Behind the sultry grooves of youth hip-hop group New Revolving Age is the confidence and vision of one woman, who is subtle yet genuinely in love with her students. Keann Chong takes a peek into Ann’s world and her labour of love.

You can hear the sound of squeaking soles across the dance floor as members of Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s New Revolving Age (NRA) pop their bodies to the beats of hip-hop. Chests heaving, they run through their moves for what seems like the umpteenth time under the relentless direction of their choreographer Ann Tan, 32, who has helmed NRA’s choreography and training for the past 5 years.

The slick lines and jazz-fused lyrical hip-hop style that the club is known for? All her.

It is a weekend training session at a studio and although the teenagers are tired, no one complains because of just one reason: they are inevitably drawn to Ann’s tireless fervour, and she to theirs.

And this is what makes Ann’s NRA so special. In 2004, at the request of the previous director Yutaki Ong, she was chosen to take over the dance group after she led a class that turned out to be an audition that she did not know about. When asked to mentor and lead the club, Ann readily agreed and never looked back.

“I’ve always wanted to create a family,” Ann says, smiling as she talks about her unquestionably favourite subject. “The first moment I saw them, I thought they were so cute, such a bunch of young kids. They really reminded me of my own university days when I was trying to juggle dance and school.”

NRA had only 8 to 10 members back then, which made it very easy for the National Technological University (NTU) Business Management graduate to befriend each one of them, and teach them in her own personal way.

“I would treat each of them like little brothers and sisters, which was really fun because I was the youngest in my family and suddenly I had eight to ten younger siblings!” she recalls with a laugh. “We went to Paris together once and spent a lot of time outside the studios just hanging out, talking on MSN, or talking about problems and BGR together. I want to know all the gossip, even now.”

5 years on, even with the club having since burgeoned into one of the hottest co-curricular activities in NP with 300 members this year and 500 showing up for auditions alone, Ann still tries her best to get to know every single NRA freshman or at the very least, learn their names. She talks to them about anything under the sun and gets much more involved with her dancers than the average mentor.

“I want what’s best for them, not just in dance,” Ann says. “It’s important that they be happy.”

Rule #1: Learn to love yourself
“The rules I have in NRA are very simple,” Ann explains. “Besides being happy, everyone must dance with their own identity. All of my students will be known for their own style, and must be called by their own names – I refuse for them to be known just as ‘Ann’s students’.”

“To me, that is the most important, because dance is about expressing your own feelings and having freedom of expression,” she continues. “The point is for you to become better than me. If not, there’s no point teaching. I always tell my students that their best teachers are themselves.”

This is why the ballet, jazz and hip-hop-trained dancer places much emphasis on “the basics”, and on having her students learn how to “feel and understand” the different muscles in their body. This expands their options by allowing them to pick up any dance style in the world without the limitations of the physical body.

“How can a writer not know his alphabet?” Ann muses. “Only after you have learnt your alphabet and understood how to write properly with proper grammar and tenses will you then start to let your own identity flow into your writing, developing your style as you continue to write.”

“I always use analogies like these to teach my students,” laughs the self-professed philosopher. “I try to relate. If they like math, I’ll use examples from math! If not they will say Ann very cheem, what talking her!”

Never let go
Unfortunately, words of wisdom may be all Ann has left to impart to the next generations of the NRA family. A back injury and a hectic work schedule, on top of recently becoming a newlywed, have resulted in less time spent with her students. Ann has already begun cutting back to prepare for her eventual retirement from the club, relying more on NRA alumni and seniors to run the show instead.

Will she miss them? Definitely. In fact, she already does so.

“They’re all my children,” Ann – or Mummy, as she’s called affectionately by her charges – says after a pause. “I’ve watched them grow every step of the way, and I still feel very happy whenever I see any of them.”

“Their love for dance and for each other, their creativity, their energy… Their tantrums even,” she continues. “I love every single thing about all of them, my energizer batteries.”

“But I’ll never really leave, you know?” she says optimistically. “This is not a break-up. As long as the relationship is around, I will be around.”

“NRA – they really are my life. It isn’t just me who loves them, they love me too.”