By Jane Ng

A PRIMARY Two class in South View Primary School learnt about the origin of Indian dance and tried some Bhangra moves yesterday.

And in the next few weeks, the pupils will learn four Indian dances - two folk, one modern and one classical - under the school's merged music and physical education programme.

Janice Wong, eight, is finding it fun. 'I like wearing the bangles during the dance. I learnt that every culture dances in different ways,' she said.

She will also be taught other dance forms, including modern, Malay and hip-hop, in the next few years.

Dance is big in the Choa Chu Kang school, which has bagged the Programme for School-Based Excellence award for dance this year. This comes with a $150,000 grant over three years so that the school can hone its niche area.

Thirteen other primary schools and eight secondary schools were also given the grant this year.

Since the programme was launched in 2005 to encourage diversity in schools and create chances for students to develop their talents, 155 schools have been recognised for their respective areas of excellence.

South View's principal Jenny Yeo said dance has boosted her pupils' confidence and improved their coordination. 'The children really enjoy their lessons,' she said.

The grant will go towards building a dance studio and paying for its pupils' trips overseas for competitions. The school now uses a small music room for the dance classes, and its mother tongue teachers have been doubling as dance instructors. With the grant, specialist instructors can be brought in to raise the standard of instruction, said Mrs Yeo.

The school is also planning a tie-up with a Beijing dance academy so its pupils can go for immersions there and be certified in dance.

'Overseas competitions will expose the pupils to the best in the world. I think we have the potential. If you expose children to all these when they are young, they can become world-class too,' she said.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education Masagos Zulkifli, who announced this year's award winners when he visited South View yesterday, was gratified that the programme was open to all pupils, not just the talented ones.

He also noted that dance and culture were infused into its lessons and had become 'a common denominator' uniting the pupils of different races.

'The idea is to create different peaks of excellence in these schools. We don't want to be known just for excellence in academic achievements, but to excel in different ways,' he said.

Noting that the school won a gold with honours in a dance competition in South Korea last year, he said: 'We should be proud that our pupils in a heartland like Choa Chu Kang are able to compete with the best in the world.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.