shan-Yee Poon School of Performing Arts Artistic Director Shan-Yee Poon

Shan-Yee Poon

Artistic Director, Shan-Yee Poon, trained at the prestigious Royal Ballet School in London where she spent six years of intensive study. Ms. Poon graduated one year in advance and was immediately accepted as a principal dancer at the State Theater in Gelsenkirchen, West Germany. Ms. Poon performed in repertoire ranging from classical ballet to contemporary dance. She appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Opera Ballet, the Peninsula Ballet, the Ruth Langridge Dance Company and Theater Ballet of San Francisco.

Ms. Poon has choreographed original works and re-staged various ballets, including Coppelia, Elite Syncopations, Tales of Beatrix Potter, Giselle, Ballerina Graziosa, Beautiful A La Mu Han, Fung Yang Flower Drum Song, Golden Gate Opera's Hansel and Gretel, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Stars and Stripes. In addition, as Vice President of Pear Garden in the West, a Chinese-American Performing Arts organization, Ms. Poon choreographed, produced and danced the leading role in the epic Chinese folk tale, the Monkey and the Spider Spirits.

Over the last 26 years, Ms. Poon has been a dance educator and mentor to numerous students across the Bay Area. She has dedicated her life and talent to touching and transforming the lives of many young dancers. Throughout her service Shan-Yee Poon School of Performing Arts has been a landmark for families and played a great role in enrichment of children in the San Francisco Community. On Shan-Yee Poon School of Performing Arts' 25th Anniversary, and in honor of the schools' outstanding service to the citizens of San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco declared May 17 the Shan-Yee Poon School of Performing Arts Day in San Francisco.