Ding Hong
Artistic Director & Resident Choreographer of NUS Chinese Dance

Ding Hong received her degree in Dance Education from the Beijing Dance Academy where she graduated with distinction in 1991. Upon graduation, she was invited to join the Academy's Youth Dance Troupe and has represented China in many overseas performances. She was also awarded the Merit Citation Class 1 by the Chinese government. In Singapore, she has performed and choreographed works for local arts and dance festivals, ASEAN dance festivals and National Day celebrations. She has also established Hong Lei Culture & Performing Arts International to promote Chinese dance in Singapore. She has been leading the NUS Chinese Dance troupe since 2001.

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Fan Dong Kai
Artistic Director & Resident Choreographer of NUS Dance Synergy

Fan Dong Kai obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Choreography from the Beijing Dance Academy in 1989. He was subsequently selected to study choreography under the tutelage of Mr Ben Stevenson, Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet in the United States in 1988, and was engaged as a Guest Choreographer by the Houston Ballet Academy in 1991. He joined the People’s Association Dance Company as a Senior Choreographer in 1994 and is currently the Artistic Producer of the Singapore Chingay & Events Network. He has been the tutor/choreographer of NUS Dance Synergy since 1997.

Over a span of 20 years, Mr Fan has choreographed numerous works, including dances featured at festivals held in France, Philippines, Taipei and Singapore. He has also received many awards for his works which were featured at competitions held in China. His major productions for the Peoples’ Association Dance Company include New Journey I, New Journey II (Monologue) and New Journey Ill (Longings) which was presented in conjunction with the Festival of Asian Performing Arts in 1997.

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Osman Abdul Hamid
Artistic Director & Resident Choreographer of NUS Ilsa Tari

Osman Abdul Hamid joined the People Association and the former Sriwana Malay Dance Group in 1979. A tutor/choreographer of the NUS Ilsa Tari since late 1995, he is also the choreographer of the People’s Association Malay Dance Group.

Osman's works have been regularly showcased overseas. Singapore was represented in the 1999 Chinese New Year Parade in Hong Kong by his choreographed item, which featured a combined performance by the People's Association Malay Dance Group and the Orkestra Melayu Singapura. In 2000, he was selected to lead the People's Association Cultural Troupe to participate in the Asia-Europe Folk Festival at the second Kyongju World Culture EXPO held in Korea.

In recognition of his talents and dedication in promoting Malay dance in Singapore, Osman was conferred the prestigious Singapore Youth Award (Service) in 1993 and the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council in 1994. He has also appointed as the Board of Directors of the Malay Heritage Centre (June 2007 – June 2009).

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Patrick LooArtistic Director & Resident Choreographer of NUS Dance Blast!

An experienced dance instructor and choreographer in the Singapore dance scene, Patrick Loo has performed for many different corporate and media programmes including MediaCorp, Motorola, and the President's Star Charity Show. He has also conducted courses for MediaCorp, Nanyang Technological University, 5678 Dance Studio, Dance Arts and other institutions. In 2004, he was engaged as a choreographer for one of the segments (Act III Our Future, Our Hope) in the National Day Parade and was appointed as the chief choreographer for the 2013 National Day Parade.

With over 15 years of experience, Patrick is able to train, coordinate and choreograph within a wide range of stage productions. He has extensive knowledge in movement-based presentations, television project conceptualization, variety programming, and live product launches.

An established teacher of hip-hop, Patrick brings out the versatility and performance quality in dancers and is lauded for the success of his many teams that have gone on to win national dance competitions (Funkamania, Suntec Dance Competition) as well as Asian dance competitions (Big Five).

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Mrs Santha Bhaskar
Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of NUS Indian Dance

Santha Bhaskar studied Dance with great gurus such as Ramunni Panicker, Guru Kunchu Kurup and Kutralam Ganesam Pillai, thereby mastering the classical Indian dance forms of Bharatanatyam and Kathakali. She studied Odissi dance at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata and Thai dance at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

Her dance career began even as a young dancer when she joined her late husband K.P. Bhaskar in Singapore in 1955 to teach, perform and choreograph for Bhaskar’s Academy of Dance. She choreographed and performed in an Indian dance rendition of the Chinese folk tale Butterfly Lovers which became an unprecedented hit among the Chinese community with a long run at Victoria Theatre. She also performed all over Singapore in numerous multi-cultural shows known as Aneka Ragam Rakyat to promote Singapore’s national identity.

Mrs Bhaskar has received numerous awards and titles in Singapore and India such as the Kala Ratna Award from the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS), the Kala Rani Award from the Indian Film and Arts Society and the most prestigious Cultural Medallion Award from the Singapore Government, National Arts Council in 1990.

Mrs Bhaskar is currently artistic director of the Nrityalaya Aesthetics Society as well as chief choreographer of Bhaskar’s Arts Academy, Nrityalaya’s performing wing, which is the only Indian professional performing arts group recognised under the National Arts Council’s Annual Grants Scheme. She is also the Resident Choreographer for NUS Indian Dance at the NUS Centre for the Arts. Her recent research work on Nalanda University, Anweshana was staged at the 2011 NUS Arts Festival. Mrs Bhaskar has also written many papers on dance for seminars and articles for performing arts magazines.

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Zaini Mohammad Tahir
Artistic Director & Resident Choreographer of NUS Dance Ensemble

Zaini started dancing at the late age of 19 when he joined the SAF Music and Drama Company. Since then, he has performed in many productions including TheatreWorks’ original Beauty World and Private Parts and the role of Pouncival in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, CATS, with the Really Useful Company. Trained in ballet, jazz and contemporary dance, his choreographic style is deeply rooted in traditional Asian movement, bearing testimony to his Indonesian classical training at the Bagong Academy of Dance in Yogyakarta.

In 1992, he founded the NUS Dance Ensemble and has choreographed over 100 works for the ensemble. He has led the Ensemble to garner acclaim and establish itself as a youth contemporary dance company, whose promise is evident in their annual concert series, The Next Wave and Evocation.

The Ensemble’s most recent endeavor was an exchange trip with La Salle Dance Company – Contemporary and St. Benilde Romancon Dance Company, of which Zaini directed and choreographed ObservAsian: Philippines Concert Tour in Manila, as well as Evocation 2013: Voices in Singapore.

Currently he is the Associate Artistic Director of The Republic Cultural Centre at Republic Polytechnic where he oversees the development of 24 performing arts groups.

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