From ballet to hip-hop, dancing is constantly evolving and revealing our cultural identity. Junior Cyrus Wu, a member of the A-Youngin’ Jr. Dance Team, began professionally dancing six months ago. “Although I was introduced to dance through America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC), I don’t dance for ABDC, [nor do I] want to be on it,” Wu said.

To learn more about dancing, Wu watched dancing videos at home. “I would attempt to imitate the videos I watched in front of the mirror,” he said. Wu furthered his passion for dance by enrolling in lessons. “The easiest way to learn how to dance is to take classes,” Wu said.

Wu asked his friend Lillian Huang about auditions for junior dance crews. “He noticed my photo albums of dance crews and started asking about them, and I learned that he shared the same interest [as I do] in dancing,” Huang said.

One of the crews Wu found was A-Youngin’, a competitive under 17 dance team from San Jose. Founded in the summer of 2008, A-Youngin’ has danced in three competitions and placed in two of them. “Our first competition was at Norcal Prelude and we didn’t place in that one,” Wu said. “Our second was Breakthrough 2009 where we placed third and our latest competition was the World of Dance where we placed third.”

For Wu, dancing isn’t about winning or losing. “I just love [to] dance,” he said. “There is no reason to why I like it. When I do it, I feel more than happy, I don’t know why, but I just do.” According to A-Youngin’s Web site, their goal is to “share dance as an outlet and to unify youth; establishing a strong and family-oriented dance team; to give inspiration to other dancers and to give respect to anyone they cross paths with while staying inspired [and] humble throughout the opportunities and experiences they will receive.”

For Wu personally, A-Youngin’ has accomplished these goals. “My directors have established a family,” he said. “They always tell us to come in with ‘good vibes’ because dance isn’t about spreading negative ones. [My directors] always say ‘stay humble, stay hungry.’ I dance with A-Youngin’ because they are my family and [they] help me grow.”

Wu has many aspirations for continuing hip-hop dance. “The team that I look up to the most is the Chinese Association Dance Crew from University of California, Irvine (UCI),” Wu said. “I hope to be able to join the team, that is if I go to UCI and reach a certain dance level. They are so creative and don’t follow the usual hype from ABDC. Their dancing is clean and they never disappoint the audience.”