Archive of "Choo San’s million-dollar gift to young dancers and choreographers", The Straits Times, 17 January 1988

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Choo San’s million-dollar gift to young dancers and choreographers

By SERENA TOH

THE LATE Goh Choo San, who achieved international acclaim as a choreographer with the Washington Ballet, left a hefty US$500,000 (about $1 million) legacy for young dancers and choreographers.

Singapore-born Choo San, who died in November from an Aids-related disease, left instructions in his will for this sum from his estate to be set aside to create the Choo San Goh & H. Robert McGee Foundation.

Mr Harry Robert McGee was Choo San's business manager and close friend. He died of an illness six months before Choo San’s death.

In a telephone interview, a close friend of Choo San, ballet master Janek Schergen, said: “Harry took care of Choo San's legal matters, leaving him free to concentrate on his art and become widely known. This is Choo San's way of thanking Harry.”

The money and any fees for the staging of Choo San’s ballets will be invested and the interest distributed as grants for choreographic works and scholarships.

The foundation will be administered by a board of trustees. They are Choo San’s sister Soonee; Mr Schergen who was formerly with Washington Ballet and has now joined Ballet West in Salt Lake City; Washington Ballet dancer Janet Shibata; and Choo San’s close friends, medical librarian Daniel Richards and advertising executive Skip Young.

Mr Schergen said he hoped the foundation would have enough to provide for one large choreographic grant and several scholarships for young dancers each year.

“Choo San always wanted to set up such a foundation because he knew that it would be so much easier for the choreographer if someone sponsors a work. The choreographer then wouldn’t have to worry about the budget of the company,” he said.

The foundation, based in Washington, will collect applications for the grants and scholarships from choreographers and dancers from around the world. An artistic committee will decide who is most deserving.

Washington Ballet hopes to raise about US$50,000 for another fund in Choo San’s memory to commission new works by guest choreographers.

Other tributes came from Sadlers Wells choreographer Graham Lustig, who dedicated his contemporary ballet Edge of Silence to Choo San, while the Louisville Ballet from Kentucky will do Choo San’s Birds of Paradise and Dance Advance of London will perform his Moments Remembered in March within the next few weeks.

There will be a memorial service for Choo San at Victoria Concert Hall on Wednesday at 6 pm. It is open to friends and all well-wishers. A filmlet which was screened during Choo San’s memorial service in Washington will be shown.

(Photo: Choo San: Foundation in his name and his business manager’s.)

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 * Serena Toh, "Choo San’s million-dollar gift to young dancers and choreographers", The Straits Times, 17 January 1988.

=Acknowledgements=

This article was archived by Roy Tan.