Hi, I’m Rourou!
I am an international dancer, choreographer, and dance educator living in the USA. I have been dancing in my WHOLE life (according to my mom I was already dancing when I was in her belly!), and I am dedicated to helping you grow your dance skill with my heart ❤️.
I teach
dance enthusiasts, even those with zero experience, TO DANCE.
I offer
CUSTOMIZED 1-1 private dance lessons based on each student's needs.
My dance lessons
are offered virtually worldwide and in-person in San Francisco.
To speak about my credibility:
My Dance training started when I was 5 years old. For more than 28 years since then, I have studied many dance forms including Contemporary, Modern, Hip-hop, Jazz, Chinese dance forms, African dance forms, Musical Theater, and a little bit of Tap Dance. I have also obtained a Master's degree in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College.
In 2008, I started choreographing. I’ve made countless works ranging from popular dance, musical theater, contemporary, and my own favorite performances.
I have 10 years of dance teaching experience for (non)professional students, in university, dance studios, and private class settings.
CHECK OUT MY MOVES ▽
1-1 Private Dance Coaching
Through 1-1 coaching, I am dedicated to helping you reach your goal. Whether you want to learn the most popular music dance covers, gain dance skills, or work to rebuild a healthier relationship with your body, I got you covered.
I tailor and pace my class based on your experience level, desire, and needs.
Lesson Price: $205 per 1-hour session
Class forms:
in-person - San Francisco
Zoom - worldwide
▼My non-professional students▼
have described their experiences studying with me as
life-changing events.
They felt so much more connected to their body, felt more confident and happy. They sensed improvement in their dance skill after every lesson they took with me and had no problem free-styling and defining their own dance languages.
▼My professional mentees ▼
have been selected into top dance schools
California Institution of the Arts
Duke University | Sarah Lawrence College
Shanghai Conservatory of Music | Beijing Dance Academy
Shanghai Theater Academy
DANCES YOU CAN CHOOSE TO LEARN
IN MY LESSONS
K-POP
I teach dance covers from the most popular Kpop groups. BlackPink, BTS, ITZY, etc. If you have a specific dance that you want to learn, let me know! Lessons focus on building a strong hip-hop dance technique, working closely with musicality, and finding the style that works best for you.
Musical Theater
Learn the choreographies from well-known musicals, such as Chicago, Westside Story, Sweet Charity. Lesson focus on foundational Musical dance technique, musicality, and physical expression through story-telling.
Contemporary Dance
The lessons focus on helping you explore and expand your movement possibilities. Through a combination of technique and experimentation, the class helps you build the connections between your body, mind, and soul. You will find the joy of self-expression beyond language.
Choreography/Composition
In this mentorship based program, I guide you through the journey of exploring your creative vision and finding your unique language as a choreographer and/or movement based performance maker.
MY DANCE TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
The thought of becoming a great dancer is incredibly cool, yet, it can be pretty intimidating when you actually try to learn it from scratch. Dance pushes you to get out of your comfort zone. It is scary but fantastic! My goal is to guide and encourage students to discover their physical potential and find joy along the way.
Dance classes should always be playful and stress-free. Getting to know my students is the first and foremost thing I do because I believe it creates a safe environment for my students to discover their potential when connections and trust are built between us.
My approach to teaching emphasizes:
Enhancing physical awareness
When a body is in motion, many movements are going on simultaneously. What are your hips doing when you move your legs? What about your abdomen? Is it working to help you achieve a better performance? Many dance learners often ignore those details, and they find themselves frustrated with learning dance phrases. It is vital to build an awareness that you can pay attention to each part of your body. When you are aware, you will be better at what to do with it.
Create sensation
Dance is an art of movement. When you are moving, what do you feel? When you draw your arm from left to right, what is the sensation your arm is having? Is it sliding, dragging, pulling, pushing? How do you feel differently when you use those verbs? I push students to identify and establish those sensations because dancing is constantly feeling those intense things! If you can’t feel those magical happenings in your body, you are missing the key to becoming a good dancer!
Establish a foundational movement system
When you start your dance journey, your body needs to re-learn how to be a body, one that can move freely. How many different ways can you walk from point A to point B? Besides the ordinary one you do? I’ve assembled a foundational movement system to help any beginner break your ordinary movement pattern and be range-free with your body! This effective training system is the foundation for coordination, body isolation, and muscle control. Just like the primary colors, if you have red, yellow, and blue, you will be able to create all kinds of colors!
Be intellectually physical
I demonstrate each movement comprehensively to help students digest better and keep my eyes on their performance. During the process, it’s essential to identify their challenges and design specific exercises to help them overcome them. It is always my priority to help students intellectually understand the intention of each movement through imagination, and physical science because I truly believe that a gracefully moving body is an actively thinking body.
Current Students
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Katalina Park
Senior UX Design Manager
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Shuyuan Luo
Software Engineer
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Anastasia Chilakos
Paralegal
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Vi
Legal Field
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Jenny Wang
Entrepreneur
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Brooke Lam
Freelancer
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Yaxin
Graduate Student
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Kelly
Psychiatrist
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Yi Feng
Entrepreneur
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Sandy Yeh
Clinical statistician
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Lining Wang
Software Engineer, PHD Student
I taught many “uncoordinated” human beings to dance, and they did shine at the end. AND HERE IS WHAT I CONCLUDED:
Most people came with the idea that you suck at dancing. If your mind thinks this way, your body will react this way too! But I can't blame you. If you think this way, you probably have been traumatized by some bad experience before. No matter whether it was at a party, a group dance class, or you were just trying to learn dance from youtube. The truth is if you have never had any dance experience, you might embarrass yourself - unless you are a rare dance genius born or something. You don't suck; you are just normal.
With over 28 years of experience in dance, I am very mindful of always creating a stress-free, confidence-boosting environment for my students and getting their souls and bodies prepared for dancing.
I know that most newbies feel very intimidated by taking dance class, as you feel bombarded with coordinating movements from multiple body parts simultaneously. However, this is just because you are new and don't know where to start. Movements are all connected, and a single movement can have many layers.
There are various ways of teaching dance. In a typical dance studio class, you go to a class; the teacher uses the whole lesson to teach a set of choreography. During the process, you are so busy with memorizing the movement sequence, and most of the time you have no clue how to execute each movement correctly. At the end of the lesson, you are asked to dance to the music, and you can barely catch anything. This kind of dance lesson is for professional dancers who already have substantial movement experience.
I very much disagree with this kind of teaching style for people who are just getting started with dance. What you need at this stage is to build a new relationship with your body, the dancing body. This means you need to figure out how your body works on a whole new and sensational level.
To speak about incoordination, I believe the first step to overcoming it is to build connections between your mind and body, as well as body parts to body parts. So that they can feel each other and collaborate the best way they can. This is far more valuable than just spending all your energy to learn a set of choreography. No point; you can't learn like this anyways.
I put extra attention on guiding my students to the journey of understanding how each movement is built and discovering how actually your bones, nerves, and muscles contribute to each movement's execution, as well as the sensation you obtain when performing these movements. Watch my videos below to understand what I mean!
It’s not hard to learn how to dance if you start with a trajectory that is mindful, caring, scientific, and efficient. You will be surprised how much your body can express, and you will find yourself in a life filled with joy, freedom and confidence. ❤️
Beginner? Watch this!
BOOK YOUR DANCE LESSON
Please send a class request to my email rourouarts@gmail.com or fill out the form below, and wait for my response within the next 12 hours ⍢
Please let me know your preferred time for classes, the type of dance you want to learn, and your time zone. I teach weekdays + Sunday.
Lesson Price: $205 per 1-hour session
Class form: ZOOM - worldwide / in-person - San Francisco
FAQs
How to book a lesson with you?
Book your lesson here. Fill out the form and let me know your schedule and what would you like to learn. I will respond within 12 hours of your request to set up our first lesson.
When can I take lessons with you?
Since it’s a 1-1 lesson, the schedule is solely based on our availabilities. I offer lessons 6 days a week with a day off on Saturdays. Email me your schedule and I will put you in a slot that works for both of us!
How often should I take your lesson?
I have students taking my lesson twice a week, once a week, once in two weeks, and once a month. It really is based on what works best for you. My suggested frequency for lessons is once a week, so that we can get the flow going.
How soon can I become good at dancing?
How much effort do you want to put in? the more you practice the faster your skill grows! I suggest my students practice 2-3 times a week after each of my lessons. Even if it’s only for 10 - 20 minutes, it makes a huge difference!