“We went into the competition not expecting anything”,  says Jing Li. She inititated the dance group and received her PhD from Mathematics & Computer Science in 2010. “We were asked to participate and we figured: why not? There’s a lot to learn from the other performances, and it’s an opportunity for us present ourselves. I did fear the first round would coincide with Chinese New Year and some of our members to be in China, but luckily the two didn’t overlap.”

As a master’s student, Jing Li was a member of student dance association Footloose, but couldn’t find a regular dance partner, so she decided to start her own dance group. Chinese Dance Group Eindhoven started in 2007, and had four members at the time, Li tells us. She started dancing when she was still a teenager. Currently, the group consists of some fifteen members, twelve of whom competed in the first round of Everybody Dance Now.

Participating in Asia Week last year generated even more attention, and even led to the group entering the program, albeit indirectly. “The Asia Week coordinator recommended us to the producers”, Li tells us.

Members of the dance group are now part of dance association Footloose and practice about once a week. “We come up with the choreography for the shows ourselves. I’m watching videos all the time, and think of what we’ll be showing the audience in the semi-finals.” The judging panel was blown away by the group’s performance and originality, and voted them straight into the semi-finals.

Jing Li has one final request, by the way: “Please vote for us!”

Last week’s performance can be viewed here.