We recently connected with Zen Nguyen and have shared our conversation below.

Zen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I have been able to earn a full-time living from dance for the past 4 years.

Back when I was in college, dance to me was just a passion, a way to release stress from school, and to connect with other people (Because I’m from Vietnam, I moved here for college in 2014, so I didn’t have many friends).

Being very involved in the dance community, I started to get recognized by local dancers and studios.

One day, a dance school (Melroe’s School of Dance) reached out to me and asked me to substitute for their hip-hop teacher being away for the day, and I agreed. After the class, the kids seemed to very enjoy my class even though my teaching skills & my English wasn’t great at the time. A few months later, the same dance school reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in teaching 2 of their beginners classes for kids weekly. I was very nervous, but I agreed, and that was how I got my very first teaching opportunity.

As time goes by, my dancing & teaching skills (also my English) kept evolving day by day from teaching, watching video, straining & learning from others. More and more opportunity started to present and I started to get recognized even more. One factor I got to say that also help with that process is probably my personality. I am friendly, respectful and always hungry to learn. I believe there’s no better way for people, specially in this creative world, to want to work with you than to be personable, professional, and passionate about what you’re doing.

More dance schools reached out to me about classes and also artists/companies reached out to me about performing, choreograph, or taking part in their music videos.

Right now, I’m teaching at 5 different dance schools and working with brands/performing on the side when I’m not teaching.

I want to eventually create something on my own, that’s my ultimate goal.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am originally was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I got into dance very randomly, just from seeing a friend practiced hip-hop on the street back when I was 15 years old. I grew interest and started joining them, which was my very first dance crew (GameOn Crew). We practiced together everyday after school, but back then the resources great, all we had was very bad quality youtube videos. We worked with what we had and never gave up because we were so passionate about it. (Today, my dance crew is one of the very well known dance crew in Vietnam)

When I graduated highschool in Vietnam, I got accepted into a community college here in Kansas City. My family and I decided to get my Visa so I moved to the state for college in the beginning of 2014. I was majoring in Engineering, but beside school, I always stayed connected to my creative side which is dance.

I got introduced to the street dance scene in Kansas City and everyone was very welcoming. I got to train with a lot of dancers from all different backgrounds with different styles. I also did my best to travel if I could afford to go and take classes from other well-known dancers/choreographers.

Since I’m not from here, and with language barrier, I did feel pretty lonely at first and found it difficult to make friends. That’s when I found out dance is such an amazing international language that can bring people from all different backgrounds together doesn’t matter what language they are speaking. That’s when I fell in love with dance even more and decided to invest a lot of my time and energy into it beside getting my degree in college.

I am at the moment teaching dance full-time at 5 different dance schools. I also choreograph for competition dance teams, small groups, and also individuals. Besides teaching, I perform and work with a lot of other companies/artists from directing, choreograph dance performances, or music videos, etc…

I think what set me apart is that I am very personable/experienced and able to work with any clients in any industries.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

There were multiple times in the past that I was reached out about dance performances that came with very little to no compensations, and instead I was offered “exposure”. This is still a big on going problem that, in my opinion, affects dancers a lot which is we are severely underpaid across the industry.

A lot of great artists I know out there are still out there struggling to pay there bills. I believe that artists, specially dancers, deserve much more rather than being underpaid not just for their creativity, performance, but also the hard work that they have put in for years to get to the skill level where they are.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, being recognized for my work that does have affect on others is very rewarding, like the ability to move/inspire people through my art, emotionally and intellectually.

I teach a lot of kids from 5-17 years old. What I love the most is to see how my students grow as dancers and as human being. Having a good affect on the youth and be able to make a difference in their lives is a big reason for me to keep doing what I’m doing.

One of the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is I get to do what I love/what I believe in everyday and never stop being creative, that right there, is such a beautiful thing.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @thatmanzen
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