| His Motto: No Guts, No Glory
In 1970, armed with sheer guts, Choo San traveled to Europe in hope of finding a position in a ballet company. He was offered a place with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. He soon become a soloist with the company and excelled in works by the company’s resident choreographers, Toer van Schaik, Rudi van Datzig and Hans Van Manen and was also exposed to the choreography of Balanchine and Petipa. His career with the Dutch National Ballet sowed the seeds of his interest in choreography, and from there he developed his latent talent for creating ballets.
He first started creating ballets in a workshop environment. These ballets, despite being small-scale, brought the attention of Mary Day, Director of the Washington School of Ballet in Washington, DC. Believing in his talent, she offered him a position with her newly founded Washington Ballet in 1976. Choo San saw this as an opportunity to pioneer the development of a new company, and took on the duties of a company teacher and Resident Choreographer.
His Meteoric Rise
Just like his dream to fly a plane with six engines, he too had even bigger dreams with the Washington Ballet. In a matter of time his work became increasingly sophisticated and definitive, attracting the attention of several important Artistic Directors of dance companies. His ballets were very much reflective of his background as an Asian working abroad- his blending of classical ballet vocabulary with Eastern lines was prominent in his creations. Instead of adopting the traditional principal dancer/corps de ballet arrangement, he preferred a more “symphonic” approach in that he utilized numerous soloist dancers.
With his unique style of managing and creating ballets, he was soon asked by several prolific dance companies to create ballets for them. For example, the Australian Ballet, the Houston Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Boston Ballet, Bat Dor Dance Company, the Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet, just to name a few. Most notably, Configurations, one of Choo San’s signature pieces, was created for Mikhail Baryshnikov as commissioned by American Ballet Theatre.
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Birds of Paradise |
Despite his far-reaching reputation for being fresh and innovative, he still maintained his work with the Washington Ballet as a primary commitment. Apart from re-staging his own ballets, he created two new works each year. He was eventually given the position of Associate Director of the company in addition to retaining his title as Resident Choreographer. In 1982, the Washington Ballet toured overseas, bringing Choo San’s works to Europe, South America and the Far East. These works include Fives, Variations Serieuses, Birds of Paradise, In the Glow of the Night, Unknown Territory, and Schubert Symphony.
His contribution to the Washington Ballet did not go unnoticed. In 1986, he was presented with the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in Washington. Echoing Alan M. Kriegsman, dance critic for the Washington Post, Choo San “ has propelled the Washington Ballet to international status on the jetstream of his talent”. Back in Singapore, in recognition of his contributions to the international dance scene, he was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1987, Singapore’s highest award for artistic achievement.
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