Line dance group to celebrate Hmong New Year with performance in St. Paul

NINA MOINI: This weekend, thousands will be celebrating the Hmong New Year. The celebration marks the harvest season and a time for Hmong people to honor their ancestors and native crops. There are events happening all across the state. And something you'll likely see is Hmong line dancing. So joining me now is Yer Chang, the vice president of [HMONG], a local line dancing performance group. Yer, thank you for being here.

YER CHANG: Well, thank you for having me.

NINA MOINI: Well, I'm really excited to learn about this because I've been to tons of Hmong New year celebrations, believe it or not, throughout my career. And I've never caught the tradition of line dancing. Will you tell me a little bit about what it means to you and your culture?

YER CHANG: Well, line dances is becoming a really popular tradition now. We do it mostly at gatherings and parties, but we recently noticed that the competition level, or even just the showcasing of the line dancing at these larger events, is growing as we see more growth in the community.

NINA MOINI: Oh, I love that. And so describe just-- it's literally just line dancing? How do people know what steps to do?

YER CHANG: There's so many-- with the different types of music, temples. There's different dances that correlate to those songs. It's just, when we go to gathering, it's whoever is on the dance floor leading or starting a dance. And people tend to follow along. If you don't know the dance, you try to follow, to learn it. If you do know, you just join them.

NINA MOINI: I love that. OK. So someone just kicks it off and it organically can start. I'm curious how you yourself got involved in line dancing. Is it something you did as a child or more recently?

YER CHANG: No, it's definitely more recent. In 2019, I'd do at family gatherings. So seeing it there, like I said, it's really grassroots as the family. And then it grew into seeing that there was a group that was teaching some dances, some classes. And so I joined them. And then later, they asked me to join their team. And so then from there on, I've just been a part of the team. And we've been helping to promote and grow in the community.

NINA MOINI: And so when you're saying that popularity is growing, why do you think that is?

YER CHANG: I think with dance, some people are comfortable doing freestyle. If you go on the dance floor, you can do whatever you feel like.

NINA MOINI: That's me.

YER CHANG: But sometimes, people are intimidated by that. And so when you learn a few line dances, then you are able to just follow along without even thinking about it. And you're with a group of people, so you're not singled out. I think it's that collaborative, being a part of a group thing that really makes people feel really comfortable and able to do it.

NINA MOINI: Does this involve people of all ages? Do kids get involved?

YER CHANG: Yes, of all ages. Some young kids. Part of our team-- we have anywhere from the 50s all the way down to 20 years old. As long as they see us on the dance floor and doing something, they want to learn.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So how often do you practice?

YER CHANG: So for our dance team, we practice twice a week. And we do that to continue to learn, to stay active as a team, but also, when we're preparing to perform at either events, private events, we need that time to make sure that we are up to date and in sync.

NINA MOINI: And how do you choreograph the dances? Where do you draw inspiration from?

YER CHANG: So far, we get it from YouTube, social media. That's a big place that we get it. And most of the time, we do create our own dance. And it comes from either staying up to date with some of the newest dance steps that are out there, or even the newest songs that are out. And we create dances to match those songs.

NINA MOINI: Do you have a favorite song and dance?

YER CHANG: So in the Hmong community, it's really popular. We call it the Hmong [HMONG] Dance, which I guess if you think of it in the line dance community, that's the Electric Slide.

NINA MOINI: OK.

YER CHANG: Yeah, so it's really popular. Everybody knows the dance. And as soon as that music gets turned on, everybody knows what dance is going to that song. So we all do that.

NINA MOINI: Oh, that's fun. Can you describe for us-- what do you wear during your performances?

YER CHANG: So we were a wide range of different outfits pertaining to match either the song or the dance that we're doing. And so it's if it's a dance that turns a lot, we like to wear a dress with it. If it's a loud song that we're using, we wear a Lao or Thai outfit to match it.

But typically, most of the time, we are wearing something formal, something nice. And especially, the most important thing is heels. We wear heels. So it actually really helps us move faster, better, and just looks really nice.

NINA MOINI: Oh, I love that. I've been checking out some of the videos online. So you're going to be performing at the River Center Hmong New Year celebration this weekend. That's a huge one-- one of the biggest, really, in the Twin Cities and state. What can people expect from your performance?

YER CHANG: So we're really excited about this performance. We've been practicing for a whole year.

NINA MOINI: Wow.

YER CHANG: This is going to be-- outside of our traditional-- we traditionally do two performances in one song or two-song performance. And so this time, we're actually using only one song. And we're integrating, I believe, up to four different dances in it.

So it's going to be really, really new for us. Like I said, we've been practicing for a whole year, getting all the team together, making sure that we're getting all the steps in. And so for this weekend, we are excited to be able to showcase this dance.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And I'm curious. Putting all this work into it, making all these connections with people from different ages, like you mentioned-- I know we have such a big, vibrant, strong Hmong community in the Twin Cities and in the state. How does it feel when you're dancing? Do you see it as a way preserving tradition in your culture?

YER CHANG: It is. This is something that's been happening. And I say it's growing in the community. As some our population age, they're not doing their traditional dance anymore that our younger generation doing. So they're looking for something new.

And as we introduced line dance into the community, I feel like either young, or typically, a lot of older people are more comfortable. And they want to continue to grow into it, learn it, and do something to make sure that they're staying active.

NINA MOINI: Yer, thank you so much for being here. I'm very excited for your performance this weekend. Wishing you all the best with the whole celebration.

YER CHANG: Thank you.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. That was Yer Chang, the vice president of [HMONG], a Hmong line dancing group.