Goh Lay Kuan

Goh Lay Kuan
Native name	吴丽娟
Born	1939 (age 77–78) Sumatra, Indonesia
Education	Chong Fu Primary Nan Chiau Girls' High School Victoria Ballet Guild
Occupation	ballet dancer, choreographer, dance educator
Organization	Practice Theatre School
Notable work	Nu Wa – Mender of the Heavens
Spouse(s)	Kuo Pao Kun
Children	Kuo Jian Hong Kuo Jing Hong
Awards	Cultural Medallion

Goh Lay Kuan (Chinese: 吴丽娟; pinyin: Wú Lìjuān; born 1939) is an Indonesian-born Singaporean dancer, choreographer, educator, and pioneer of dance in Singapore. Together with her husband, Kuo Pao Kun, she co-founded the Singapore Performing Arts School (now the Practice Theatre School), a seminal institution in Singaporean modern theater and dance.

During the mid-1970s, both Goh and her husband were branded as enemies of the state and detained in mass arrests of alleged communist sympathizers. The 1980s and 90s, however, saw Goh rise in prominence. In 1988 she created Nu Wa – Mender of the Heavens, Singapore's first modern dance production, and in 1995 she was awarded the Cultural Medallion, Singapore's highest award for artistic excellence.

Goh Lay Kuan was born in Sumatra, Indonesia, in 1939. Her parents were both teachers and had both learned music. Goh was one of six children, with four brothers and a sister. When she was still an infant, the family moved to Sungai Petani, British Malaya (now Malaysia), where Goh's father worked as the principal of a school. Two years later the family moved to Malacca to escape the Japanese invasion of Malaya. In 1945, when she was five years old, her father – then a resistance fighter – was killed by Japanese forces. Goh's mother remarried, again to a teacher, and took a teaching position in Singapore, bringing the family with her.

At the age of 15, Goh began learning ballet dance from Goh Soo Nee, the sister ballet dancers Goh Choo San and Goh Soo Khim. In a 2014 interview, Goh recalled that she was the last remaining student from an initial class of fifteen, and that she "went hungry" in order to afford the classes. After graduating high school, Goh worked as a teacher and tutor before moving to Australia to continue her ballet education at Melbourne's Victoria Ballet Guild. She graduated from the program with honors, and went on to be member of several groups including the Ballet Victoria, where she was the principal dancer.

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