Dancer Tran Quoc Hung: Spreading inspiration, spreading passion

Modern dance, also known as street art, is both a form of entertainment and a form of physical liberation, and an art form that requires the performer to have musical techniques and precise movements. In the 2010s, when modern dance was introduced to the youth of Vinh City, this form of dance was just a "rare commodity".

At that time, Quoc Hung was one of the characters that was praised on many music stages, because young people of the same age as him did not understand where he learned to dance so well.

The dance group of Virus Dancer Studio Center owned by Hung. (Hung is standing 2nd in the back row on the right). Photo: NVCC

Unhappy childhood

Hung said: I don't understand why I could dance when there were almost no Internet support tools like now. Every time I saw dances on TV by dance groups, I just wanted to dance along and find the disc to learn at all costs. Then, that poor student skipped breakfast to buy discs for only 10 thousand VND, and when I got home, I turned on the DVD player to learn each move: "After each technique that the dancers on the disc performed, I paused the image to learn, then gradually put together a combination of moves."

Learning CDs, learning television, and gradually Hung was able to perform many difficult free-style moves; when he performed on each stage, his friends were all amazed. Because he had only learned a few times, Hung was able to perform many difficult techniques of excellent dancers. At that time, Hung emerged as a well-trained professional dancer, and large and small stages in Vinh saw him participate and "become a nail" for each program. Every time Hung's name was called for a modern dance performance, the vibrant music started, and immediately the whole audience stood up, clapping and dancing to his every move.

Dancer Tran Quoc Hung, born in 1990, is currently a famous dance teacher in Vinh City. Photo: Internet

According to me, it is not only talent but also destiny. Hung came to dance and spread the spirit of modern dance to all his peers, igniting new passions in his friends; creating healthy entertainment playgrounds for his friends.

Before spreading that spirit, Hung himself had equipped himself with a new way of thinking about life. Because before that, he was always self-conscious, always felt sad when someone told funny stories about family, about reunions, about the father's thoughtful instructions. "My father went to work far away and then had a new family, leaving my mother with a lot of debt; my mother had to sell the old house to pay off my father's debt, the three of us had to find the most dilapidated rooms to rent cheaply. Those difficult days made my two brothers and I withdraw into ourselves, not daring to play with our friends. My younger sister even had autism, almost refusing to interact or talk to anyone."

Tran Quoc Hung has conquered many big competitions such as You can think you so. Try the challenge with the dance,... and won many prestigious awards in modern dance. Photo: NVCC

Even more difficult were the days when my mother had to shoulder the burden of raising my two brothers without any support from my grandmother. At the time when I was most mentally and spiritually developed, I always had to endure humiliation brought by my father. “While my peers had a full spiritual and material life, my two brothers only had our mother as a spiritual support and looked to her, because of her we strived.” - Hung said.

However, the moment when dancing freed her from negative thoughts, giving her a brighter, more humane view of life, was also the moment when her sister's autism became more severe. "All day long, I only thought about how to bring Thuong Hoai back to normal life, and dancing was the remedy, when I discovered that my sister was very talented, and would be a talented dancer in the future if she went in the right direction."

With that in mind, Hung has been diligently searching for dances from simple to highly difficult movements, requiring skillful techniques to teach his sister. And when dancing has permeated her blood and senses, Hung's sister has gradually moved away from her fear of communication syndrome, and has recovered from the disease without any therapy. And the talented girl Thuong Hoai, top 6 finalist of Dancing with the Stars, is Hung's first student.

It was from that motivation that Hung attracted many of his friends to join Mr. Hung's dance class. From classes of only 3-4 students with an old cassette, the practice floor was a small yard in front of the apartment building, Mr. Hung's class gradually grew to dozens of people. At first, we just chose a place with a large, flat surface that was not noisy like a park or square to make a class, gradually he found empty rooms to rent when the number of students increased. It was the fact that there were more and more students that made Hung think about the task of building a movement and training good dancers or training artists to be a source for the movement's art troupes in schools.

And the dream of spreading the love of modern dance

When Hung's career maturity was confirmed through the Vietnam Got Talent contests, reaching the semi-finals of the 2015 Dance Challenge, many event companies, many entertainment units in big cities; dance groups of talented dancer Johny Huy Tran, invited him to collaborate. "I could have become a professional dancer in big cities and had a better material life, and could have compensated my mother with a more fulfilling life. However, I chose to return, return to find for myself a path that is not brilliant, splendid but peaceful, and most importantly, to be by my mother's side to take care of her when the weather changes" - Hung confided.

Another reason why Hung chose to return when he was already a good student of a famous overseas Vietnamese dancer in Saigon was because "the further I go, the more I see the gap in popularity, the number of talents and the dance movement in big cities, too big, because all the good, talented people who are willing to commit to dancing often find for themselves "an environment to practice their skills", so the provinces are getting less and less good dancers who are wholeheartedly "dying for the cause".

Quoc Hung and two young talents Thach Tung - Bao Nguyen, Hung's students for many years. Photo: NVCC

And now, with the determination to build the movement, Hung has a pretty good reputation, making everyone look up to him. That is, Hung has a Virus Dance Studio Center with 150 students, and 4 excellent teachers who were his students; he has an army of students who are leaders in building movements in all high schools in the city and neighboring districts. More importantly, Mr. Hung's students are good and obedient dancers, "before teaching dance, Mr. Hung teaches how to behave, how to think positively about life and friends. He always reminds us to study well before dancing well, so many of my classmates, from being rebellious and poor students, have completely changed" - Thuy Linh, a long-time student of dancer Quoc Hung, said.

Hung's dream of spreading the movement and nurturing talents has come true when his students Thach Tung and Bao Nguyen are two young talents from Nghe An who are in the process of being revealed. And, most importantly, young people in Vinh who want to learn to dance because of their passion, and students who want to be trained in their talents all come to Mr. Hung.

When it comes to modern dance in Vinh city, people immediately mention dancer Tran Quoc Hung.