194:. In the same year, she received the National Youth Service Award as she had "successfully blended classical ballet movement with modern music, introducing local themes to make ballet more popular among the young." She was the first woman to receive the award. She was then a teacher at the
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wrote in
December that she was perhaps the only local "full-time dancer", noting that she supported herself by giving private dance lessons, teaching English, appearing on television and choreographing for fashion shows and nightclub singers. She performed with the troupe in
35:. Her mother, a Chinese-Eurasian who had retired from teaching to look after her children, came from a musical family while her father, a Singapore-born Scotsman, was also musically-inclined. She spent her early childhood in
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at the
Musical Arts Centre. She was among the artistes selected to represent Singapore at the ASEAN Exchange of Radio and Television Artistes in the same year. In September 1977, she performed in an opera excerpt from
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received a full-scale performance in
Singapore in 31 years. McCuly had played Clara the last time it had been staged. In the same year, she choreographed for the Eurasian contingent at the 1990 National Day Parade.
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becoming one of the paper's first "Back Page Girls". By July 1971, she was a ballet teacher and had made plans for establishing a dance company. Later that year, she was selected by
Australian choreographer
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McCully choreographed for the 800-member combined schools choir at the 1994 and 1996 National Day
Parades. She choreographed for the 600 "cheerleaders" at the 2001 parade. She also choreographed for the
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wrote in 1990 that McCully was one of the few
Singaporeans to "take up ballet seriously" in the 1960s and that in the 1970s, "whenever there was any dance show in TV, it was inevitably McCully dancing."
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On her return to
Singapore in 1969, McCully had hoped to join the proposed National Theatre Dance Company, a project which was eventually shelved due to lack of funds. She founded a dance school at the
19:(born 1949) is a Singaporean ballet dancer, choreographer and dance instructor. She founded the Sylvia McCully School of Dancing and has choreographed dance sequences for multiple
227:, a fundraising effort by the Methodist Girls' School. In 1988, she organised the dance school's first full-scale public performance, the proceeds of which went to the
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reported that she was a "leading local ballerina". On 27 January, McCully, then a member of the newly-formed
National Dance Company, appeared on the back page of the
138:. According to her, it was the first full-scale local ballet performance since 1965. She was a lead dancer with the 67-member Singapore cultural troupe at the 1972
58:. However, her parents divorced around this period. Her father left for Britain while her mother took her and her siblings to live with her maternal grandfather in
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examinations and was awarded the Dr. C. J. Poh Shield along with five other stduents of the academy. She was then in Grade 5. She was then a student of
62:. Her mother began teaching English to support the family, although McCully continued receiving ballet lessons. In 1960, she was awarded honours in the
270:. She gave birth to her second in December 1979. Despite being pregnant, she continued to dance and appeared in several dance television programmes.
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70:. In the same year, she became a winner of the Mixed Dances section of the Youth Cultural Festival Competition, which was organised by the
237:, held in December 1990 in aid of charity. The production featured over 200 of her students from her dance school and was the first time
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231:, the St. Hilda's School and the Yio Chu Kang Constituency Citizens Consultative Commitee. McCully directed a production of
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for her father's work. At the age of seven, McCully began taking ballet lessons along with one of her older brothers from
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as part of a Music for
Everyone concert. McCully gave a joint performance with five other dance instructors at the 1978
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By the time she was 10, McCully and her family had returned to
Singapore and she was receiving ballet lessons at the
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206:. She had also made several appearances on the local stage and television by then, sometimes in aid of charity.
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in October 1974, playing the same role. In January 1975, she closed down her dance studio to teach for the
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47:, who came to Penang every weekend to teach at a recreation club. Her first performance was held at the
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In 1973, she again danced the lead with the Singapore cultural troupe in a production of
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in 1981, serving as its principal. In the same year, she became a judge for the
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152:. She and Sha'ari were interviewed by radio stations there. Lo Tien Yin of
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Pereira, Alexius A.; Braga-Blake, Myrna; Ebert-Oehlers, Ann (2016).
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McCully married in 1975. She has two children, including triathlete
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74:. She performed with two other winners of the section at the
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with around 300 students. She had also taught ballet at the
82:. At the age of 16, McCully left for London to study at the
86:, where she remained for three years. She then learned the
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McCully founded the Sylvia McCully School of Dancing at
146:. McCully portrayed the maiden in a dance adaptation of
217:. She was approached to choreograph a production of
296:Singapore Eurasians: Memories, Hopes And Dreams
124:to dance the lead role in his pantomime ballet
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223:which was staged in July 1981 as part of
254:. Her ballet shoes at the association's
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609:"Veterans to be cast in school opera"
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536:"It's a three-women effort in opera"
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229:National Kidney Foundation Singapore
215:Singapore Disco Dancing Championship
39:before she moved with her family to
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534:Oon, Violet (23 September 1977).
607:Chiang, Michael (7 July 1981).
164:The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl
149:The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl
21:Singapore National Day parades
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45:Soonee Goh and Blossom Shek
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192:Singapore Festival of Arts
256:Eurasian Heritage Gallery
132:Singapore Conference Hall
72:Singapore Teachers' Union
204:extracurricular activity
196:Young Musicians' Society
105:Tung Ling English School
56:Singapore Ballet Academy
49:Singapore Badminton Hall
27:Early life and education
250:contingent at the 2009
200:Methodist Girls' School
248:Eurasian Association's
64:Royal Academy of Dance
181:Ministry of Education
80:National Theatre Fund
302:. pp. 355–356.
134:in conjunction with
122:Colin David Griffith
107:. In February 1970,
84:Royal Ballet School
17:Sylvia Anne McCully
68:St. Hilda's School
172:The Straits Times
140:Adelaide Festival
110:The Straits Times
60:Katong, Singapore
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617:. Singapore
544:. Singapore
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541:New Nation
274:References
220:The Mikado
127:Snow White
116:New Nation
177:Indonesia
88:flamenco
166:in the
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202:as an
98:Career
92:Madrid
41:Penang
37:Bedok
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