Shawn Vue was a speakers at the 2020 “Dancing while Hmong” event, a unique collaboration between Hmong Museum and MN Dance & the Ecstasies of Influences to share stories by dance practitioners and organizers from immigrant and refugee communities in Minnesota.
Why did you decide to participate in “Dancing while Hmong”?
“Melvina Cha and Cheng Xiong reached out to me about this. They mentioned “Hmong” “Community” “Dance” “Hip Hop” and I was sold. From high school, I’ve been a contributor to Hip Hop dance to the Hmong community in several different ways and seeing representation is rare. With this opportunity to represent, I couldn’t say no.“
What do you hope people learn or walk away from this event?
“I hope that people can see our stories as points of entries and realize that it doesn’t take a super human to do what we do. We are normal everyday people who have similar lives and share similar issues of family, school and financials. Our choices in our search for social identity just led us to go on the path of dance and has benefitted us greatly and it can benefit others as well. Even if the choices aren’t dance related, as long as people pick something and just keep experiencing things, you will get somewhere.”
What inspires you?
“Moments when amazing things happen right. A cool dance move. When new technology is demonstrated. Right when your food at the restaurant gets placed in front of you. An important meeting that goes smoothly. When you get done with a project and you finally show it. It’s a bit general but the more that things inspire you, it really improves your mood, attitude, and your current drive.”
More About Shawn Vue
Shawn Vue is a Hmong American dance choreographer located in Minnesota, USA. He is the creative director of Elite Family and the Director of GXG Dance. Shawn was also part of the 2017-2018 612 Crew MN Timberwolves NBA dance team. Some notable mentions are 1st and 4th place at Hot Indian Dance Off at Mall of America, Best Theme Award Upper Division at World of Dance Chicago, 3rd place at Masterpiece Dance Competition, featured on World of Dance Tour, and 2nd place State Fair Amateur Talent Competition. He is currently a full-time father of one child, doing dance part time and venturing into the world of videography at ShawnVueVisuals.com. You can find him instructing at Spectrum Dance Studio in St. Paul, MN. His motto in life is to “do better” and embodies that in his lifestyle, leadership, work, and dancing. Shawn is one of the few people in the world to be able to give you a 3 thumbs up for a job well done.
Shaun’s videography website: ShawnVueVisuals.com | Shawn’s dance crew Facebook page: Facebook.com/EliteFamilyDance