Skiing, sleeping, traveling, or watching TV are among the many different ways winter break is spent; however, Sophomore Kate Wong spends her break dancing in Taiwan. The story doesn’t start with winter break though. It starts with when she started dancing at the age of 4.

“I wanted to start dancing because my sister started to dance before me, and I was influenced by her actions,” Wong said. “But also I love how through dancing I’m able to express myself, and it’s a way for me to be active.”

Wong was given the opportunity to travel with Christina Yeh Dance Studio, which she has attended for the past ten years.

“I went to Taiwan to dance for an event called God Meets Buddha with the Guan Shan Buddha museum,” Wong said. “The event was to represent different religions, unify each other and celebrate our cultures.”

To celebrate her Chinese culture, Wong performed multiple dances.

“We performed a golden ring dance, for our actual event, [which] is a Miao ethnic group dance,” Wong said.

They performed other cultural dances during dinners, such as handkerchief and peacock dances.

“The peacock dances, we don’t use any props within it, and it’s an expression through your body by being very elegant,” Wong said. “we also use a handkerchief and twirl it around on our fingers.”

Since God Meets Buddha was a new experience for Wong, she had to learn to deal with the nerves that came with such a large-scale performance. While on stage Wong was surrounded by a larger crowd than expected, the stage was a large expanse beneath them, and cameras were everywhere she looked.

“It was a very nerve wracking dance for me. I’ve never performed in such a big space with such a big audience,” Wong said.

Even with all her nerves, the experience helped Wong with her dance.

“It put me in a situation where I had to perform in front of a very large crowd, so I had to do larger movements so that everyone could see,” Wong said. “I had to perform it so that it looked enjoyable for everyone and showcased my culture.”

After the dance had concluded, Wong’s nerves were replaced with a new wave of emotions.

“We were cheered on by a [round of applause] from the audience, but then we also immediately were hoarded by people to take pictures with,” Wong said. “I had a sense of accomplishment that I was able to make people’s day and have them see something new.”

Other groups from America also made the trip to Taiwan to perform.

“There was a Native American group. What was really cool about seeing them is that everyone in that group came from different states. They all had their different tribal dances that were super cool to watch,” Wong said. “Another group from Austin, Texas did a hip hop dance that one of their kids choreographed, which was super cool to watch as well.”

As another part of the event, they had family members, former students, and college students join them on the stage to be taught basic dance movements.

“The moms and college students had umbrellas and the dad had gongfu fans. They all had to wear costumes too,” Wong said.

Besides the event and days spent doing performances, Wong also experienced the touristy side of Taiwan, where she visited various cities and had a variety of foods.

“One of my favorite things was the sky lanterns at Jiufen where you can write your wishes on these really big sky lanterns, and you would light it up into the sky,” Wong said.

As part of her cultural experience, Wong and her sister tried Taiwan’s public transportation too.

“In Taiwan, there are still cars, but they mostly use buses and underground transportation, which are super handy,” Wong said. “I loved being able to go on them because my sister and I went on them by ourselves, without our parents, so it was an independent situation that I got to learn in.”

The experience left a mark on Wong giving her a chance to learn about other cultures and grow her love of dance.

“It made me love dancing a lot more because I’m able to do such cool experiences and go out with my group to perform the things that we love to do,” Wong said.

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