New York has always been a point of interest for anyone in the arts. This is especially true for stage performers like theatre actors and dancers. Since that is the case, it was a no-brainer for evolving dancer Jasmine Huang headed south of her hometown Toronto to New York City and ply her trade.
Jasmine has always been attracted to dancing ever since she was at the age of four. She first studied Chinese dance and ballet. Being on a stage was a huge passion of hers even at a very young age. She did her first Chinese New Year show at four-years old. When she was of age, she began to study the Beijing Dance Academy curriculum of Chinese dance, from Canada. Yet it should be noted that she was discouraged by her family not to pursue it and entered the corporate world. But after a year and a half the “dance bug” bit her and she focused her energy on doing what she loved.
“My family was not supportive at all at first, but after a few months of booking gigs and doing well for myself, they became warmer to the idea of me being an artist. And today, they are my biggest supporters!”
During her mission to be a professional dancer she worked with such Canadian choreographers like Amy Wright, George Jones Jr., Hollywood Jade, Christos Tsiantoulas, and Allison Bradley.
“It was such a blessing to work with so many wonderful choreographers. I worked with Amy Wright, the choreographer of the hit show “The Next Step”, on a movie very early on in my career and that was a wonderful experience. George Jones, Christos, and Allison were all teachers/mentors of mine that encouraged me to pursue my dreams in New York City and helped train me so that I had a strong foundation upon moving to New York City.”
Within a couple of months after moving to New York, Jasmine soon connected with Jessica Chen the Art Director of JCHEN Project who was presenting a show called “Crazy Creative Asians”. It so happened that Jessica was in search of a dancer to perform the solo work “I Can Almost See You”, and Jasmine was a perfect fit. It was an excellent steppingstone in her career. She followed that up by graduating from the Broadway Dance Center in their Professional Semester Program. Jasmine specializes in Chinese dance, contemporary, musical theatre, and street jazz.
While working on her craft she would join the Gotham Dance Theatre earlier this year. Jasmine would perform with the company on their full-length show “re:motions”. She is still with them and looks forward to growing with the company. The company was founded in 2015 by Marc Nunez whose purpose to present diverse cultures in the Big Apple.
Website – www.gothamdancetheater.com/home
Jasmine would eventually upgrade her skills when she choreographed and co-starred in a music video entitled “No Show” by artist Haley Midgette. They met via an online acting class and were inspired by each other’s talents. Haley would then offer a proposition to Jasmine to choreograph and co-star in her first music video. This ended up being a great match and they not only shot one but two music videos, the other was titled “Artisan Guardian”.
“My focus is on continuing to create or be involved in works that tell stories that are meaningful to me, such as telling Asian-American stories, as well as teaching more and more dance.”
This past summer she performed in “The Music Man” at Thousand Islands Playhouse. The musical was showcased in the town of Gananoque, Ontario. Jasmine played the role of Mrs. Squires and when she was not performing, she contributed in many other ways to the theatre company. She was featured in their podcast, doing community outreach activities with patrons and giving talks to youth groups that would visit the theatre. Jasmine’s first encounter with musical theatre was when she was in high school attending Earl Haig Secondary School, an arts high school in Toronto, where she was a Dance Major. She co-choreographed and performed in a production of “Guys and Dolls”.
On the horizon for Jasmine is a full slate of projects. She is continuing working with JCHEN Project where they are gearing to perform pieces that tell stories about Chinese mythology. In addition, she has linked up with the hip hop company Royal Thieves led by Deshawn Da Prince, who she will be competing with at the World of Dance in late November 2022. Deshawn is also a faculty member at Broadway Dance Center. When Broadway Dance Center was approached to find a choreographer and dancers for a promotional video for Kendrick Lamar, Deshawn hand-picked Jasmine as one of the dancers to be featured in the video because of her strong freestyle abilities. She was selected and the video was posted on the UBS Arena’s Instagram account. In less than a year, Jasmine has established herself as a sensational dancer in New York City. Keep an eye out for her as she continues to shine and make her mark in this city.
Next up, the world stage!
