Taking Dance from One Generation to the Next

From dancing as a hobby to performing on the big stage in dance crews, Ben Chung has made a name and a place for himself in the dance world. Chung started out practicing and performing with friends in local competitions around 2000 to 2001. Several years later in 2007, Chung joined the Jabbawockeez dance crew and shined on the stage and screen when the Jabbawockeez won the America’s Best Dance Crew T.V. competition in 2008 and 2010. His successes did not stop with those victories though, as he later moved on to the Kinjaz dance crew and helped bring them to prominence when the crew made it to the finals in Season 8 of America’s Best Dance Crew. With Kinjaz, Chung has traveled around the world teaching and learning about dance moves from dancers of other cultures. Back home in the United States, he works on developing and maintaining the Kinjaz dance studio where he hopes to pass on his techniques and experiences to a new generation of dancers. Chung still dances himself, but he looks ahead to a future where he can more strategically help Kinjaz make its mark on the dancing world just as the Jabbawockeez did years before. If anything, he wants Kinjaz to be even bigger than his old dance crew to the point where Kinjaz dazzles audiences across the globe with fantastically choreographed moves. Seoul Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Ben Chung about Chung’s origins in dance, his transition from the Jabbawockeez to Kinjaz and how he wants to make dance a positive creative force that benefits future generations of dancers.