History of ballet can be traced back to Renaissance period in 15th century, it remains a beautiful art form to the rest of the world since then. 3 centuries later, the earliest contact of western dance forms by Chinese took place when Yu Rong Ling (裕容龄) of Qing Dynasty traveled to learn ballet and modern dance in Paris. With the introduction of Russian ballet training regime in China, the growth of this art form was accelerated. Classical ballet in Malaysia on the other hand, was introduced by wives of expatriate armed forces personnel and plantation owners in the 1950s (Gonzales, 2011). The profound development of ballet in Malaysia was benchmarked by the establishment of two organisations namely Federal Academy of Ballet in 1967 and The Dance Society of Malaysia in 1986.

This project intends to study the chronological development as well as the mechanism of ballet in Malaysia. The objectives of this investigation include archiving the existing materials into more sustainable forms, collect primary as well as secondary information from the existing ballet practitioners, and also to produce tangible materials concerning the information collected i.e. the history, development or stories of Malaysian ballet.

Project Highlight

* Project Timeline : Long term.

* Project Structure: Approaching (interviews and secondary resources); Archives and classification; Setup (industrial network, data collection, administrative format, technical support, output display etc).

* Outreach Areas : Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ipoh, Melaka, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Singapore, etc.

* Tentative Outcome: Articles / publication, website / digital library, archival depository / digital preservation, exhibition / presentation, video documentary, Compact Disk (CD) data, etc.

* Target Materials: visual, audio and written records concerning the history and development of ballet in Malaysia (before 1990s). More specifically, any collection in form of but not limit to newspaper clippings, programme books, photographs, report and so on.

* Possible costs include: documentation and recording devices, equipment and accessories, admin & technical fees, transportation (outsourcing and outreaching), legal fees, website building (design, setup and maintenance), printing, publication & publicity costs, and misc.

* Team Members : (Lee Jia Xi, Wong Sze Pooi, Joyce Chan); Hii Ing Fung, Kathryn Chew Yee Hsuen.

Your contribution to this project is highly needed and appreciated,regardless its forms such as time, efforts, sponsorship, personal collections,venue, information, supports and so on! ^_^