China's Best Dance Crew

I returned from possibly the best night of my life! Last week, one of my students, Winter, invited me to come see him dance any night. I waited until I was paid so I could make sure I had cab fare. Tonight, after my class ended at 6pm, Emily and I met up with Winter and two of Emily's students, Joy and Eric. The students made us sit down as they paid for and brought the food over! I was only happy when they agreed I would pay next time.

After dinner, Winter brought us to where his crew meets and showed us a few dance moves. I could do a few haha but not all. Slowly a crowd started to gather. All of sudden a ton of dancers showed up and I learned they are all part of the Friday Crew. They meet Monday through Friday and tonight they all sat in a large circle. Emily and I (later Kim came and joined in) were invited to sit in the circle too. A big speaker is brought out, hip-hop music is played, and a water bottle is spun in the middle of the group. Whoever the water bottle points at, has to get in the middle of the circle and dance. Winter danced a few times - he's a b-boy...meaning he can break dance! I am teaching the most amazing students ever. A few of the other dancers were poppers, which is sooo cool to watch. Yes, the bottle did land on Emily so the two of us did a little dance and ran back to our seats. Yes, Kim also danced with the two of us and we did a mini-wave between the three of us. Yes, I will have to dance next time I go but it's worth it!!!

I can not forget to mention Huajian. He deserves his own paragraph. While dancing with Winter, a man, probably in his 30s, showed up and came over to us. Huajian presented himself as a former breakdancer, current magician. He did a few magic tricks for us involving cigarettes disappearing from his hand and appearing on his ear. Later, he taught us a visual trick that makes it look like your thumb is poking through your ear. He then revealed that he had finished 10 large beers before showing up. So back to the circle of dancers. When Winter was not sitting next to me, Huajian made sure he could talk to me. He was not only a breakdancer but taught a lot of the current dancers (like he's the 4th generation teacher of Winter...if that makes sense). Eventually, Huajian even did some breakdancing himself!! In the process, he tossed us his shoes and jacket so he could breakdance in a button down shirt, pants, and long socks. I can not forget to mention his large glasses that I wanted to steal. He attempted to show me how to "pop" with my arm and told me to practice 3000 times a day. Yeah, okay.

The thing that may stick with me is once again everyone's kindness. Winter paid for my meal and bought 5 of us water. During the dance circle, one of the dancers we hadn't even met brought Emily, Kim, and I juice. The rest of the "crowd" (meaning not us or the dance crew) could not sit in the circle like we were but comprised a large audience around the dance circle. We were treated as respected guests and it felt amazing. I wish I could have told the whole crew how much it meant to me!