What does it take to create and sustain a professional dance company? A healthy portion of gumption, two dozen lithe and limber bodies – ever-ready to take the stage by storm – and most importantly, a vision of dance that has not wavered since the day it was articulated.
The vision: “To be an established professional dance company that is internationally recognised for its strength in both classical and contemporary repertoire and that showcases choreography that crosses boundaries.”
If you have not yet had the pleasure of acquainting yourself with the Singapore Dance Theatre (SDT), here are 
things you may like to learn of as you join SDT in a year of celebrations:
SDT's 
st -ever performance was for the Singapore Festival of Arts in June 1988, where a programme consisting Goh Choo San's Beginnings and Graeme Murphy's Sequenza VII was presented.
The 
co-founders of SDT are the current Artistic Director, Goh Soo Khim, and the late Anthony Then. Both were co-artistic directors of the Ballet Group of Singapore 's National Dance Company, which was formed in 1984.
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Participation at international dance competitions like the highly-prestigious Asia Pacific Ballet Competition has yielded excellent results for 
of SDT's dancers, including Xia Haiying's Grand Prix Prize at the 7 th Asia Pacific Ballet Competition in 1999, Zhang Jun's 2 nd Prize at the same event in 2001, and Fu Liang's win of the 1 st Prize in 2005.
Under SDT's Adult Dance Classes, you can choose from 
different genres of instruction: Ballet, Jazz Ballet, Contemporary Dance, and Pilates. Sessions take place in the evenings and weekends to cater to working adults who are keen to be exposed to dance and exercise techniques for both health and enrichment purposes.
SDT has developed 
Arts Education Programmes that are delivered throughout the year in schools. “Introduction to Ballet” and “Dance Spectrum” allow students to learn about ballet basics and the central teachings behind contemporary dance, while “Behind The Scenes”, “Body Moves”, and “Stepping Out” go one step further to avail students with an opportunity to pick up pointers about dance improvisation and even to perform in front of a small audience.
Upon the successful staging of Swan Lake in December 2007, SDT has now performed 
of the seven perennial classical ballets: “Swan Lake”, “Giselle”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “The Nutcracker”, and “Cinderella”. The odd one out is “Don Quixote”, which the company has done excerpts from but not as a full-length ballet.
The original 
dancers of the SDT were: Jamaludin Jalil, Chantal Pestana, Elizabeth Thng, Ricardo Culalic, Donato Ferrer, Mario Esperenza, and Ellie Lai. Even then as it is now, the SDT was a veritable melting pot of cultures and diverse backgrounds with one unifying commonality: an unyielding passion for dance.
SDT's existing cohort of dancers has a representation of 
nationalities, including Australia , Belgium , China , France , Japan , Korea , Malaysia , and Singapore .
years ago, the very first staging of Giselle by SDT, in December 1999, was hailed by Dance Magazine as “a triumph” for its beautiful sets and costumes. This March, a special edition of Giselle, set in Fort Canning Park , will be the curtain-raiser for SDT's 20 th Anniversary Celebrations.
Touches, a commemorative book, was produced to mark SDT's 
th Anniversary in 1998. In his congratulatory foreword for this publication, SDT's then Patron, the late President Ong Teng Cheong, said, “The SDT has enriched the nation's cultural development and contributed immensely to Singapore 's strive for cultural excellence. Its performances unfailingly guarantee high technical accomplishment and its works reflect the best of choreographers from around the world.”
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