SOTA, Sze Ping co-founded a local dance studio and experimented with an anatomically-informed approach to the teaching and learning of dance techniques. She also taught dance theory part-time at LASALLE College of the Arts. From time to time, she supervised and mentored trainee teachers in the teaching programme offered by the Royal Academy of Dance. Sze Ping is also a STOTT PILATES Certified Instructor for Matwork and Reformer (Level 1).
Sze Ping enjoys immersing herself in dance and exploring where dance intersects with other disciplines, and it brings her great joy to use what she knows about dance to enable her students to know more about themselves and the world.