image credit: Lynn Zhang
Lynn Zhang, 26, is from Beijing in China. She owns and teaches at Krew Studio, a Chinese dance studio in London. She graduated from Beijing Dance Academy.
What made you want to set up the dance studio?
The biggest reason for setting up the dance studio is my love of dance. Dance has been with me since childhood. It’s been a part of my life that I can’t let go of, so making it my career came naturally. While I lived in Manchester, a friend of mine noticed that there was a vacancy in the market, so we established a dance studio together. However, because of some reasons, I was forced to leave which felt like hitting rock bottom. Then, I came to London and realized that there is a bigger market for them here, especially due to the high number of international students. So I built this dance studio in London.
How is your studio different from local dance studios?
The difference is that our course content focuses more on Chinese dance and cultural heritage. We also provide bilingual teaching to meet the needs of students from all backgrounds. People come to our dance studio not only for fitness and entertainment but also to experience different dance cultures. We have special classes such as zero basic classes, children’s classes and K-pop dance cover classes. In fact, at the beginning of the establishment, I mainly focused on K-pop, because it had just begun to fire up among the global youth and most people were eager to try it. It was also helpful that K-pop choreography is better than other kinds of dance to start learning and students see faster results.
Who are the three teachers for the master classes that Krew Studio just held at the beginning of March? Why did you think of inviting them?
For the master classes we invited three teachers: KimMing, Amy, and XiaoDong, they are all from a famous dance studio, HelloDance, in China. HelloDance has won two China Championships (2016 and 2017) in the World of Dance competition and went to the Global Finals in Los Angeles the same year in 2016 and won the Best Theme Award. These three teachers occupy a very important position in HelloDance Studio and have a very high popularity on social media in China, which is beloved by our students. The reason for inviting teachers from China is partly because of the convenience of contacting them, and partly because we want our Chinese street dance to go out of the country and be seen by the world.
What have you gained from the master classes?
As a dance teacher, I feel that the professionalism of the three teachers was inspiring. They have very good control over the pace of the class, and they communicate with the students constantly to answer their questions. As their boss, I also asked the teachers I’ve hired to attend the classes and I am sure the share the same feeling. This event has definitely helped us gain some popularity in the UK. When we first announced that we would be inviting these three teachers, we had countless inquiries students across the country. I was shocked to hear that we even had students fly in from Spain on the day of the London courses. Since then, we have been able to open these master classes in cities like Leeds, Birmingham, and Manchester.