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MAKE AND MODEL
Tour de Force
CHAN HON GOH
Feature by Jason Sarai Photos by Ellen Ho
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Chan Hon Goh is the force behind the Goh
Ballet Academy in Vancouver. Following an
illustrious career as the first Chinese-heritage
prima ballerina with the National Ballet of
Canada, she accepted an invitation to direct
the academy that trained her and that bears her
family’s name.
Today, Chan Hon Goh is a model of success and style. Goh is an
innovator in the arts community, an international dance adjudicator,
mentor and business leader. She is a previous recipient of the RBC
Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond
Jubilee Medal, and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award.
2018 marks the tenth anniversary of the Goh Ballet’s signature
production, The Nutcracker.
What do you do for work?
CHG: I am the director of Goh Ballet Academy and Youth
Company in Vancouver and a former principal dancer of the
National Ballet of Canada. I have the privilege of working with
emerging artists and mentoring students daily which enriches me as
I continue to grow and to learn from them too.
How did you get into this line of business?
CHG: It was always my dream to become a ballerina. Growing up
in a family of artists, my parents were both principal dancers with
the National Ballet of China, and my grandfather a painter. I felt
that dance was where I could truly express myself and personify the
music.
What’s the most common misperception of your
profession?
CHG: As a ballerina, the misperception is that it’s easy, fun and
effortless. Well, it only is fun, easy and effortless because we spend
countless hours perfecting a single movement, practising to defy
gravity and projecting graceful articulations to make what is at first
impossible, possible. As a director of a dance organization, I feel the
common misperception is that decisions are made in a subjective
manner which discards that multitude of other elements that come
into the equation without common knowledge, although it will
always be “in my opinion.”
What would you like your company to be recognized for?
CHG: The qualities of artistic excellence, leaders in the dance
educational industry, and affecting the future development of culture
while contributing to community needs. Also shaping our artistic
landscape. They are all driving forces propelling us to do our best.