{"id":12245,"date":"2025-10-30T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/?p=12245"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:50:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T05:50:34","slug":"soaring-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2025\/10\/30\/soaring-ambitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Soaring Ambitions"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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WHO SHE IS<\/strong>:<\/strong><\/em> Ms Megan Lau (Arts & Social Sciences \u201925) is the lead female swing performer in House of Dancing Water, the resident circus production at City of Dreams, Macau.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A beautiful princess is held captive by an evil queen until a fisherman \u2014 washed up on the shores of this magical kingdom \u2014\u00a0comes to the rescue, braving great heights and deep waters. Since late August, audiences of House of Dancing Water<\/em> at City of Dreams in Macau have been watching Singaporean performer Ms Megan Lau in the lead female swing role of Princess Aani.<\/p>

In April, Ms Lau was conferred a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree with Distinction. But her life at present hardly fits the conventional narrative of a young graduate\u2019s path. While her peers may be busy with internships or new jobs, the 24-year-old is a performer in House of Dancing Water<\/em>, a circus spectacle that features breathtaking acrobatics and dance performed in and over water.<\/p>

\u201cWe watched the show in 2014 and 2016, and I absolutely loved it,\u201d she said. As a 13-year-old, she declared to her mother that she wanted to be a \u2018water princess\u2019. When she saw the casting call for the show in June last year, it was like a dream come true. Ms Lau sent off her show reel \u2014 \u201cI was trying my luck\u201d \u2014 and quickly got a callback. By September 2024, she had been offered a role \u2014 she would train to be the water princess she wanted to be all those years ago.<\/p>

The fact that she was considering moving abroad for this job drew concern from her otherwise supportive mother. She recalled: \u201cMy mum said, \u2018Megan, don\u2019t be crazy. Why do you want to hang and fly left and right?\u2019 \u00a0Her hesitation came from a place of love and worry, but on the other hand, I don\u2019t think it came as a surprise to her that I wanted to do something like this.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Although the prospect was exciting, Ms Lau admitted it was a tough decision to make. \u201cIn Singapore, we\u2019re sort of ingrained to follow this road map of success,\u201d she said. \u201cTo veer off this road, you have to be willing to put in the hard work and be determined to lean into that fear \u2014 to not be afraid to find success in something less conventional.\u201d<\/p>

Once she made up her mind, there was no stopping Ms Lau. She joined the 80-person cast in October last year as an aerialist perched some 20 metres in the air. Although she had been a dancer all her life, there was a lot of learning and training to be done to perform in and out of water for the 100-minute show. To add to the challenge, Ms Lau had a fear of heights \u2014 one she quickly overcame.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Halfway through the semester in her Honours year, Ms Lau was on a plane to Macau. In an Instagram reel, she explained how she calculated every possibility: whether to graduate without honours, whether she could complete a thesis instead of modules. By \u201csheer grit or a miracle\u201d, she made it work: She dialled in for classes from her hotel room in Macau, corresponded regularly with her professors by email, flew back for classes on her days off and for her exams \u2014 all without breaking pace at her new job. This level of tenacity is what sets Ms Lau apart. And today, her mother and older brother, reassured of her safety, remain her biggest supporters. They flew to Macau for the premiere of her lead role.<\/p>

UNIVERSITY IN THE TIME OF COVID
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\u201cI was in the COVID batch of undergraduates; I enrolled in 2020,\u201d said Ms Lau. \u201cFor the first semester, we didn\u2019t step foot in university at all. All our lessons were online.\u201d This was challenging for a young woman who, by her own admission, \u201ccannot sit still\u201d. However, being a resident of Temasek Hall made all the difference. \u201cAt least I could make friends and be on campus. Though there were COVID restrictions, it made hall life and university life enjoyable,\u201d she shared. Ms Lau counts among her best memories of university the time in-person lessons resumed. \u201cTransitioning to real-life lessons was great,\u201d she recalled. \u201cWe had done all our intro classes online, and I was finally seeing my friends in person.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ms Lau was in the fourth cohort of the PPE department (Philosophy, Political Science and Economics) at FASS, which she chose because \u201cI wanted to do something in economics \u2014 it was my best subject.\u201d Prof Loy Hui Chieh (Arts & Social Sciences \u201998, MA \u201900), the head of PPE, was \u201ca figure any PPE student could turn to. He was on Telegram and in all our group chats,\u201d she remembered. \u201cIf I ran into any problem, he would respond with help.\u201d<\/p>

Being in a hall of residence fulfilled Ms Lau\u2019s other interests beyond academics. She credits Master of Temasek Hall Mr Victor Tan (Science \u201987, MSc \u201991) and Resident Fellow Mr Nisar Keshvani for creating \u201ca lovely community.\u201d<\/p>

Ms Lau was in the Temasek Hall dance club and its swimming team. She was also involved in the hall\u2019s yearly theatre production. \u201cI\u2019m someone who operates on a tight schedule,\u201d she admitted. \u201cBeing in hall and part of all the activities has shaped me in a way I didn\u2019t expect.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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FOLLOWING THE FLOW<\/strong><\/p>

That Ms Lau performs in a world-class aquatic show seems only natural if one were to take a peek into her background. She began dancing at the age of 5, when she passed by a ballet school in a shopping mall and asked her mother to sign her up for classes. She pursued ballet all the way through secondary school, before exploring other areas of dance like jazz and contemporary dance. She also took rhythmic gymnastics in primary school. \u201cDuring university, I worked as a freelance dancer. In 2021, I picked up aerial \u2014 to me it was a very natural flow,\u201d she added.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ms Lau is cognisant of the fact that this is not a long-term job. \u201cBeing an aerialist or doing any kind of physical job, you definitely can\u2019t do it forever, right? But for now, I\u2019m just really enjoying my time here in Macau. A lot of my fellow cast members have done other big shows, and I’m really enjoying training and learning from the people around me.\u201d<\/p>

She added that she has been very lucky that no one has really commented that she has \u2018wasted\u2019 her degree. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a waste at all,\u201d she stated. \u201cI think university is more like a whole package: going to school, building friendships, gaining education \u2014 these are like building systems I will take with me through life. It\u2019s essentially an experience that I will always carry with me. A degree is something that has shaped me \u2014 it\u2019s about the journey of learning.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ms Megan Lau (Arts & Social Sciences \u201925) is a high achiever, excelling both academically and in her role as a \u2018water princess\u2019 in House of Dancing Water, a circus show in Macau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":12246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12245"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12263,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12245\/revisions\/12263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}