Let’s talk about dance in a way that’s not too technical and complicated. Getting people out there, moving to the music, shaking, jumping and rocking, is no small feat. Some teachers have the exceptional ability to do much more than instruct students to dance. These teachers possess an intangible something extra that inspires people to move like they have never moved before. A musical force of nature to behold, Trinh Le is that kind of teacher. A human dynamo! Wow! How does she do it?
Trinh’s actual movement comes first and foremost from the song itself. Hip hop and rhythm and blues, in particular, get her attention. If she likes the melody, then her body spontaneously marks the beat in rapid-fire steps. Drawing her inspiration from how catchy the tune is, she tends to choreograph her routines in more of a Hip hop style. She moves with the song’s native syncopated rhythm and goes with the flow. Pulsating with movement and totally in the moment, it’s all about how strongly she feels about the song. For sure, her movements meld together a fusion of Cumbia, Merengue, and Salsa, all of the classic ingredients of Zumba.
Trinh doesn’t define her actual dance style per se but emphasizes how she puts one hundred percent of herself into her movement. She says, “Every single move I do on the dance floor, I give one hundred percent or more. I don’t restrict myself to a style. Every movement I make is about giving it my all.”
In the all-encompassing dance world beyond tap, jazz, modern, and classical ballet training, there is the type of dancer known as a bgirl, which is the female term for a bboy. The bgirl evolved from forms of dance in the breakdancing and Hip hop culture and was at first defined by rocking shelltoe kicks. But over the years, the bgirl, bboy personae has come to define a dancer who has had little or no formal dance training. The bdancer is in possession of superior athletic ability and abundant natural rhythm that when combined, makes a dancer as extraordinary as Trinh Le.
New to America, Trinh has not yet been seen dancing with the stars. She grew up in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, which is often still called by its former name Saigon, especially by older Vietnamese and foreigners. Trinh came to America in 2012 to pursue an internship with a hotel in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. In Vietnam she had graduated from the University Ton Duc Thang* with a B.S. degree in Restaurant and Hotel Management.
Although she had been dancing a lot, on and off, since high school, she never had formal training and didn’t get trained specifically or specially by anyone. After Trinh came to America, she often went to the gym where she tried yoga and all other usual fitness routines, but it was only dance that sparked her interest. “It just comes naturally to me,” she says. “I just love to do it. It’s just a natural love between me and dancing.”
Trinh Le:
Beautiful Mover
By Patricia Vaccarino