To Dance With Love

A rare breed in her field, dance teacher Jean Chan has taught generations of girls in a span of nearly 50 years, working through 23 years past her retirement. At 83, she shows no sign of slowing down.

- Donna Tang

Much has been said about doing what you love, but it’s a whole other thing to see it in actual practice – and for half a century, too.

Meet Mrs Jean Chan who – at 83 years old – still walks with the poise of a trained ballet dancer, and works four days a week at the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (SCGS), doing what she loves most for 49 years. She has taught more girls than she can count, spanning three generations.

Jean – who has three grandchildren – is such an institution at the school that when she retired from the Ministry of Education in 1996, the then-principal Low Ay Nar created a brand-new position – dance consultant – and persuaded her to stay on. She has been directly employed under the school, with her contracts renewed every year since then.

And, Jean made SCGS known for dance, acknowledges former student Melissa Quek, 38, now head of the School of Dance & Theatre at Lasalle College of the Arts. She has known Jean since 1987. “I’m not sure if I would’ve become a dancer and choreographer if not for her.”

Well-loved by her students, Jean now takes care of the administrative work, programme planning and dance exams.

SCGS principal Eugenia Lim tells Her World: “She has played a pivotal role in developing the SCGS dance programme over the past few decades. Her devotion to the girls’ learning, her commitment to excellence, and the extra mile she goes to give our girls to learn from different professionals in the field, have made the dance programme a distinctive niche of the school.”

Over the decades, SCGS has consistently clinched local and international accolades in dance, including top awards at the annual Singapore Youth Festival dance performances.