Jane Huang

October 29, 2024

What Changed Me?

My name is Jane Huang (@janejane.zip). I’m a Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist and lawyer who enjoys story-telling through dance, fashion, and visual arts.

Art has been a catalyst for change throughout many periods in my life. Growing up, I branched between arts disciplines – first by training in gymnastics and ballet for a short period, then by immersing myself in fantasy worlds as an avid bookworm and writer, and later by leaning into visual arts through photography, modelling, and fashion. My creative pursuits have recently led me back to the world of movement arts, which for me includes dance, aerial arts, and yoga.

I started taking dance classes at a local studio in the summer of 2022 after a period of burnout and existential uncertainty. It was a way for me to feel grounded in my body while developing a fun skill and making friends from different walks of life. I felt self-conscious and uncomfortably clumsy in my first dance classes, but I was also bent on getting out of my comfort zone and pushing myself to grow.

Leaning into discomfort by coming to terms with being “bad”
at this new pursuit has actually been crucial to my growth as a dancer.

One trial class snowballed into hundreds of classes. From jazz funk and waacking to hip hop and house to heels and aerial dance, I tried to stay open to a variety of styles. I intentionally put myself in challenging-but-safe class levels where I was certainly not the best or most experienced dancer in the room. This sometimes led to me feeling inadequate or self-critical, but more often than not, I learned from the other great dancers in those classes and drew a lot of inspiration from them.

Taking classes as a beginner taught me to put aside my ego and to embrace the vulnerability of potentially being perceived as “cringe” or having my intentions be misunderstood.

In dance, and in life,
I believe we learn the most by failing upwards.

In other words, “flop to the top” is kind of my motto. Over the past two years, my movement arts journey has led to me participating in a dance battle at the AGO, performing a solo in a circus arts showcase, choreographing an aerial piece for a music video, appearing on a live news network, training with some amazing teams, and connecting with a bunch of supportive and talented friends. I’m also really drawn towards yoga and aerial arts lately, so I’m excited to dive deeper into these disciplines and see where those paths take me.

Overall, (re-)discovering the world of movement arts has been a meaningful and fulfilling journey with (hopefully) no end in sight. The creativity, social connection, persistence, and courage I’ve developed during my pursuit of this art has been broadly applicable to many facets of my life, including my full-time legal career. Looking back at the version of me before I started down this path, I never would have imagined some of the opportunities that I’ve had the fortune to have so far.

Hopefully, this is just the beginning.
I’m optimistic about many more years of creating, sharing, and community-building through art.