Every week, she crosses the Causeway to train 11½ hours for DanceSport | Singapore Breaking News & Latest Updates

Every week, she crosses the Causeway to train 11½ hours for DanceSport — SINGAPORE – Since the age of 10, Ms Kee Geng Xi has been training at a DanceSport academy in Johor Bahru. Every Friday afternoon, the 20-year-old cros...

SINGAPORE – Since the age of 10, Ms Kee Geng Xi has been training at a DanceSport academy in Johor Bahru.

Every Friday afternoon, the 20-year-old crosses the Causeway for training at Crystal Dance Centre, returning to Singapore on Sunday. She specialises in Latin styles of DanceSport, which is the competitive form of ballroom dancing.

Currently in her second year studying early childhood education at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Ms Kee was born in Malaysia and moved to Singapore when she was Primary 2.

She continues to train across the border every weekend as she feels a strong sense of loyalty to her academy, and the trips also allow her to visit her grandparents there.

“I’ve been training there since I started dancing. My teacher there essentially brought me up as a dancer,” she said.

Interestingly, her dance partner, Mr Algin Low, was her judge in a DanceSport competition more than a year ago. The 34-year-old Malaysian dancer was impressed by her skills and asked her to be his dance partner.

The pair is currently competing in the Amateur Rising Star andSouth-east Asia Pacificcategories ofvariouslocal and regional competitions, and recently clinched third place in the recent4thMalaysian Medallist Grand Prix held in March.

Ms Kee spends 11½ hours a week training with her academy, and still gives her all during the four hours of training during her CCA sessions with Ngee Ann DanceSport (NPDS).

When TL;DR visited NPDS practice sessions in April, the members were asked to perform their routines for all five Latin dance styles twice, which took around 20 minutes to complete.

Most of the members, including Ms Kee, danced continuously for the entire time, only stopping briefly for hydration.

Asked by her coach to repeat her routine multiple times to correct her mistakes, she maintained the same fiery intensity each time, as if she were in a competition.

“Dancing is something I like, something that helps me relieve stress. Even if I sometimes struggle to improve, this passion naturally keeps me going,” she said.

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