Executive Advisor | Mdm Goh Lay Kuan

Co-founder of PPAS, Goh Lay Kuan is a distinguished choreographer and arts educator.

Mdm Goh started her ballet training at 17, with pioneer dance teachers Blossom Shek and Goh Soo Nee. Later, she worked under Laurel Martyn at the Victoria Ballet Guild in Melbourne where she graduated with honours. She then joined the Victoria Ballet Company, working from corps de ballet to soloist, principal and finally ballerina in 14 full-scale ballets on stage and for TV. Lay Kuan also spent a year with Garnet Carroll's production of 'The King and I'. She later received training and exposure in modern dance at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York. Mdm Goh's representative works include 'Nu Wa - Mender of the Heavens', 'Om', 'The Rite of Life' and 'The Homing Fish'.

Mdm Goh has been an exceptionally dedicated and disciplined teacher. Precise, detailed, warm and energetic, she has always given her students a very solid grounding in dance. Throughout her teaching career, she has always guided her students to look towards the stage as she believes that dance training should always be looked upon as preparation towards performance rather than towards examination. Scores of her students have gone on to professional teaching, performing and choreographing careers throughout the world.

Mdm Goh has developed various programmes that attempt to remove the barriers between the different disciplines and to blend the diversity of art forms into a comprehensive creative learning experience for children, example of events are: ‘Play in the Arts Programme-PIA ‘ (1990-1992). Since 1960s till mid 1990s, Mdm Goh regularly participated in voluntary works with ‘Dance Education Programme designed for Handicapped Children'. Through the years, she has developed new methods and insights on teaching and choreographing for handicapped children.

Mdm Goh received the Cultural Medallion from the Singapore Government in 1995, for her outstanding contributions to dance and arts education. She is currently teaching Taichi and Meditation in the Theatre Training and Research Programme.

Vice-Principal | Kuo Jing Hong

A choreographer, performer and teacher, Jing Hong received her early dance training from Practice Performing Arts School and went on to receive her BFA (Dance) and BA in Psychology from the University of Iowa, following which she worked with various American choreographers.

Jing Hong has taught movement and dance in Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines, and has performed extensively in Singapore and the region. Her choreographies have been presented in Tokyo, Bangkok, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, and she has also worked as movement director and choreographer for various theatre companies in Singapore and China. Jing Hong was a Movement teacher with the Theatre Training and Research Programme.

Head of Drama | Wong May Lan

Hailing from the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and the Chung Ying Theatre Company, two of Hong Kong's professional theatre companies, May Lan is highly experienced in all facets of theatre, from artistic, to planning and production work. Some of the plays May Lan has directed in Hong Kong include 'Hobson's Choice', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', and 'Life on Stage'. She has also worked towards initiating the development and integration of drama instruction among the young. May Lan is often invited by various theatre companies, arts centres and schools to give seminars and workshops on drama training. Her lively and creative method of teaching has been well received by theatre practitioners, teachers, youth and children alike.

Since coming to Singapore,May Lan has been a welcomed addition to the Practice family, strengthening its artistic department as a director and a facilitator, and enthusiastically promoting youth theatre and training programmes. She is currently Assistant Artistic Director of The Theatre Practice, and her local directing credits include 'The Legend of Giant, The Soldier and his Virtuous Wife', 'Where Love Abides' and 'Love A La Zen'. She played the leading role in the formation of The Theatre Practice's Student Theatre Exposure Project (STEP) in 1994. She continues to head STEP and is highly valued as a Drama Instructor, Facilitator and Advisor in many schools and junior colleges as well as the Hokkien Huay Kuan.

Chinese Aerobics | Dong Wei Ming

Dong Wei Min has been teaching at PPAS since 1990, and is one of our most experienced instructors. Prior to this teaching appointment, Wei Min was a performer and instructor with the Shanghai Dance Troupe from 1972-1986, where he eventually became the Deputy Head.

Wei Min has also been actively involved in numerous societies, including the Chinese Ethnic Dance Research Organisation and China Dancer's Society.

Beto Ruiz began his arts training at Casa del Teatro in Mexico, and graduated with a Diploma in Artistic Pedagogy. He continued his studies at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico where he received his degree in Scenic Art (Dance). After that, he furthered his training in dance and movement at various schools: Contemporary Dance School, University of Guadalajara; Choreographic Research Centre, National Institute of Arts; Kundalini Yoga School, University of Guadalajara; and Corporal Theatre School "Linea de
Sombra". He joined the University of Guadalajara Company as dancer, and choreographed various dance pieces for Creatomobilis, a Guadalajara dance company, before coming to Singapore.

Adult Ballet | Ng Kin Wee

Kin Wee formerly studied RAD ballet under the tutelage of Mdm Lim Fei Shen & Mdm Goh Soo Khim (Singapore). In 1983, he left for Washington D.C. under scholarship from both Mdm Goh’s Singapore Ballet Academy and The Washington School of the Ballet (TWSB) to study ballet at TWSB. He received other scholarships for summer sessions in Iowa and Western Michigan studying Bournonville and Bolshoi technique respectively.

From 1986 to 1991, he was a teaching assistant in ‘ballet, teaching and choreographing’ for the dance department at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. In 1996, he went to Jackson in Mississippi to study the Vaganova technique by Ballet Magnificat!

Since back in Singapore, he has been actively teaching at various dance schools and conducting workshops in Singapore and Malaysia. He also danced professionally with the Odyssey Dance Theatre (Singapore). In Jan 2003, he was a dancer and rehearsal assistant (with Singaporean dancers) in Ballet Magnificat!’s production - “Deliver Us!”  at Singapore . In the same year, he completed the 6 year Vaganova syllabus conducted by Mr. John White from Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet in Philadelphia, USA.