DWC Ambassador Coco Liu on Beginning Dance as an Adult
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Have you ever wanted to try something new, but felt like you weren’t welcome to or as though your time to begin had passed? If so, you aren’t alone. There’s an unspoken assumption that as adults, we somehow know exactly what we enjoy doing and have all of our passions clearly defined. However, DWC Ambassador Coco Liu is here to tell you that it’s never too late to try something new, specifically with dance.
Coco began taking dance classes as an adult, but her admiration for the art form began as a child. Growing up in China, Coco’s mother would take her to see Russian ballet performances. She remembers being thoroughly engaged with the shows and learning to appreciate dance through being an audience member. Coco shares that she was an active kid, but didn’t enroll in dance classes because there weren’t many high-quality studios in her area. At age 15, after moving to the United States, Coco recalls constantly playing the game Just Dance on her host family’s Wii, continuing it into college with friends. “I remember playing for hours on that thing!” she says, as it helped cultivate her love for dance.
After graduating college, Coco was inspired to take her first ballet class after watching her best friend dance. She visited her friend in Utah and watched her perform the “Waltz of the Snowflakes” in The Nutcracker. Coco remembers being amazed by the performance, and immediately thinking she should try to dance herself. She researched studios in the Seattle area and decided to enroll in a class at The Ballet Studio in U District. “Slowly, it just stuck,” Coco says, sharing that she’s been dancing for about three years now. She mainly focuses on ballet training but has also started taking classes in contemporary, modern, and hip hop styles. Dabbling in other styles has made Coco realize how fundamental ballet skills can be for other genres of dance.
Coco says that one of her favorite things about dance is the community. “Some of my very close friends nowadays, I met through dance,” she says. Coco points out that the dance community feels both big and small at the same time, mentioning the connections she can make with all types of people, from different areas of her life, through their shared love of dance.
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On a personal level, Coco enjoys seeing the self-improvement that comes with ballet training. “The amount of effort you put in, you get back,” she says. “You see that improvement within yourself. That really kept me going.” Within the dance world, particularly ballet, it always feels like there is more to learn and improve upon, preventing most dancers from feeling stagnant within their practice.
When Coco first began dancing, she struggled with feeling like she was “good enough.” She remembers going on Instagram and seeing dancers post photos and videos of their high extensions, fast turns, and other impressive feats. As a beginner, exposure to these posts made her feel a bit frustrated at first. However, after some more practice, this feeling went away. She recognized that most of these dancers had started training as young as age three, it was unrealistic for her to expect herself to be at the same level as them.
“To get out of that mindset, it was about having a competition with myself,” Coco shares. Each week, she would shift her focus on a specific technical element she could improve upon, whether it was her turnout or engaging specific muscle groups correctly. From there, she could gradually build her muscle memory and advance at her own rate. By channeling her energy into improving her own skills rather than comparing herself to others, she was able to truly appreciate other dancers and herself fully.
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Carmen Wrap Sweater by Wear Moi | Quilted Warmup Booties by Russian Pointe
Coco first learned about Dancewear Center when she bought pointe shoes. She learned about the ambassador program through a mutual friend and thought it would be a good opportunity for her to share her story and show people that it’s never too late to start dancing. That is the message she strives to promote as a DWC ambassador.
In addition to being a DWC ambassador, Coco’s dance group has a performance planned for December for friends and family at Dance Underground in Capitol Hill. Coco also began teaching beginning ballet to adults at Second Act Dance, an adult ballet studio. She shares that teaching has been an exciting and challenging new endeavor for her, as the experience is quite different from being a student.
Ultimately, Coco hopes that more opportunities come about for adult dancers, specifically beginners. While researching for her first class, Coco found that most studios in the area solely cater to adults with prior dance experience. She recalls being placed in intermediate classes at some studios, likely due to her age, and feeling intimidated and unconfident. Thus, she hopes more classes can center on teaching beginner adults. “If you love ballet, if you want to try it, you should try it. It’s never too late to do something that you’ve always had a desire to do,” Coco says.
