2009-Fall-Dance International-Exit Centre Stage
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by Michael Crabb Chan Hon Goh in Giselle 6 Dance International Fall 2009 Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann Exit Centre Stage Chan Hon Goh retires from the National Ballet of Canada ear the end of the National Bal- but a headache for the wig department. let of Canada’s 1993-1994 sea- Goh made her Giselle debut that fall of Nson, then Artistic Director Reid 1994 for a student audience in Anderson summoned to his office one of Saskatoon. Later during the company’s the company’s most recently minted Western Canada tour she performed the principals, Chan Hon Goh. Anderson role in her adopted home city, Vancou- told Goh he was “very, very happy” with ver, with family, friends and much media her dancing. It was just the encourage- in attendance. After that show, Anderson ment the self-confessedly insecure, ap- took her aside. “I’m glad I was wrong,” proval-seeking young ballerina craved; he graciously conceded. but then came less comforting news. Skip forward almost 15 years to an- Anderson told Goh that he was other city, Toronto. It’s the afternoon of considering her for Giselle, but Sunday, May 31, 2009. The magnifi- was “not convinced” she had the cent, 2,000-seat Four Seasons Centre has necessary acting ability. long been sold out. There is excitement As she recounts in Beyond the in the air. Diehard fans can be seen bear- Dance: A Ballerina’s Life — Goh’s 2002 ing bouquets, tightly wrapped to im- autobiography written with Cary Fagan prove their projectile chances across the — she was crushed. She longed to dance opera house’s wide orchestra pit come Giselle, yet Goh, too, harboured doubts curtain-call time. about her capacity to go beyond the steps It is Goh’s official farewell to the com- and inhabit the role dramatically. pany she’s called home for 21 years and Typically, Goh decided to do some- she’s dancing Giselle, partnered by the thing about it and spent the summer estimable 30-year-old Zdenek studying privately with an acting coach. Konvalina. They’ve already danced the Feeling the need to achieve some sort of May 27 opening performance without personal breakthrough, she also for the benefit of a full stage rehearsal, as evi- first time in her adult life — and with an denced by the occasional rocky moment; imprudent lack of forethought — had but, four days later, with the emotional her lovely long black hair cut short. stakes as high as they can get, Goh and Bad move! When the casting sheet for Konvalina click like a partnership made Giselle was posted, Goh found her name in heaven and she dances out her career among the chosen few; a thrill for her, in a blaze of artistic glory. Above right: Chan Hon Goh and her son Aveary with artists of the ballet at the curtain call for Giselle FallFall 2009 2009 Dance Dance International International 7 7 Photo: Bruce Zinger Ironically, it had been a car accident that had effectively ended the performing career of her husband, Che Chun, at a similar age more than 20 years earlier. He made an almost seamless transition into full-time teaching. Goh, however, still wanted to perform, yet she knew it was time to start planning the end of her dance career. “Without the injury,” says Goh, now 40, “I might have continued two or three more years, but dealing with the pain and going for therapy was cutting into my family time and I knew this could not go on.” Her impending retirement was an- nounced early this year. Goh, who had confided in Kain early on, admits that once the news became official the reality of her decision was emotionally roiling. “I had some crippling moments dancing Juliet in March. I really crumbled emo- tionally.” Yet, despite the sadness of the ballet itself, Goh’s emotions were buoy- ant for her farewell. “I imagined I’d be more nervous. There had been such a buildup to that last show. I wanted to dance it really well because I knew it would be such a lasting memory. In fact, there were no nerves. I felt so at home on that stage, really into the character. It was just a great two hours. It truly felt wonderful. Now I’m ready to move on.” Facing challenges has been a way of life for Goh. Although she was born — Feb- ruary 1, 1969 — under what her father, Choo Chiat Goh, considered the auspi- cious omen of a rising moon, glowing red, it was in Beijing in the midst of Mao Zedong’s tumultuous Cultural Revolu- tion. Her Singapore-born father and Beijing-born mother, Lin Yee Goh, were both principals in the Central (now Na- tional) Ballet of China. They lived in relatively favourable con- ditions in a walled artists’ compound, but Goh did not dance Giselle. She was National Ballet of Canada Artistic Direc- nevertheless shared a two-bedroom Giselle. When, in the quiet closing mo- tor Karen Kain had worried might not apartment with another family. ments, Giselle vanishes forever, the audi- happen. Lin Yee, plagued by rheumatoid arthri- ence is so hushed they can hear Goh, unbeknown to most of her audi- tis, switched from performing to teach- Konvalina release a spontaneous, ence, had achieved her goal to dance her ing soon after Chan, their only child, was heartrending sob. Albrecht’s remorse way to retirement in her favourite role born. The classically trained Chiat, doesn’t get more real than that. despite the impediment of a chronic in- meanwhile, grew increasingly frustrated If Anderson had seen Goh dance that jury. with the diet of folk-based “revolution- May afternoon, he would have been very, In 2006, Goh was in a car accident in ary” ballets he was obliged to perform very glad he was wrong! Vancouver. She was driving to a ballet and by 1976 was given permission to In the circumstances, you could have class, in the process of reconditioning her leave for Canada, ostensibly to care for expected Goh to indulge her emotions in body some two months after the birth of his ailing grandmother in Vancouver. a flood of tears during the almost 15- Aveary. Goh incurred what she describes His wife and daughter watched Chiat minute standing ovation. Instead, laden as a “whiplash type” injury. From then leave with no assurance they’d be able to with flowers, surrounded onstage by her on she experienced a nagging pain that join him, an emotional wrench that colleagues, family and — to the delight decreased the mobility of her neck and caused Chan recurrent pangs of lonely of Aveary, her three-year-old son — a sea shoulders. It took steely determination anxiety even into adulthood. of red balloons, she is radiantly happy, and a great deal of physiotherapy to keep A year later, the family was reunited. enjoying a moment of triumph that even her going. Chiat had launched what was to become Chan Hon Goh in Swan Lake 8 Dance International Fall 2009 Photo: Lydia Pawelak a very successful teaching career in Van- After that, Chan’s parents gradually ac- cesses into a soloist contract, Goh agreed couver and was soon formulating plans cepted that their daughter seemed deter- to join the company’s corps. for a company. Chan, however, strug- mined to pursue a career in dance. She In addition feeling lonely in Toronto, gling to learn English and subjected to made her public debut at age 13, dancing she was unhappy in the corps. “It felt racial slurs in her largely white school, The Butterfly Lovers with another Chinese like dancing in a cage,” she later re- faced a difficult adjustment, but her stub- émigré — and former Central Ballet prin- called. The advent of Reid Anderson as bornness only fortified her determination cipal — almost two decades her senior, director the following season soon to excel. Che Chun. He’d arrived in Vancouver in changed things. She was given more Oddly, dancing was not among those 1978, danced with the Gohs’ semi-pro- and more featured roles and steadily areas in which there seemed an urgent fessional company and already made a promoted through the ranks, achieving need to excel. Her parents, preoccupied strong impression on Chan. By 13, a her goal of principal in January 1994. with building their new business, the child’s admiration had turned into a ma- As a dancer, Goh projected a combi- Goh Ballet Academy, did not detect in jor crush. By her late teens, it evolved into nation of fragility and strength. With their daughter any natural dancing tal- a loving bond that has endured ever since. her willowy arms she could seem as ent. In China, they’d sent her to piano At age 17, Chan, who had a singular light as air, but she had a gazelle-like classes from an early age, not imagining lack of success in regional ballet competi- jump and solid technique that allowed that those long hands and articulate fin- tions at home, entered the Prix de her to command a broad repertoire. As gers might one day grace a ballet stage. In Lausanne and was among the list of final- she matured, Goh also shed what had Vancouver, there were singing lessons ists awarded a dance scholarship. Chan sometimes seemed a controlled veneer and more piano. opted for a summer course with Rosella of artifice to emerge as a compelling It was an aunt, Soo Nee, who gave Hightower in Cannes. At age 18, she en- dance-actress, as much at home in Chan her first ballet classes, until her tered the Royal Academy of Dancing’s comic as tragic roles.