🎶 Artists in the Wild (2): Meet Thanh Thanh Nguyễn, Dancer
On dance as self-expression, bodies as homes, and claiming your art.
Meeting people from diverse backgrounds is one of the most rewarding aspects of traveling to me. I had the pleasure of getting to know many interesting individuals who are changing the world with their hands and minds.
🎶 Artists in the Wild is an interview series with the creative people I run into on my journeys. This is episode #2. (Find episode #1 here)
“Beauty is often spoken of as though it only stirs lust or admiration, but the most beautiful people are so in a way that makes them look like destiny or fate or meaning, the heroes of a remarkable story.”
― Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
Meet Thanh Thanh Nguyễn, Dancer
Introduction
I first met Thanh Thanh Nguyễn as an intriguing character in the travel memoir of a young British writer in Vietnam. I was living in Tả Van at the time, a village in northern Vietnam, where this writer owned half a bar. When Thanh Thanh appeared there in flesh and blood, I was drawn to her. On our first night together, we discovered she had applied for a visa to work in Göteborg, Sweden, where Daniel and I had been invited for an artist residency. What were the chances?
Weeks later, in her hometown Huế, Thanh Thanh took us on a bicycle food tour. We talked, ate, and celebrated life, feeling our chance friendship consolidate into a deeper connection.
Not long after, Daniel and I traveled to Ho Chi Minh City where Thanh Thanh happened to be as well. She invited us to the Sofitel Saigon Hotel to attend a swing dance event. When I watched her on the dance floor, everything made sense: Her energy, beauty, power, and generosity came together in her art, and I was in awe.
We later hooked up in Amsterdam and Paris, where she has settled, and we were together here in Bracciano last week. Please meet Thanh Thanh Nguyễn!
“There was a time I saw dancing as a side job or temporary gig, but now I realize I want to take this to the next level. I’m ready to claim my art.”
Seven Questions for Thanh Thanh Nguyễn
What is your art and what drew you to it?
Dancing has been a great companion in my life. I went through my teens as a shy kid and found my voice through dancing. It was my little secret power. Hip hop got me through my school years. In 2016, I stumbled upon a social swing dance event in Saigon and fell in love with the dance instantly. There’s this magic in partner dancing, like having a great conversation without speaking. What I love about Jazz is the richness in rhythm, the aesthetic of movement, and the improvisation in the music as well as in the dance.
I love to move freely with my body and being in the present. There’s this sense of being moved by the music that touches me deeply. My body can express so much more than words can describe. Actually, my mind is quieter when I dance than when I sit down and meditate.Who or what inspires you and how?
Firstly, my grandma, my main caregiver. We moved often in my youth, and wherever we ended up, she would learn how to make the local specialties, such as cookies, pickles, arrow root flour, and incense. Whatever she found this way, she tried to make a living out of it. There were hundreds of kilograms of arrow root flour that didn’t dissolve, boxes of incense that didn’t burn, but what I inherited from her was the willingness to get into the unknown and make a way out of it.
Secondly, my best friend, ChangK. She sparked the joy in me for learning vernacular Jazz and her discipline motivated us to practice. We would geek out on videos we found on Youtube and recreate them, then make a performance for our little community that came alive every Wednesday night.
Thirdly, I had a chance to learn from Maurice Nguyen Lan, who I’d like to call my movement mentor. He’s the creative director for well-established contemporary shows about Vietnamese culture, such as “A O” and “Teh Dar.” I joined his artist residence in Da Lat and learned storytelling through body movement. The whole process lasted two months and was very transformative.
Note: I saw the Teh Dar show in Hoi An, Vietnam, last year with Thanh Thanh and wrote about the experience here.
Performance “Into Jazz”, photo by Pablo Gómez Zárate I truly believe everybody should find their own way to connect with their bodies. They are our homes. They need lots of care and maintenance, yet often go under-appreciated.
How does your art influence your life or ethics or worldview (and vice versa)?
Dancing has really opened me up. It’s a way to connect with my inner world, the feelings I couldn’t express any other way. And through dancing, I get to know others from all over the world.
Jazz dance has enriched my understanding of African-American history. Although their culture and traditions were suppressed, they transformed them into joy and freedom of expression. It broadened my perspective as a dancer: How do I carry on this culture as a guest and move in my own way but also respect what lies in the past? Living and dancing in Europe later re-rooted me in my own culture as a Vietnamese.
I truly believe everybody should find their own way to connect with their bodies. They are our homes. They need lots of care and maintenance, yet often go under-appreciated.Where are you now and why?
I left Vietnam in February 2021 for an au pair exchange in Sweden. There, I reconnected with Thomas, a friend of friends with whom I’d fallen in love in Vietnam. After the au pair exchange ended, I joined him in Paris, where my dance career took off. I won several competitions and suddenly I was a sought-after dance instructor.
At the moment, I work on two different theater shows, give classes locally, and travel to workshops internationally.
Swing dancing has swung my life in such unexpected ways. As a shy teenager in Vietnam, I could have never imagined that I’d one day live in Paris, be happily married, stand on stage, share my dancing, and travel all over the world.
Performance “Into Jazz”, photo by Pablo Gómez Zárate Where are you headed and what do you hope to find there?
I’m asking myself the same questions! A direction rather than a destination would be a good compromise.
Last week I was watching a professional dancer who was so amazing that he incited both admiration and envy in me. I wanted to be as good as he was and have his confidence. There was a time I took dancing as a side job or temporary gig, but now I realize I want to take this to the next level. I’m ready to claim my art.
I also dream of having a country house with a garden, an open space where I can host and connect and share art. Have my friends from all over the world come to visit and stay with us.Can you share a recent moment of kindness, awe, joy, or mindfulness that changed you?
Despite all the success and luck I had as a dancer, I went through a sort of burnout. Confusion hit when my passion became my job. I wanted to be independent, yet in reality I still relied on my husband. I fell out of contact with myself. Who was I as a Vietnamese living abroad?
One day recently, when I had practiced from 9am to 4pm for a theater show, went straight to a two-hour babysitting job, and followed that with three hours of teaching evening classes, I was exhausted. But on my bicycle crossing Paris, or more exactly in Le Bois de Vincennes, I felt myself surrounded by the beauty of autumn and realized how grateful I was to be healthy and able to do all of these amazing things that I care so much about. How full my life was! Positive energy started to flow back.What piece of advice do you have for people starting in your art form?
I would recommend going for many social dances, that’s where you actually dance the dance! Very often you can find a friendly group of people who share great joy in dancing together.
Listening to Jazz music and watching old videos for inspiration is a great way to absorb the aesthetic of this dance. For example check out The Women in Jazz Archive. You can also search for “vintage swing dance clips” and find a collection to get you started.
Last but not least, trust your body that it’s capable! Everyone has to start from somewhere. Take all the time you need and allow your body to get used to the new sensations. In Jazz, “T’aint what you do, it’s the way that you do it!”
Video: First solo jazz competition two months after Thanh Thanh Nguyễn moved to Paris. Winning the second prize launched her career as a dance instructor.
Thanh Thanh Nguyễn: Performer and Teacher
Thanh Thanh Nguyễn has taught in many Swing Dance events such Jazz Roots (Paris, France), Lindyhop Nonstop (Krakow, Poland), DA Solo Jazz (Darmstadt, Germany), Harbour Hop (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), All that Jazz Weekend (Antalya, Turkey), Back to the Root (Grenoble, France), Blues Spot (Strasbourg, France), and Grenoble Weekend (Grenoble, France).
Workshops and performances scheduled for 2024 and 2025:
November 28-December 1st: Into Jazz, Performance at Théâtre Girandole (Montreuil, France)
January 18-19: _GROUND première Performance at Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar (Paris, France)
January 25: _GROUND première Performance at Théâtre de Colombes (Paris, France)
February 14-16: Authentic Jazz Weekend, Workshop Solo Jazz (Gothenburg, Sweden)
February 20-23: Winter Jump, Workshop Lindy Hop (Oslo, Norway)
March 29-30: Lille weekend, Workshop Lindy Hop (Lille, France)
—> Follow Thanh Thanh Nguyễn on Instagram to watch her videos and find out where she will teach next.
She also gives solo dance classes in Paris and around Europe. You can hire her for personal, commercial, and corporal events, such as birthdays, bachelorette parties, artistic retreats, and team building events. Curious? Get in touch through Instagram!
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Time to Say Goodbye
Daniel and I will stay in our hilltop town Bracciano for one more week. By the time we leave, we will have climbed up to the castle 144 times without getting bored. Possibly because I listened to several audio books on my walks. Spello in Umbria is our next stop, and from there I’ll write one more post on Rome, to say goodbye to this over-touristed, over-congested yet altogether magical city of ancient stone, vigorous energy, and mouthwatering food.
All my best,
Claire
P.S. What do you do for your body in the sense of care and maintenance? Have you ever tried Swing Dance?
Love this post, Claire. And Thanh Thanh's inspiring career and the trajectory that took her to it. Also, this quote from her, "I’m ready to claim my art." Beautiful. She followed her bliss. The photos are inspiring as is her remarkable story. And your connection of meeting her is also one of those serendipitous moments that makes you just believe there is such a thing as fate. Or at least, what if... I love swing music! Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, my fave of the bunch. I lived in northern Calif, ages ago--where loggers (sadly) cut down redwoods, but there was good music (by back-to-the-land hippies) and to fit in, they'd play a country-style set, a rock set. I danced to everything but fell in love w/ swing, both the music and the dancing. It is So freeing. Had a great partner and we'd just take over the dance floor. It was grand--and how fun to think about swing music-- Think I'll listen to "Hey, Good Lookin'" right now--think that's Bob Wills.
It was great meeting her. Love anything dance.