Watching Koo Soo Ming gracefully glide across the floor, demonstrating the basic lenggang movement to her students, you’d think she’s been a dancer all her life.
But the 61-year-old mother of two (and soon-to-be grandmother – “I’ve been waiting forever”) is mostly a self-taught dancer. She took her first structured course in Malay traditional dance just a couple of years ago, after the pandemic.
Mostly, she says, she picked up dance by watching dance performances, either online or in person, and practising the steps on her own in her free time.
Koo, who was born and raised in Kelantan, says that dance “is in my blood ... my genes”. She has always loved Malay traditional dance because “Malay culture and traditions were all I saw when I was growing up”.
“I grew up in Kelantan and in the 1960s and 70s, all that I saw around me ... even on TV at the time, were Malay movies, Malay dances. So it’s what I grew up with and sometimes I feel I must’ve been a dancer in my past life or something because I really feel connected to Malay traditional music and dance. I love it but there was little opportunity to learn these dances in my time. At school, we did some dancing – like in taridra (dance-drama performances) – but we never had actual lessons. We just learnt the steps but not about the dance. Nowadays, people have many opportunities,” says Koo.
When Koo left Kelantan to go to university (she attended Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), life sort of took over and she found that she didn’t have much time to devote to her passion. Work, and raising her two boys, took precedence and although she’d still dance in her free time at home, she never pursued it further.
Until her retirement.
“When I was in my 50s and my children were all grown up, I decided that I wanted to go back to doing what I like – dancing. I worked as a teacher for two years and then an editor and translator but I decided to stop and do freelance work so I would have more time.
“I started to get involved in supporting cancer survivors through the National Cancer Society – I would train them in dancing to perform at fundraising events and so on. I started a Malay dance group with them.
“I wanted to teach them Malay dance because it is beautiful and something different. Usually when you go to events, the performances are always either Zumba or line dancing.
“I wanted something that had more aesthetic value. I thought we could do something better than Zumba which is basically a form of exercise, not a dance. And as luck would have it, MBPJ came in to help us with training, choreography, costumes and makeup. They sort of adopted us. I did this for six or seven years,” she says.
Koo says that even though she’d attended a few short classes in Malay dance “taught by some UPSI (Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris) students as part of their course”, she was operating by instinct and from steps she’d learnt and practised on her own.
“I never took any lessons until my mentor, Khairul Azhar Mokhtar, took me under his wing. That’s when I actually went for a proper course,” she shares.
Khairul Azhar is a dancer and choreographer who founded Nyala Dance Theatre in 2010. Their paths crossed in 2020, when the country was going through the movement control order period because of the pandemic.
Pandemic dance experience
As unlikely as it may seem, it was when everyone was locked at home during the MCO that Koo’s dance dreams came true.“Can you believe it? When everyone was cooped up indoors during the pandemic, that’s when my dancing took off,” she laughs. “It was during the MCO in 2020. I think all these professional dancers were so restless and so they started all these challenges online.
“Khairul Azhar posted an #Inangchallenge online: He danced the Inang with his team and then invited Malaysians to take part in the challenge by posting videos of themselves dancing the Inang, a Malay traditional dance, online.
“Like many other Malaysians, I took part. I wasn’t doing anything much at home, anyway. I sent him my video about a month or so after the challenge was announced. I didn’t think much would come out of it. I thought that he’d just keep it aside ... after all, it’s a video of an old lady dancing,” she recalls.
But apparently, Khairul Azhar was impressed and he posted it on social media and the post went viral, with more than 100,000 views.
“Yes, it went viral! I think no one has seen a Chinese aunty dancing a Malay dance. I started to get some attention from news agencies and online portals.
“After that, he took me in. I attended his course which was a three-month course where he taught not just dance movements but also about the histories of the different dances and the stories surrounding them.
“It was a proper course, like you would learn if you were getting a diploma or something. All the other participants in my batch were professional dancers and I was the only old lady there.
“It really wasn’t easy and, many times, I thought I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t have much self-confidence in my ability. But I learnt. I even did a video with him last Hari Raya and that too went viral, with more than 275,000 likes!” she says. Khairul Azhar mentored Koo and even encouraged her not just to keep on dancing but to share her knowledge with others. And that’s exactly what Koo is doing – teaching traditional Malay dance to senior citizens.
Dancing in their golden years
Every Wednesday, at the Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus experimental theatre, Koo teaches traditional Malay dance to a group of seniors. Part of a collaboration between Seniors Aloud (a community of seniors that started online) and U3A Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus, the dance classes take the students through different types of Malay dances, such as Inang, Zapin and Joget.
Some of the students have had some experience with dancing decades ago, while others joined Koo’s classes to learn something new and to have fun, make new friends and keep their bodies moving and their minds alert.
“Traditional Malay dance is perfect for seniors because it invigorates their bodies and minds,” says Koo. “And the costumes are so sopan and suitable for people of all ages and body shapes. I mean, my body has changed and I can’t be wearing a ballerina costume now. But Malay dance costumes like baju kurung and kebaya look beautiful on everyone,” says Koo.
She admits that while not everyone is a natural dancer, everybody can learn the steps and have fun doing so.
“I really want to teach seniors because there is very little opportunity for them to learn Malay dance. Of course, they can join open workshops but that means they would have to learn alongside younger people or, like I did, with professional dancers. It isn’t ideal. There are no classes just for seniors and, these days, teaching seniors is what gives me satisfaction,” she says.
Koo speaks fluent Malay to describe and instruct her students – about 15 or so were in class last week – and she patiently corrects their form and steps as they go about the basic choreography she is teaching them.
She’s firm, at times, but mostly she cajoles them into repeating the movements again and again until they’ve picked it up. With music playing from her music app on her tablet, she’s created a safe space for seniors to let go of all inhibitions and dance.
What her students say
“This is my first time learning the Inang dance. I’ve taken a one-month long class on Joget with Soo Ming but this is my first class on Inang. I am not getting the rhythm yet.
“Soo Ming is so graceful and I am trying to copy her gracefulness but as this is my first class, I will excuse myself,” says K.Y. Lee, 77 who lives in Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur.
Choy Soo Ngoh, 65, from Taman Desa in KL, says she joined Koo’s classes out of curiosity.
“I didn’t know the meaning of Inang and I wanted to know more about the dance and the culture. As a Malaysian, I want to know more about Malay culture,” she says.
Although she was a dancer in her school days, 66-year-old Millie Tan says that she’s out of touch now and is hoping to get back into it.
“Interestingly, I thought Malay dance is just Joget and so, when I saw the list of different dances on Soo Ming’s list, I thought, ‘Why not (learn)?’ I was a school dancer but now all keras (stiff) already and I will try my best to get back into form,” says Tan.
Yvonne Chua, 61, says that she joined the class to learn new (dance) skills that she can put into practice at the annual dinner and dance organised by the Peranakan Association of Selangor of which she is a member.
“I grew up in a kampung and was exposed to Joget and all that but I never had the chance to learn,” says Chua.
Koo hopes to form a Malay dance troupe comprising only seniors and to recruit students from her classes to be part of her group.
“I want to form the first Malay dance group of seniors in the country. We have a lot of senior programmes that will need performers and we will be the first to come up with this. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time but it’s difficult to recruit dancers of my age. I have many friends but they don’t share my passion,” she says.
In between her classes, Koo continues to attend workshops on dance by Khairul Azhar to improve her skill and knowledge. She also takes part in dance performances.
“When I perform, I am in my element,” she says. She is still often the oldest in the class and on stage in performances. But it doesn’t faze her. “I just want the ilmu. I want to learn and to impart what I learn to these seniors. And I will form my group of senior dancers soon,” she concludes.
To find out more, contact Koo at 019-2288 377.
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