Since 1993, Dance Space (DS) has been providing dedicative ballet training to students.
Ballet is a dance form which tells a story, expresses a mood, or simply reflects its unification with the music. When the movements in ballet are well executed, they look natural, almost like heavenly beings visiting earth. Dance, in particular ballet, connects to a multitude of disciplines, spanning the different levels.
Dance Space Academy was the dream of a passionate dancer and teacher of ballet, Datin Jane Lew who wanted to impart her ballet dancing experiences and her passion for dances to the next generation. The very first one was established in Klang in 1993. After twenty years of providing versatile and dedicative ballet training to students, Dance Space (DS) continues to be a welcoming, healthy, inspiring and value oriented platform for hundreds of dancers each year. DS also offers various genres of dance workshops and performance opportunities to allow students to gain different insights into the arts of dance.
Today, Dance Space Academy has a total of three schools, namely Empire Klang, Setia Alam and Empire Subang. The schools are now incorporated with the Damansara Performing Arts Centre to cater for the diverse talents needed for Dance Space’s in-house productions.
In the near future, besides organising dance activities, Dance Space (DS) aims to provide higher education in dance programmes to pave the way for dancers en route for professional careers in dance. We look forward to making an avenue for creative inspiration and imagination for all dance lovers.
Founder Biography
Datin Jane Lew, picture taken from Malaysian Tatler writeup
In New York, her daily schedule was filled with auditions, practices and performances. Even though her days were punishing with constant pain from physical injuries and sometimes emotional, Jane says they were trained to remain stoic and to keep a smile at times of adversity. She worked with the choreographer and Artistic Director of the New York Dance Ensemble, Betteane Terrell, on his new production ‘The Firebird’ in Long Island, New York.
After a while, Jane realised that she wanted to do more than just dance and so, listening to her inner voice she came home to Malaysia. Before leaving, she had made up her mind to teach and inspire students just as her past teachers had kindled fires in her. At 22, she obtained her teaching certification from the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) and the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD). In late 1993, she established her very first Dance Space Academy in Klang.
Dance Space students have opportunities to dance in DPAC productions.
That’s when it crossed her mind to create a platform her students could use to become performers. The dance and arts industry is lacking platforms and avenues for performing arts. She wants to help not only her students, but anyone who has chosen the field of arts as a career to continue doing what they love. Ultimately, Damansara Performing Arts Centre (DPAC) was born to cater to this special community. She is fully committed to realising her vision for an arts-enriched community in Malaysia.
Ballet has taught her work ethics and discipline which she believes can only be born from passion and high self-esteem which is crucial to empower an individual to expand the potentials to achieve excellence. It has certainly brought her to where she is today.
Jane Lew first put on a pair of dancing shoes at a young age of nine. Her love for dance, which allowed her to express herself, sparked her interest in the graceful moves of ballet. Thus, began her dancing career and she has never looked back.
In her early teens, she joined the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur Kwang Si Dance Troupe to explore her potential in contemporary dance and toured with the company around Malaysia, Thailand and China. Eventually, she decided to enrol in the New York Joffrey Ballet School in 1990. At 19, not knowing what lies ahead and not wanting to regret it later, she flew to Manhattan to pursue her cherished dream. Was she afraid? But, of course, she was!
Dance Space students performing Swan Lake.
Today, Dance Space Academy successfully runs a total of four schools. Owing to her disciplined nature and her firm and professional principles of teaching, the student numbers have been growing quickly. While she has transitioned gradually from dancing to teaching and now to managing, Datin Jane cannot shake off the feeling that there is more she can do for her students, who she has lovingly nurtured and cared for over the past two decades.
Then comes the frequently asked question, “What can the students do after they finish their dance studies?” Not all students want to become professional dancers or dance teachers. Malaysian dance students do not get opportunities to travel abroad to countries affluent in the arts such as the UK, Europe or the US. There are so many limitations, and she wanted to do something about it!
Our students and teachers participate in multiple dance productions in collaboration with DPAC and other dance schools locally and internationally.