VietNamNet Bridge – Even the most talented dancers can look like amateurs if they have never received proper training.

Graceful: Ballet dancer Tran Hoang Yen of the HCM City Ballet and Symphony Orchestra. — VNS Photo

Unfortunately, that happens far too often in Viet Nam, says ballet dancer Tran Hoang Yen, deputy head of the HCM City Ballet, Symphony Orchestra and Opera’s ballet troupe.  

"I want to make the ballet stage different by lending my experience and skill to my younger colleagues," said the 27-year-old Yen, considered to be one of the city’s few professional ballet dancers.

Yen, who also works as a lecturer for the HCM City School of Dance (HSD), said she hopes Vietnamese dancers will begin to have more performance opportunities.

“I spent more than 12 years at the HSD, one of the region’s leading dance schools, before working as a dancer,” she added.

Yen has also joined different training courses at home and abroad because the courses focused on modern repertory, jazz dancing, and yoga, which helped the dancers can improve themselves.  

Yen was the key dancer in numerous dance programmes and ballets such as Carmen, Swan Lake, Petrushka and The Nutcracker. Her performance left a very strong impression on audiences.

“Yen faced challenges in ballet, an art that is not popular with local youth. She has tried her best in both staging and teaching to overcome difficulties to introduce the art to people,” said Meritorious Artist and choreographer Tran Ly Ly of the deputy head of the HSD.

Yen still keeps to a strict regime of several hours of practice a day. "I want to follow in my teachers’ footsteps, showing my young students how to become professional ballet dancers.”

Unlike Yen, contemporary dancer Pham Lich spent several different works before becoming a dancer.

"I love dancing. I dreamed of becoming a dancer although no one in my family supported me. I thought it would be too difficult to continue," said Lich, winner of the Thu Thach Cung Buoc Nhay (So You Think You Can Dance) in 2013, a Vietnamese version of the same name American TV show.

"I looked like a bird without a nest. That limited my energy,” she recalled.

Lich decided to study dance at a cultural house before joining amateur dance troupes.

After working with dancers, Lich said that she understood that the most important thing for a dancer is to dance — anywhere and anytime. "No one and no event can limit my passion for dancing."

 In 2010, she performed for UDG, a professional dance troupe led by Vietnamese-Canadian dancer and choreographer John Huy Tran.

“Working for the UDG made me feel very proud of my work. I’m a dancer and I worked very confidently next to my peers who have better working conditions," said Lich.

Lich, 25, now works as a freelance dancer, performing in many concerts, TV shows, cultural and art programmes and festivals.

Lich’s peer, dancer and choreographer Huynh Men, said: “I like working with young dancers because they impart their energy to their partners.”

Men studied dance with skilled artists of the HSD. She has performed in many concerts launched by pop stars such as Noo Phuoc Thinh, Thuy Tien and Thanh Thao.

She plans to be part of a dance programme created by American dancer Sabra Johnson next month.

“I was an amateur. I believe that only training can help dancers improve their skills,” said Men, adding that she wanted to open a dance class for children and teenagers.

VNS