Gladys Tay

Gladys Tay is a Singaporean DanceSport champion, coach, adjudicator, and institution builder whose competitive partnership with Shawn Tay helped establish Singapore as an international ballroom dancing hub. She grew up in a dance family—her parents, Steven and Vivien Kok, were professional dance champions—and began her formative work assisting at her father's school as a child, counting music for older students.

Tay's competitive partnership with Shawn Tay began in 1982. After early success, the couple travelled to England in 1984 for advanced training. Between 1982 and 1994, Shawn and Gladys won twenty international championship titles, including the 1985 Doris Lavelle Challenge Trophy in England and the 1990 Asian-Pacific Ballroom Dancing Championships in Korea. A Royal Albert Hall program documents the pair among Singapore's entrants at a major international ballroom event, providing archival confirmation of their standing in the global competitive circuit.

In 1986, Shawn and Gladys founded their Singapore academy to train dancers and develop the local DanceSport scene. That same period saw the establishment of the Lion City championship, which became a recurring international meeting point. The academy grew into a center for athlete development, national coaching, and event production across multiple championship fields.

After retiring from competition in 1994, Tay expanded her work as an adjudicator, national coach, and choreographer. Her honors include the WDSF President's Award in 2000 and the Singapore Sports Council Coach Recognition Award in 2007. In 2008, she chaired the jury for the Eurovision Dance Contest in Glasgow and received the Spirit of Enterprise Award with Shawn. She also served as dance consultant, instructor, and choreographer on the film *Dance of the Dragon*, making a cameo appearance as a judge.

Tay's screen and stage work extended DanceSport beyond competition into popular media and youth development. She judged Singapore's television program *The Dance Floor*, choreographed for ChildAid in 2010, and co-organized the WDSF World Latin Championship in Singapore in 2011, where she and Shawn also co-choreographed the Hyundai DanceSport Supermatch. Her continuing influence remains visible through the academy, its athlete-development programs, and the championship ecosystem built around her work as principal, national coach, adjudicator, and organizer.