Laotian dance teacher’s passion not strictly ballroom
From fleeing Laos to being a community leader, Vida Vongsay has come far.
I love reading about Laotians making a name for himself or herself, and in this case, a ballroom dance instructor. This article did not mention about Laotian traditional dance, but I am hoping that it is in the back of her mind and that it would be something that she will offer to her students in the future, especially young Laotians in her community.
She was like many of us that fled the war in Laos, as for her it was twenty-eight years ago, at the age of 6, she and her family fled Communist Laos for Thailand, hiding under a pile of fruit and vegetables in a boat crossing the Mekong River separating the two countries. Vida Vongsay had no idea she would end up being a ballroom dancing teacher. She was living in a refugee camp in Thailand, waiting in line for rice soup.
There was one thing that she said that most of us could not deny and that was, “We were very, very fortunate to have people to help us and protect us…it was definitely a culture shock, because we came in March. … And that was the first time we ever saw snow. We thought it was ice cream land.” In 1980, thanks to the Catholic Conference agency and a couple working for the International Volunteer Service, Vongsay, her parents, sister and two brothers were able to leave for the small town of Bethel, Maine.
I found this part of her interview to be somewhat amusing, as I did the same thing, growing up watching Kung-Fu movies, as for me it was the Samurai Sunday movie, but I never dreamed that I was one of the kung fu girls,
“We would always watch those Asian kung-fu movies, so even when I was 8 or 9, I thought I was one of those kung fu girls,” Vongsay laughed. “That’s how I started. I trained myself in doing tumbling, flips and being flexible.”
Vongsay discovered ballroom dancing when she moved to Jacksonville in 1992. A year later, she was hired as a dancer, but not without some struggles.
“I had lots of challenges learning partner dancing, because in our culture, you don’t hold people’s hand unless you were husband and wife. And you don’t dance with anybody unless you’re husband and wife,” Vongsay explained.
In 2000, Vongsay and her partner were the U.S. Ballroom Championship grand finalists.
Read the rest of her story here.
I wish I can do this but I am so clumsy and have no rhythm when come to dancing.
Hi Dallas, dancing is also not my thing, when I was little, I was picked out from the line in my class to dance for the school on Wan Dek (children’s day) and it was difficult, I struggled to learn the different dances and they placed me in the back of the line because I was the tallest, which was a good thing.