Danny Nguyen

profile link-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxPVnOx0KV8 Professor Danny Nguyen is the 1st Vietnamese modern dancer, teacher, choreographer in the United States to receive his B.F.A. in Dance, Performance, and Choreography at California Institute of The Arts and his M.F.A. in Dance, Performance, and Choreography at Mills College. Born in Saigon, Vietnam. At the age of 18, he left Vietnam by boat and arrived in the U.S. in 1982. He was inspired by television dancing shows such as Star Search, Dance Fever, and the movie Fame. Soon developed interest of dancing and began his dance education. On March 1983, he pursued his formal education in dance at the San Francisco Ballet School where he began his ballet training. And shortly after, additional instruction at the Berkeley City Ballet and Berkeley Ballet Arts. Once exposed to the diverse dance community of the Bay Area, his quest for a well rounded dance education led him to L.A. and N.Y.C. where he studied the techniques of Alvin Ailey, Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Jose Limon, and Paul Taylor. During the formative time in L.A. and N.Y.C., he began to choreograph modern works and performed in most of them. His developing choreographic style includes: Classical, Jazz, Modern, Post-Modern, all with to be executed with his unique twist of Vietnamese culture and experience. Professor Nguyen is passionate of dancing and has been performing since 1989. He has been teaching in College of Alameda since 1999, continuously teaching students of what he has learned, always encouraged students to learn and do their best regardless of dance skills nor physical status. While teaching, he still volunteers to teach at local schools and senior centers. His professionalism, knowledge, and community involvement within the performance arts has been recognized and honored by event organizers, local city leaders, newspapers, and social media with numerous amounts of appreciation, recognition certificates, and awards.