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About us


About us

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About us


About us

 

About the group

The Boise Traditional Chinese Dance Group was started in 2004 as a cultural enrichment after-school program for the Boise Modern Chinese School. Over the years, the program has grown from one dance class to four dance classes and a performance group including both adult and children dancers, while still under the Boise Modern Chinese School. The two missions of the group are

  1. To serve the Chinese American community by maintaining its cultural heritage, and
  2. To introduce Chinese culture to American society through dance performances.

 

About the founder

Hua Yan is the founder and head instructor of the Boise Traditional Chinese Dance Group. She received the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts in 2005, 2007 and 2009. Besides teaching dancing, Hua has also taught the Chinese language in the Chinese school for 10 years. She was named a “Rotary distinguished Educator” in recognition of exceptional teaching and inspirational guidance of the students of Boise, Idaho by the Rotary Club of Boise in 2013.

Dancer by night, Scientist by day

In addition to her dance work, Hua works full-time as a molecular scientist in plant science for J. R. Simplot Company. She received her BS, MS and PhD degrees in plant biology at Wuhan University, China, where she won multiple national awards for her research. Hua did post-doctoral research in the Ohio State University, where she became a permanent U.S. resident through the outstanding scientist category. 

In Hua's own words

Giving back to my community means a lot to me.

During my dance activities, I am involved in teaching, dancing, choreography, costume design, and performance. I have improved my leadership and management skills. I can then bring my newfound skills and knowledge back to the community, to help in a more effective way. It is a good opportunity to make new friends and show appreciation to the community and the people who helped me.
 
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Instructors


Instructors and Staff

Instructors


Instructors and Staff

Julia Chen Director

Julia was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. She started dancing at a very young age with an emphasis in ballet and Chinese cultural dance until middle school. When her daughter began showing interest in dancing, she started dancing again. She joined Boise Chinese Traditional Dance group in 2008. She has also enjoyed teaching grade school kids’ dance class at Boise Modern Chinese School and Gateway Elementary School. Julia works as Director of Development of NCS Technology.  Being able to enjoy time with fellow dancers and dance with her own daughter is one of the best way to keep her active of her almost full schedule.


Xueqing Xiong

Dance Teacher: ADULT

Xueqing Xiong earned an Royal Academic of Dance certification: level intermediate. Has more than 16 years of ballet dancing experience and 4 years of traditional Chinese dance dancing experience. 




Ruby Jiang

dance teacher: children Level 2

Runze Jiang (Ruby) was born in Qingdao, China. She has been trained in jazz, ballet, and traditional Chinese dance since the age of three. When she moved to Idaho, she trained in tap, hip hop, and modern dance while continuing in jazz and ballet. At the age of 12, she joined Impact Dance Center’s elite show team as a competitive dancer until the age of 18.

In 2008 Ruby joined the youngest dance class at the Boise Modern Chinese School taught by Julia. As her passion for traditional Chinese dance grew, she eventually joined the performance team in 2014. As the dance classes grew in number at the Chinese school, Ruby started to teach the intermediate class in 2017 as well as teaching the children’s performance team in 2018

She is currently a Biology major at Boise State University looking to pursue a second degree in Nursing. Ruby thoroughly enjoys teaching kids as many of the girls on her team were her students since the age of 6. She hopes to spread the joy of traditional Chinese dance to many with the talents of her students and her team.


Fang Liang 

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Yan Zhou

Costume Manager

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Alumni


Alumni

Alumni


Alumni

Cynthia Le

 choreographer | soloist | dance teacher

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Cynthia was born and raised in Boise, Idaho. She started dancing when she was 5 years old. Throughout the years, she trained in many styles of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip hop. She began learning traditional Chinese dance in 2004 under the instruction of Hua Yan. In 2009, as the traditional Chinese dance program grew, Cynthia began teaching the Intermediate Chinese dance class. During high school, she also volunteered her time teaching an after-school Chinese dance class to kindergarten-2nd graders at Gateway Elementary School. Cynthia combined her passion for traditional Chinese dance and her technical training in western styles to choreograph numerous solos that were a unique fusion of the unique styles, which she performed for the community and at dance competitions. Cynthia is now studying computer science and engineering and minoring in dance at Santa Clara University, where she is continuing to share Chinese culture through dance by performing at many campus events and teaching dances to other students. 


Joanne Su

Dance teacher: youth Performing group instructor

Jinjun Su (Joanne) was born in China, Anhui province. She started dancing when she was in kindergarten. She has been trained in a few different styles of dance in China, such as Latin, Jazz and Chinese youth dance. Jinjun won some dance competitions in China. She began taking Chinese traditional dance classes in 2011 with the Boise Traditional Chinese Dance group. Since 2012, she has been volunteering to teach kids dance in the Boise Modern Chinese School and within our dance group. Right now she is an accounting major at Boise State University. She has enjoyed performing at the variety events in Boise. She loves kids and has patience to become their friends. 


Megan Wong

Soloist | Dance Teacher

Megan Wong was born and raised in Boise, Idaho and is currently a medical student at University of Washington. She started taking dance lessons at age 5 at Studio C in Eagle Idaho and has been selected as a member of the competitive team since then. Megan joined Boise Chinese Traditional Chinese Dance Group as soon as she was eligible to take lessons and was chosen to be an apprentice of master Hua Yan in 2009, receiving grants from the Idaho Commission of the Arts. Megan loves dance. She takes lesson, practices, performs, competes and teaches dance year round. She has won many dance scholarships and has been teaching Chinese traditional dance since 6th grade.  


Bee Le

Manager

Bee has been volunteering her time to the Boise Traditional Chinese Dance group since 2004, when her daughter, Cynthia, began dancing with the group. Although she does not participate in the dancing, Bee has been a crucial part in the success of the dance group. Through the years, she has taken the measurements of all dancers and made, tailored, or ordered many of the costumes for the dance groups. In addition to managing the hundreds of costumes, she also helps organize class registration and helps make sure all performances go smoothly. 

Mongolian style costumes hand constructed by Bee

Mongolian style costumes hand constructed by Bee


Zhou YuLe

Dance teacher: children level 1

Yule was born in Chongqing, China. She trained in gymnastics from when she was 6 years old until she was 10. After, she joined her school's dance group where she learned and performed traditional Chinese dance until she graduated from high school from China. In 2012 she moved to Boise and studied at  Boise State University to earn her Elementary Education Bachelor Degree. The next year she joined the Boise Traditional Chinese dance group. Since 2013, she has been taking dance classes at Boise Modern Chinese School, and training in Chinese dance with the Boise Traditional Chinese group. With this group, she has been able to pursue her passion for dance and fall in love with it again. She has performed with the group many times in the last few years. She will begin teaching basic Chinese dance at the Boise Modern Chinese School in Fall of 2015. Yule is excited to try her best to help more people learn about Chinese culture.