Han Kee Juan is currently the Principal of Singapore Ballet Academy. He has trained and coached many dancers. Some are principals and soloists of prominent companies in USA and Singapore, namely, American Ballet Theater, Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Singapore Dance Theatre. His most accolated student is David Hallberg, Principal of Bolshoi Ballet and American Ballet Theater. Mr Han is a Master Teacher and has been awarded 5 prestigious teaching awards.
His dance career began in his native Singapore, where he began his training at age ten with Florrie Sinclair and then with Goh Soo Khim. Upon graduation from the Australian Ballet School, he was invited to dance with the Sydney Dance Company, then the Goh Ballet in Canada, where he was also trained by Lin Yee Goh to teach the Vaganova method. Additionally, he was Principal Dancer with the Indianapolis Ballet Theatre and was a Soloist with the Boston Ballet. He danced most of the principal roles in the classical repertoire, as well as the ballets by Balanchine and modern works by Jose Limon, Mark Morris, Ralph Lemon, Susan Marshall and Bebe Miller.
Mr Han’s international teaching includes guest teaching at the Singapore Dance Theatre, Edmonton Ballet Academy, Sydney Dance Company, Ballet Austin, Atlanta Ballet, Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Vail International Summer of Dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Milwaukee Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet Academy and the renowned Jackson International Ballet Summer School.
Mr Han was full time faculty at the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts and was the recipient of The Excellence in Teaching Award at UNCSA. He is also the co-founder of the American Ballet Competition and is also featured in the Singapore Encyclopedia. He was also named the best teacher/coach at the Youth America Grand Prix in 2000 and in 2015. He was awarded the 2008 Dance Teacher Award for best teacher of the year. Under his Directorship, The Washington School of Ballet was awarded the Best Youth Dance Performance by Washington DC/Metro Dance and The School was also awarded the Outstanding School Award at the Youth America Grand Prix each year in the 6 years of competing. He was on the cover of Dance Teacher Magazine in 2014 with his student David Hallberg and was featured as the Teacher of Men.
He has coached many prize winners in numerous international ballet competitions. He also implemented the Teaching Syllabus for Washington School of Ballet and has guided many teachers with their teaching.
Media & Press
Watch
Tuesday Report docuseries – The Dream Catchers (星期二特写 – 筑梦) by Mediacorp Singapore on Mr Han’s career
Red Dot Stories: Pirouetting Around the World by irememberSG
Read
A Matter of Respect by Candice Thompson on DanceTeacher
DANCE || CULTURE : Ballet, Part 2 by Gwendolyn Yap on dance.write.repeat