Global Regional Jury Biography

Kee-Juan Han is currently the Principal of Singapore Ballet Academy. He has trained and coached many dancers including 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 accoladed student is David Hallberg, Principal of Bolshoi Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Mr Han is a master teacher and has been awarded five 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.

 

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.

 

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. The School was also awarded the Outstanding School Award at the Youth America Grand Prix each year in the six 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 prizewinners in numerous international ballet competitions. He also implemented the Teaching Syllabus for Washington School of Ballet during his tenure and has guided many teachers with their teaching.