Two former dancers with the National Ballet of Canada have been honoured for their contributions to dance inn Canada. The wife-and-husband team of Lin Yee Goh and Choo Chiat Goh are among the 13 inductees into the 2024 Dance Collection Danse Hall of Fame.
It’s overseen by Toronto-based Dance Collection Danse, which named the Gohs as William J.S. Boyle Dance Luminaries. The couple founded the Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver in 1978. According to its website, their goal was “to pursue technical and excellence and to celebrate cultural awareness in the dance community”.
Since 2010, it’s been led by their daughter, Chan Hon Goh, a former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.
Her parents were celebrated dancers in Chia. Choo Chiat Goh trained as a teenager with London’s Royal Ballet on a scholarship and later attended the Beijing Dance Academy. He became principal dancer with the Central Ballet of China.
Lin Yee Goh attended the same academy before also joining the Central Ballet of China. She performed for nearly two decades.
The couple created the Goh Ballet Youth Company in 1979 to mentor young dancers who wanted to become professionals. Eight years later, they developed the first integrated half-day academic program to enable dancers to continue with their school studies while training to become professionals.
“The Youth Company has toured around the world including in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, France and the U.S.A.,” the website states. “The achievements of the Academy’s dancers at international competitions, and the visibility of its graduates who fill the ranks of world-renowned companies, reinforces the global reputation of Goh Ballet as a provider of world class training and opportunities.”
They and the other inductees will be celebrated at an event on November 10 at the Palais Royale Ballroom in Toronto.
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