Nina Cheng’s earliest memory of a dance party with her peers is from fifth grade, at one of the rare sleepovers her immigrant parents let her attend. While the other girls jumped around, she felt every bit the “quiet Asian girl,” the new kid on the New Jersey block.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my god, I cannot move my body in front of these strangers that I don’t feel close to,’” Cheng said.
So in her 20s, Cheng started a group, the Dance Social Club (DSC), to help others overcome such shyness and dance with strangers — some of whom become fast friends.
DSC, which she describes as “like run club but for dancing,” is celebrating its first anniversary this month. The club offers twice-weekly socials and one-off marketing events built around a song and dance. Its events feature themed choreography, dance trends and start with icebreakers for strangers to get to know each other, all led by Cheng and volunteer dancers.
“We’re creating this inclusive environment where people can really feel safe to explore dance and meet other like-minded people,” Cheng said.
Dancing into the business
In the years after that sleepover, Cheng slowly built her confidence. She had always danced around her siblings, but the expectations of their household, rooted in traditions of Fujian province in China, kept her focused on school. So in college, she joined a breakdance club, later adding Bollywood and South Asian styles to her repertoire.
After graduating college in 2019 and getting a full-time job, Cheng put everything else but dance on the backburner. She worked long hours in various roles in financial services, pricing strategy and tech. Four years ago, she began turning to hip-hop, jazz funk and street jazz for stress relief from the corporate grind. After leaving her tech job last year, she took more intensive classes. The sabbatical was for burnout recovery and creative pursuits. But dance “started to become one more thing that I was working on, getting better at, instead of one thing that I was just doing for fun,” Cheng said.
Then last summer, Cheng got serious about facilitating dancing for fun. Friends began asking her to teach them moves. This led her to host a small dance fundraiser for the New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) before partnering with Project by Project NY to support Adhikaar, which promotes human rights for New York’s Nepali-speaking immigrants. Earlier this year, DSC donated proceeds from an event to Stand with Minnesota to support immigrants impacted by ICE.
Meanwhile, Cheng also collaborated with community organizations to reach more participants for the core of DSC, its dance socials, promoting the events on Partiful. While she didn’t set out to build a club largely made up of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), at the start of DSC, Cheng partnered with a number of local AAPI-founded nonprofits. Those included the Viet Creative Society, Project by Project NY, TAP-NY, and Patina Network. Building a diverse community was key to being as inclusive as possible, she said. And, by all accounts, it was working: Cheng was receiving feedback about the consistent demand for a space for people to build community and move without judgment.
“In New York, everything is so competitive, and sometimes you see something that’s supposed to be beginner,” she said. “Because the bar is so high here, it doesn’t actually feel as approachable or easy.”
The socials had been selling out for months when Cheng decided to dedicate herself to growing DSC full-time in March. “Now it’s full circle,” Cheng said. “Because I quit all my jobs, and now I’m running a dance club.”
Running DSC full-time meant finding ways to fund it. DSC’s first brand partnership paired a sock company’s “best things come in pairs” campaign with a dance to Saweetie and Doja Cat’s “Best Friend.” Other collaborations have involved product testing and organic social content. While brand work makes up a small slice of DSC’s revenue, Cheng hopes to grow that side of the business. This week, DSC is working with the founder of a breath spray company to create a dance experience around “Lose My Breath” by Destiny’s Child.
The business of balance
Cheng’s introversion means balancing her needs with those of DSC. Socials typically draw 20 to 30 people to rented Midtown studios, but nighttime events and meeting dozens of new people weekly can be draining for a highly sensitive morning person.
So are logistics. “On the outside, of course, it seems like, ‘Oh, this is a casual club, everyone’s coming together,’ but on the back end, it’s me and, like, a million spreadsheets and documents with a lot of structure and organization,” Cheng said, adding that her background in pricing and finance has helped her organize the business.
Avoiding burnout is part of the job, too. “When you go from working corporate, where it’s a little bit more structured, to working on something that you love, you could do it 24/7,” she said. “So now I’m kind of doing this all the time [and] the lines are blurring.”
It helped to work with a coach to write an agreement with herself on boundaries. During moments of doubt, she leans on volunteers, “signs from the universe” like a Red Bull representative sliding into her DMs, and stories of friendships and courage forged in the club.
“Part of the reason I’m building this is because everyone understands that awkward moment at the club, at a wedding, at a dance venue, where there’s a circle that’s forming, and no one wants to go into that circle – no one wants to be the first person, because it’s scary,” Cheng said.
“What I’m doing, and what I’m telling everyone that comes through, is I want you to feel so confident in yourself that you’re the first person that goes in that circle.”
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Follow DSC on Instagram at @dancesocialclub_
Follow DSC on Partiful for upcoming events.
Fill out a form on DSC’s website to learn more or express interest in collaborating on projects: https://www.dancesocial.club/
