Yuening (Jaelynn) Zhang, is an undergraduate in the class of 2028 from Beijing, China, is the president of DKU Street Dance Club.Street dance has long been an important part of her life. In the countless times of reflection and improvement, she gradually built up her self-confidence. DKU Street Dance Varsity Team is not only a place for her to improve dancing skills, but also a platform leading to new friends and boarder opportunities.
Yuening (Jaelynn) Zhang, class of 2028
Q:What do you think is the most attractive part of street dance?
In my point of view, the most intriguing part is the process of struggle and improvement in street dance. Dance is more than just doing the right moves with music. It has the inevitable process of performing. To be fully prepared for showcasing one’s own understanding of the dance, dancers will have to choose which muscles and how much strength will be used. In other words, they have to optimize their stamina allocation so that they don’t have to always experience fighting their willpower to do the moves when out of breath. While the need to perform forces dancers to practice, practicing also involves looking at oneself honestly in the camera, in mirrors, and being open to feedback and criticism. To improve, you need to be able to handle this pressure. Finding the right balance between being confident in yourself and being willing to reflect and improve is challenging, yet crucial.
Wonderful photo of everyone dancing
Q:What motivated you to join DKU street dance varsity? What do you think of the team?
Street Dance Club has been a very essential part of my life since I came to DKU, and I wish it to be more recognized by DKUers and non-DKUers. I actively participated in 6 dances in the 2024-2025 academic year’s annual dance festival. So afterwards, with my passion and sense of responsibility, I ran for the position of club president. During summer break, I prepared materials reflecting our club’s achievements of the year and eligibility for becoming a varsity team. After months of application and communication with our responsible sports club coordinator, Tony, when we were experiencing a change in the familiar coach and advisor, the team was finally founded in the second session of Fall 2025. There is no reason not to join it, as I really expect to lead our team through the very first launching period because our new coach is not professional in street dance but in a broader concept of dance, which includes ballet and contemporary.
This is a team, and trainings turned out to be far better than I expected. We got a high proportion of fresh blood (freshmen) included in varsity and clubs. All members are easy-going and hold a great passion for dancing and improving themselves. After a few trainings, the team quickly gets familiarized with each other. The trust and responsibility in each of us brought us higher efficiency when it comes to rehearsing. I believe that’s what allowed us to get a new choreography by coach’s friend Jun done learning and rehearsing in 2 months and secure a satisfying rank in our competition on January 11.
Photo of diligent rehearsal
Q:Have you ever encountered any difficulties during training? If so, please give a specific example and explain.
There are definitely difficulties during long-term training. The most significant problem might be the punctuality of members. This problem appears in most members at the beginning of our team’s launch, including me. Once I found that the lateness of one member will possibly lead to a 30-minute lateness due to the time for warm-up and entering the highly efficient working state during practices. I talked to our coach about this, and during winter break, she helped to draft the policy of participating in varsity, which takes effect after 2026 begins. Now the problem is perfectly solved.
Q:In the “Amazing Dance Student” competition that happened a few weeks ago, DKU street dance varsity claimed the highest prize. Can you briefly share about this experience and explain what this victory means to both you and the team?
This is a brand-new experience for the team. The learning process is different from all my past experiences. For all the previous dances, we learned dances that were once performed by others. Though the speed will be faster, the feel of the moves is not tailored to any of us, and there will not be much room to adjust the moves to help us finish the dance better. However, this choreography is by a mature choreographer who is also our coach’s friend. We communicated a lot to make the dance look better on stage and to maximize our capabilities.
The victory is proof that our team can collaborate really well. And it was the first prize we won in 2026, the courage and confidence it offered to our newly founded team is massive.
The final group photo of everyone in the competition
Q:In your dancing experience, are there any specific people who helped/impressed/motivated you the most?
I started dancing from a very young age and started trying street dance roughly 8 years ago. But honestly speaking, I haven’t progressed in the first 3 years of dancing because I’m only obsessed with compliments from my friends who know little about dancing, lacking judgment and advice from more advanced dancers because of the lock-down of pandemic lockdown. So, I began to post some dances on social platforms. For the first time, I was exposed to more subjective data and comments. That’s why I don’t think there is really a very specific person who influenced me the most. It’s more about becoming mentally mature to prepare myself for self-judgement and criticism while staying confident enough to stand on the stage to make more attempts and strive for improvements.
Q:Do you think dancing helps you succeed beyond dancing itself?
I would say dancing has shaped my life in many ways. Back in the days, when I was not dancing a lot, I usually chose painting or calligraphy as my way of leisure, which were both still and slow. While I cannot stay very focused or motivated in repetitive exercises like jogging, dancing saved my poor resilience in sports. To polish the texture of moves, I become more into weight training. And to dance longer, I was convinced to train my stamina by running or doing HIIT training. When it comes to a more direct impact on me, it will be the sense of responsibility I established while dancing. Once, when I was rehearsing with my friends, I found that the thing pulling me back from attaining perfectness in moves is my shortage of patience after learning the dance for a long time, and a sense of responsibility to not let down my teammates who trust me in finishing it perfectly. All in all, I sincerely think dancing helped me to become a better person.
Photo of everyone shining brightly on stage
准备好迎接自己的挑战了吗？
