Malaysian dancer, ballet advocate and choreographer Lee Lee Lan, thought-about one of many beloved arts pioneers within the native dance scene, died yesterday (May 16) on the age of 77, in line with her son Larry Lee, a spokesperson for the Federal Academy of Ballet.
Born in Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur, Lee Lee Lan (actual identify Tan Lee Lan) started dancing actively within the late Nineteen Fifties when her two older sisters launched her to ballet.
Her journey within the dance scene within the Sixties wasn’t a straightforward one as she confronted a number of obstacles and challenges in coaching and studying ballet in Malaysia.
In the early Sixties, she took ballet classes at a college in Batu Road (now Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman in KL) beneath dance academics Soonee Goh and Blossom Shek. She later skilled beneath British ballet instructor Ethel Foxcroft.
One of Lee’s early profession anecdotes, which she used to typically share, was how her household moved from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka within the early Sixties, and she was reduce off from her ballet courses within the capital.
Hers had been a teenage dancer’s story of sacrifice and single-minded willpower, traits which might later make Lee an enormous within the native and worldwide dance neighborhood.
As a Form Two scholar in ballet-less Melaka, Lee recalled she needed to discover a technique to proceed her ballet apprenticeship.
Lee’s journey within the dance scene within the Sixties wasn’t a straightforward one as she confronted a number of obstacles and challenges in coaching and studying ballet in Malaysia. Photo: Federal Academy of Ballet
“With no other option in sight, I had to tell my ballet teacher, Mrs Foxcroft, that I could not continue learning ballet. The answer I received from Mrs Foxcroft was not what I expected. After I said that I could not afford the hefty fare of travelling to and from Kuala Lumpur every weekend for lessons, Mrs Foxcroft offered free lessons,” Lee was quoted as saying in an interview with The Star in June, 2009.
Lee’s weekends for your complete yr from then on had been spent at Foxcroft’s dance courses and commuting between Melaka and Kuala Lumpur.
From right here on, Lee’s dedication and resilience landed her a spot in Universiti Malaya in KL, the place she accomplished a Bachelor in Economics, whereas additionally educating ballet part-time to assist herself and immersing herself within the theatre scene.
Her first choreographic works had been seen in musicals – West Side Story, Flower Drum (*77*) and Show Boat – produced whereas learning on the Universiti Malaya within the Sixties.
“In those days, it was not easy to get into the university, so when I graduated, many people asked when I would start on a “proper” job. My reply was easy: educating ballet was a correct job,” she added within the 2009 interview.
In 1967, her dance profession developed when she based the Federal Academy of Ballet, which had its humble beginnings in a small home in Sec 6 in Petaling Jaya.
Through the years, Lee lifted proficient dancers from across the nation and set them on a course to wonderful careers. She taught many well-known dancers and choreographers in Malaysia, together with Joseph Gonzales (a famend Malaysian choreographer and dance tutorial).
Lee’s huge dream was to raise the ballet artwork type in Malaysia with the Federal Academy of Ballet, which began out in a small home in Petaling Jaya in 1967. Photo: Federal Academy of Ballet
“I have taught people from all walks of life – from taxi drivers to koay teow sellers, and some of them have opened their own ballet schools,” continued Lee, who all the time inspired boys to choose up ballet.
“Some folks assume that boys taking over ballet are sissy, however I actually assume it’s a lot more durable than enjoying soccer.”
As a dancer, Lee additionally absorbed the modern tendencies of the day, which later served her nicely in her illustrious profession as a choreographer and dance instructor. Her work for RTM within the Nineteen Seventies additionally noticed her including a progressive-minded outlook to bop programmes on Malaysian tv, together with the Antara Empat Kaum collection, which nurtured cultural range.
The early Nineteen Seventies ushered in a prolific interval in Lee’s profession. As an arts entrepreneur and instructor, she steadily turned the Federal Academy of Ballet into an necessary dance area in Malaysia, whereas the humanities and tradition businesses right here engaged her experience when it got here to modern dance, after her exhibits corresponding to Wind and See Not, Hear Not, Speak Not.
Lee was additionally studying in regards to the stage as her profession progressed. She labored beneath Irish-British choreographer Dame Ninnette De Valois (founding father of the Royal Ballet) in London the place she danced in Checkmate, and after a stint on the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York, Lee was impressed to embark on much more formidable choreography, which culminated in a three-act ballet entitled Soraya. This present, which merged Malay conventional dance and classical ballet was first staged in 1981.
In 1999, she choreographed Dance Classique, one of many main productions to launch the nationwide arts venue Istana Budaya in Kuala Lumpur.
At the guts of issues, Lee, who beloved educating dance and had a ardour for historical past, not solely helped expose most people to ballet in Malaysia, but additionally turned the Federal Academy of Ballet into an highly-respected dance establishment, which has produced a number of generations of dancers and choreographers.
The Malaysian arts scene and Lee’s former college students took to social media to mourn her dying, with many thanking her for her work.
