|
 Winnie Yu (Dancepooh) was the leader of the winning team of the Millennium Dancing Competition organized by the Fairchild Radio and Fairchild Television in 1999. Her team was the champion in the Line Dancing Sub-Group of that event.
Winnie has more than 12 years of professional line dancing teaching experience; she has accumulated much insight and experience, ready to be shared with all dancers. Winnie organizes her dancing lessons in a systematic and unique fashion, and she adjusts teaching pace and methods suitable to each individual student learning needs. Hence, students of different ages and levels can learn line dancing in a comfortable environment, with full attention from our instructors. Students are first introduced to basic dancing steps of different kinds of dance; these serve as an important foundation for developing line dancing skills and movements. There are over 2,000 students under the guidance of our team of instructors, and the number is increasing. Experienced and talented individuals have been selected from our students to be further trained as instructors, promoting line dancing in different communities.
Winnie has been a Tai Chi instructor for more than 12 years in the Ontario. She learned from the renowned Tai Chi Master Kwan Kwok Keung. Winnie has been the first to integrate Tai Chi steps into the application of line dance movements.
Winnie has been diligently improving her expertise in line dancing; she consistently attends advanced dancing workshops from famous dancers around and out of town, searching for leading edge dancing skills and trends. Her students can take the added advantage of her up-to-date knowledge of the most recent and hit dances from different line dancing interest groups.
Winnie began her line dancing choreography career in 2004. YMCA was her first masterpiece which led to an initial success and received tremendous support and recognition from various line dancing interest groups. Winnie’s other piece, Summer Wine placed third at the Windy City Line Dance Mania in Chicago in 2004. Also, she was the first award-winning Chinese line dance choreographer of Ontario.
Winnie has choreographed numerous pieces: 2 Butterflies, Banca Cha Cha, Little Waltz, Mice Love Big Rice, Timeless, CuCu, Disco Remix and Kung Fu Fighting. She choreographed some of the above pieces for raising funds for charity organizations. After that, her piece became popular amongst her students and line dancing interest groups worldwide as she sought after dances at parties and workshops.
Her most recent pieces include Sealed With A Kiss and Unbreak My Heart which have been put in the list of popularity for some time. You are welcome to download them from
Winnie’s Dance on this website.
Winnie cares for the community. She has voluntarily delivered free dancing lessons and participated in many event performances for Yee Hong Community Wellness Foundation, Carefirst Seniors & Community Services Association, S.E.A.S. Centre, Fu Hui (Canada) Foundation for poor children education in China, and Centre for Information and Community Services for the last 10 years. In April 2001, the Year of International Volunteers, Winnie was awarded the Silver Medal by the Province of Ontario in recognition of her continuous contributions of volunteer services to our communities. In addition, Winnie was also awarded a Certificate of Recognition in the year 2005 from the former Minister of Immigration and Human Resources of the Province of Ontario.
Winnie supports different kinds of charity events and activities in our communities, she has been named the “Charity Line Dance Queen” by our dancing communities.
In 2001-2003, Winnie and her students had voluntarily participated in the production of a TV commercial for Mon Sheong Long Term Care Centre, promoting the services delivered by Mon Sheong to the public. Winnie also organizes charity parties raising money for this organization on a regular basis.
In December 2004, Winnie collected a total of CAD10,000 from distributing her own line dancing instructional DVDs collection. All proceeds were donated to the Red Cross Tsunami Relief Fund to help with the South East Asia disaster.
In 2005, Winnie has assigned some of her trained instructors to teach line dancing in Carefirst classes. No of classes have been increased from 4 to 19, levels from elementary to advanced. Winnie has been consistently promoting line dancing activities and raising charitable funds for Carefirst Foundation.
In 2006, Winnie raised CAD30,000 in charitable funds for C.I.C.S. Immigrant Resources Centre by distributing her line dancing instructional DVD sets (Chapter 5 to 12). Every year she organizes charity birthday parties; part of the proceeds will be donated to C.I.C.S. Foundation. In addition, she organizes Saturday Night Line Dance Fun line dance parties on a regular basis, and all funds have been raised to establish the Immigrant Resources Centre. Students receive excellent opportunities to practice line dances while also raising money. The whole set of educational DVDs (1-12) have been used by local mainstream libraries as reference resources for community users borrowing. Thus Winnie has been appointed an Honorable Member by the Board of Directors of C.I.C.S.
On June 10, 2007, Winnie led her team of instructors to break a record in a line dancing event in Canada - The Marathon of Line Dancing. The records broken were the number of participants that have attended (800), the total hours of dancing (8), and the funds raised (CAD16,000) at this line dance marathon. The beneficiary organization was Mon Sheong Foundation.
On November 24, 2007, Winnie personally organized a charitable line dancing workshop. More than 300 students and line dance enthusiasts participated. CAD10,000 has been donated to Fu Hui (Canada) Foundation in the name of Mr. & Mrs. Kwan Kwok Keung for the support of educational funds for poor children in China.
In 2007, Winnie has begun uploading video clips featuring activities in classes, parties, and performance events to YouTube. Also included are instructional video clips for easy reference and reviewing. Winnie will continue to upload new line dancing video clips for students after class practices and for reference.
In March 2008, Winnie was presented with the Chinese Phoenix Award by the Global Federation of the Chinese Business Women in recognition of her continuous contributions in promoting line dancing activities in our community.
In June 2008, Winnie led her team instructors and students to participate in the 2008 Charity Line Dancing Marathon Party. This party broke several records kept by Dancepooh team from the same theme party held in 2007. (In 2007, 800 participants danced for 8 hours, and a total of CAD16,000 was raised). New records for 2008 are as follows:
Biggest venue: dancing floor made up of 3 gyms. (total floor space 22,000 sq. ft.)
Dancers attended: 900
Dancing duration: 9 hours
Funds raised: CAD18,000
During this 9 hour Marathon, Winnie Yu also briskly appealed for on-the-spot cash donations from participants to help May Sichuan earthquake victims via Canadian Red Cross. A total of CAD10,000 was collected within 20 minutes. Another overwhelming new record was made by Pooh Team, thanks to the participants’ quick response to Winnie appeal for donations. Team spirits have sustained generosity and civic responsibility shown in charitable galas and parties organized by Winnie throughout the year.
An appreciation plaque was awarded by the Canadian Red Cross to Winnie Yu in October for raising earthquake relief funds.
Winnie organizes large-scale Annual charity year-end graduation, Christmas, New Year and luncheon line dancing parties for Carefirst, besides numerous fund raising charity activities through out the year. She has donated a total of CAD25,000 from these party proceeds as of the end of 2008.
In the past nine years since her innovative idea of charity came into being, Winnie has raised more than $200,000 from her line dancing fund raising galas, parties and countless functions, all which have contributed to various charitable organizations in our communities. She deserves, indeed, the prestigious calling of “Charity Line Dance Queen”.
Winnie also shares her newest line dancing instructional video clips on YouTube with a variety of audiences. She has uploaded a total of 778 line dancing video clips since 2007. Students have found these video clips very useful and handy for reviewing dances learned in classes for self-paced practice. Line dancing enthusiasts and over 1,300 YouTube subscribers, from local and worldwide also use these clips as a guide to keep up with the trend. She has team members designated to email correspondence with line dancing groups worldwide daily.
In 2007-2008, Winnie has choreographed the following dances:
Tong Hua (aka Fairytale), Little Merengue, Monica, Cha Cha For You, Funky Boogalu, Butterfly and the most recent piece, Little Christmas Waltz. These dances have become hits rapidly and are gaining popularity from students and dancers in local communities and global interest groups.
There will be at least three major fundraising events organized by Winnie for charitable organizations 2009. She anticipates great success at these parties with her students usual support and participation.
- Jan 18 - Birthday Celebration for the Pooh & Chinese New Year Celebration 2009
- Early of Jan & Feb - Winnie Yu’s 1st Line Dance Instructor Training Program starts
Winnie would like to express her appreciation to her team members for their continuous support and assistance, making her line dancing group a stronger and popular team serving our communities needs. She also wants to thank for your continuous support and valuable comments.
|
