On SCV Chinese Dance’s official website, the group’s mission statement is “preserving, sharing, enjoying, and teaching traditional and modern Chinese dance.” When talking to group leader and founder Christine Chen, it becomes clear just how important sharing her culture to others is to her.
“I don’t care if I get paid or not,” she said. “I care that people accept us and invite us and they appreciate us, even though we’re not professional level yet. But I’m just so happy that they’re enjoying it.”
Chen, who runs SCV Chinese Dance with the aid of her husband Steven Moses, had wanted to be a dancer ever since she was a little girl, a dream that often seemed unattainable due to various life obstacles.
“Mom and Dad are too poor and cannot afford me dancing classes,” Chen said of her youth. “So, I’m just doing studies and everything. But I grew up, I went to college, and I found a job, met my husband. I moved out here. I have kids. And suddenly, I have everything I have, and I have extra energy, and then it brought back to me that I wanted to pick up my hobby as a kid. I want to learn the traditional dance.”
Chen and Moses then started using the internet to find resources such as dance lessons that Chen could follow along with at home. Once she learned her favorite routines, her friends, who are also Chinese, grew interested in her hobby.
“They saw how I danced,” Chen said. “They joined us so that we can practice and exercise together. And then, we kept doing it and became a team, and so we can perform.”
The group of seven is also primarily made up of Chinese mothers, with one member even being a parent to another. The group was initially called “SCV Chinese Dance Moms” before Chen changed it due to some of their prior members not having children.
Much of the music that SCV Chinese Dance performs to is deeply rooted in Chinese culture and tradition, with the company also infusing their routines with a more modern flair to appeal to younger audience members.
“It is based on ancient times, techniques, and the music and everything,” Chen said of her performances. “It combines lots of ancient Chinese kind of style, and the costumes we use, it’s all very flowy and very unique.”
“Most music we’re using is modern music but has ancient words in it. It’s inspired by all those Chinese poems, and they transfer it to a popular Chinese modern jazz kind of style so more young people can study and like it.”
SCV Chinese Dance first performed on stage two years ago at a church in Van Nuys as a part of its Chinese New Year celebration. They’ve also performed in nearby venues such as the Canyon Country Community Center and the Newhall Family Theatre, often as a part of larger cultural events. Their next performance is at Plum Canyon Elementary School in Saugus on May 10.
“They are doing a culture celebrating thing,” Chen said. “I think every school has a culture celebrating event. But this school specifically, they invite somebody else that’s outside the school. They want to do something different this year. They want to show different faces and different cultures. That’s why they reached out to us.”
The group is currently practicing a new, challenging routine to the song, “Huo Yuanjia.”
“It’s the theme music of a very famous Chinese kung-fu movie,” Chen said. “It’s talking about kung-fu, talking about standing up and being strong, and it’s really, really catchy. All the background, all the music, it’s really catchy. It’s kind of difficult to do, but we’re running it, and hopefully, in May, we can perform, and then, at the end of the year, we would have more people to do this big piece.”
According to Moses, who’s in charge of the group’s audio and technical aspects, Chen’s desire to share her culture didn’t start with dancing, and that she had been in a few teaching positions beginning five years ago.
“At the mall, there was a business called Big Box Play, and they had a lot of open space, and she was doing Chinese-teaching classes for small kids, like 3 to 8 years old,” he said. “It was called Panda Playground.”
Chen later taught Chinese at College of the Canyons and was even offered the chance to run the school’s Chinese program, but she left the position after several months due to her struggle to have a second child causing her stress. The baby was born shortly after she resigned.
Currently, the group is still deciding what exactly it wants to be. Sharing their culture is prioritized over making money, but there’s an ongoing debate over whether they should offer official classes or stick purely with performances. Regardless of which path they take, Chen says anyone who’s interested in their music and routines is more than welcome to join.
“We do have people ask us when we are performing and practicing here,” she said. “I’m always open to the idea. Whoever wants to learn it, and they can come and join and learn.”
As for Chen herself, she feels satisfied knowing that she gets to live the life that her younger self wanted every day.
“I just feel like my dream came true,” she said. “When we are on the stage, when the music, the Chinese music’s on, I think that’s my highlight. Whatever stage, it means the same importance to me.”
