 |
| Tune |
While in Chiang Mai one of the first artists I had the opportunity to interview was Nguyen Anh Tuan, known on the streets and by his peers as,Tune.
"Like a melody," he assures me.
Always ready to smile, Tune is a street dancer from the S.I.N.E. Crew from Hanoi, Vietnam. In S.I.N.E., (Saying Is Not Enough) there are over 30 dance members.
"It's more like a community than a crew," Tune says.
According to Tune, the crew combines several different street styles including hip-hop, b-boy and locking.
While in Chiang Mai, Tune, also taught dance workshops at to children at the Prem Tinsulanonda International School.
Two years ago, studying to become a software engineer, Tune quit school (to the horror of his parents) to pursue dance full time. His parents began to warm up to the idea when they were able to see what Tune was able to accomplish.
Although Tune has only been street dancing for two years and has only been with S.I.N.E. Crew for three months, opportunities are already falling at his feet.
"I'm just lucky," Tune says.
Discovered in Lennon Park in Hanoi, Tune later found himself teaching homeless children how to dance with the help of Jerry Snell, director of Collision Arts Asia.
The school that Snell created for children also teaches circus skills, which would come as no surprise after learning Jerry Snell Industries (JSI) whose interests along with New Circus Asia (NCA) are to bring Canadian-style new circus to Asia to satisfy a demand for high-tech, fast-paced entertainment.
Tune also has a contract with Cartoon Network Asia to teach dance to children in Thailand, so he has been coming to Thailand from Vietnam once a month for two weeks, for the last three months.
So what is Tune's dream for the future?
"My dream is that my friends and dance brothers teach all children in Vietnam to dance, and about Hip-hop culture to give them strength. Most [of the children] come from a non-peaceful background."
Tune (sans crew) performed a bit of freestyle alongside street dancers from Bangkok at the Circus Terminal Thailand exhibit at the Sangdee Gallery in Chiang Mai.
You can check out Tune's work on YouTube on his channel, VNDC (Vietnamese Dancing Channel) where he produces videos demonstrating a lot of the Vietnamese street dance scene and culture.
My creative side has always been inspired
by the built environment around me and the various states of its decay, as well
as the fleeting ephemera we fail to appreciate each day. 
My mixed media and jewelry lines are
composed, quite literally, of lost fragments from the past - from remnants of
porcelain shards and Victorian era shoes to porcelain dolls excavated from old
world privies with a local salvage expert.
