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Singapore Dance Theatre

The Singapore Dance Theatre (SDT) was founded in 1988 with seven dancers by Goh Soo Khim and Anthony Then. Located right on top of Fort Canning Hill, situated on the second storey of Cox Terrace, SDT has since developed into Singapore’s premier professional dance company comprising of 34 professional dancers. In 2002, SDT was honoured to have been given the opportunity to grace the official opening of the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay with the opening performance of Boi Sakti’s Reminiscing the Moon. A decade on, SDT continues to have the privilege to perform in a world-class performing arts venue, exhilarating audiences with a myriad of repertoires. In the course of each year, the Company performs five to six seasons, with three full ballet performances at the stage of Esplanade Theatre. One of the highlights of the Company’s performance season each year would be the widely popular outdoor dance event - Ballet Under The Stars at the Fort Canning Park.

The Company’s repertoire ranges from classical to contemporary ballet, from renowned choreographers like Goh Choo San, George Balanchine, Nacho Duato, Jiri Kylian, Stanton Welch, Marie-Claude Pietragalla, Xing Liang, Mauricio Wainrot, Val Caniparoli, Graham Lustig, David Dawson, Jorma Elo, Edmund Stripe, Adrian Burnett, Edwaard Liang and Nils Christe.

In 2009, Janek Schergen took over the post of Artistic Director of SDT. Under his leadership, the Company has made new achievements in the international and Singapore dance arena. Janek is also the Artistic Director of the Choo-San Goh & H. Robert Magee Foundation which oversees the licensing and production of Choo San Goh's ballets and the annual Choo San Goh Awards for Choreography.

SDT also actively reaches out to the public to create greater awareness of dance through outreach to schools with its Arts Education Programme, Dance Appreciation Series (jointly presented with Esplanade Co.), and One @ The Ballet, an initiative to help the public in gaining a better understanding of the different aspect of dance. SDT also created the Scholars Programme which is designed to be a pre-professional programme for student dancers who are seriously interested in the pursuit of a professional dance career.