The Dance Pilgrim

  Wong Kit Yaw is described by those who know him, have met him or have heard of him in many, many different ways. He is an artist who is a fount of knowledge, a disciplinarian, a tyrant, a gentle giant, dramatic, fun-loving, lovable, hysterical at times, and an always generous man. He is a choreographer, educator, director and a dance pioneer in Malaysia who entered the world of dance in a most unusual manner – leaving the passion for performance nurtured in high school in Teluk Intan for a career in construction and as a site supervisor in Singapore in the late 1970s. He then chose a path less travelled, and relinquished greater financial security of construction work for the love of dance. He enrolled in full-time training at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Singapore in 1980. Here he underwent a comprehensive program of training in Chinese classical and folk dance, Indian classical dance, Malay folk dance and contemporary dance. Over the last decades, he has continued to en

The 2nd. National Chinese Cultural Dance Competition organized by the Chinese Language Society of Malacca and Multi-Media University was held at the Taman Budaya, Department of Arts and Culture, Malacca from Friday to Sunday, 10-12 Mar 2006. A total of 45 groups, consisting of Chinese dance associations, secondary schools, cultural clubs and private dance schools, including seven from Singapore, took part in the exhausting three-day event. Although I am personally not in favour of competitions, primarily because of issues of judging, or the inevitable feelings of disappointment when dealing with losses, and equally, the inappropriate sense of over-estimating ability when emerging champions. I do understand that there are many benefits and I attempt to stay focused on the potential to develop a sense of teamwork, and improve the performance quality. Therefore, for the first time, I decided to enter the dance students of ASWARA in this event, to gauge the level of achievement and eff

A chance conversation by the author with Wong Kit Yaw, a senior Chinese dance lecturer at ASWARA led to the personal discovery of a rarely talked about or never before mentioned-in-writing (in English) teacher of Chinese dance known as Low Laoshi or Teacher Low. At the meeting that was subsequently arranged at his home in the Old Klang Road area, a beautiful gentle man was resting on his chair, weak from innumerable treatments for chronic kidney disease (which was later disclosed as cancer) tended with the tough love of his former school-teacher wife, Madam Mao. Still, when he started talking about dance, his experiences and his journey, his eyes sparkled, he was vibrant, he laughed and was excited. I imagined what an interesting and passionate teacher he would have been in his day. Low Kee Sien was born in 10 November 1937, the third child of 12 in Kuala Lumpur. His mother had apparently said that he danced before he walked! He just loved dancing and there was no clear reason for