Dance DanceSport News Articles - Ballroom Dancing History

As far as we know, ballroom dancing started in Singapore in the 1930s. One of the first dance studios in Singapore was Pohsan Dance Studio which was set up in 1937 by Low Poh San and is still in existence today. Many years later, Low Poh San together with his wife Jenny became Singapore Professional Ballroom Champions in 1946 and 1950-1953.

In the 1960s, Low Poh San's son, Sunny Low became a household name when he and his sister Betty Low became the Singapore Rock and Roll and Cha Cha King and Queen. Sunny later formed the Sunny Low Dancers who performed regularly on Singapore television for a number of years.

With the popularity of social dancing at that time, there were many places with large dance floors (easily 10 times the size of today's miniature disco dance floors) to dance in. Places like Great World, New World, Happy World Cabaret, Singapore Tel, Westpoint Gardens were the places to go. Social dances like the rock and roll, cha cha, twist, the a go go, etc were the in dances at that time.

In those good old days, most teachers learnt from books and through self experimentation. Techniques and styles learnt were closely guarded secrets, only meant to be displayed on special occasions for fear of copying of steps. Most people learnt dancing from dance schools or friends.

In the 1970s, some enterprising dance teachers like Royston Tan started teaching social dancing at community centres. This made social dancing more accessible and affordable to the masses. The 1970s also marked the era of movies like Saturday Night Fever which popularised dances like disco rock and line dances.

The hot places to dance in the 1980s were the Heartthrob at Melia at Scotts (which was packed every night and had a big dance floor), Duke Hotel (which had a large dance floor but not much atmosphere), Derby Pub (good music but rather awkward shaped dance floor), D'Cockpit (a bit old but very popular), Casual Club, Lido Palace etc. Sad to say, all of them could not make money from poor dancers who were content to dance the whole night with just one cheap drink. And so eventually all of them gave up with the concept of ballroom dancing and switched to disco/karoke etc.

Ballroom dancing got a big boost in the mid 1980s when the Singapore Goverment's Social Development Unit and Social Development Section started ballroom dancing classes for its members. Soon after, ballroom dancing got into some limelight with ballroom performances at the National Day Parade and Chingay Festival. Even more exclusive performances were made by young Singapore girls at the Debutante Ball graced by the President of Singapore.

Riding on the wave of the successful Lion City Ballroom Dancing Championships and the Singapore International Ballroom Dancing Championships, many schools started organising competitions and even the People's Association organised competitions. Going to our neighboring countries to compete became quite common. By the 1990s, one could compete almost every month of the year.

With most places given up with ballroom dancing, only Club 5, Music World and D'Cockpit remained by 1996. In 1996, Dynasty Ballroom started ballroom dancing and quickly became the most popular spot in Singapore for ballroom dancing. This is one of the few places where competition dancers are seen in public. In 1997, Cockpit Hotel was sold and subsequently, D'Cockpit was closed down.

RpMerleon Studios' websites are to keep all dance competitors, ballroom dancers, dance enthusiasts & dance instructors up to date on the ballroom dancing and dancesport scene in Singapore & Asia region. To provide feedback or to publish any news/photos, do post in the Forum or send us an email: dance@rpmerleon.com. Copyright©RpMerleon since 1996 by Robin Chee & Pele Chee-Lim.

Article written by Robin Chee, Singapore- May 97.....

Singapore Ballroom Dancing History