By Brittany Mendez, news staff
Northeastern’s Vietnamese Student Association, or NUVSA, brought dancer Anthony Lee to the Fenway Center last week for a Q&A and dance workshop. Lee is a dancer, choreographer and co-founder of Kinjaz, a dance crew that appeared on the all-star season of America’s Best Dance Crew. The group secured the runner-up spot and today runs a dance studio in California called “The Dojo.”
“We work with all of the other Asian orgs to bring in a guest speaker and VSA decided to bring in Anthony Lee this year,” said Vicky Nguyen, a third-year health science major and NUVSA member who helped coordinate the event.
Dance studios around the world have invited Lee to teach classes. His busy schedule made it difficult for the coordinators to contact him, but their persistence and connections from his previous visit were helpful.
“At first I reached out to Vinh Nguyen, another member of Kinjaz,” said fifth-year nursing major Jackie Nguyen. “First he didn’t reply, then I reached out to Anthony again and he sent a really nice email saying that he was super interested and would love to come back and remembered his time here.”
The coordinators emphasized they brought Lee to campus because his conversation would help create a space for dialogue in the Asian-American community. His workshop was also a rare opportunity for many students to learn from a famous professional dancer. During the Q&A portion of the event, Lee focused on his experiences as an Asian-American dancer. He highlighted the stereotypes he faced for pursuing a career in entertainment.
Anthony Lee comes from a Chinese-Vietnamese American family. His parents immigrated to California while fleeing the Vietnamese War. He mentioned that his family is culturally Vietnamese, and he did not get to truly embrace his Chinese heritage until his recent tour in China.
Fourth-year industrial engineering major, Noah Hizon, expressed his admiration for Lee’s comments and experiences.
“He spoke a lot of truth within the dance community, within the Asian community and he was realistic and that is something that I appreciated,” Hizon said after the show.
Lee’s talk focused on his rise to stardom, love for dance and dance’s impact on the world. He gave the audience advice about following their dreams and the struggles faced in the Asian-American community. He was overall optimistic and concluded his session by telling the audience not to dwell on the things that cannot be changed and contribute to making the future better.
You can find more information about the dance crew at https://www.kinjaz.com/partners or follow Anthony Lee on Instagram @_anthonylee_ for his latest updates.
