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Meet the Team

Where the Passion Begins

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Yating Lu

Co-Founder, Instructor​

​yating@youtopiadanceacademy.com

Yating has been a dance enthusiast since the age of six. To pursue her dance dream of becoming a professional dancer, she attended the best dance school in Guangxi, Guangxi Arts University. While developing her professional dance skills in classical Chinese dance, she won many awards from national professional dance competitions in China. 

To further broaden her skills and opportunities as a dancer, She came to the U.S in 2006 and was awarded a bachelor’s degree in dance from The University of Colorado Boulder in 2015. 

As a skillful dancer and creative choreographer, Yating is well versed in teaching and performing  classical Chinese, Modern, Jazz, and Hip-Hop dance styles. For the past 14 years, she has participated in many shows and competitions, where her solid dance technique, natural dance talent, and creative choreography, and expressive movements were showcased. While continuing to hone her dance skills through a variety of performance opportunities in the U.S., Yating has also been an influential part in helping her dance students fulfill their dreams to become dancers. For over 16 years, Yating has devoted herself to teaching and mentoring the next generation of dancers as a dedicated and passionate dance teacher.

 

“ I love children, and I love dance. A dance teacher is doing more than teaching dance movements, yet to teach students to respect each others. ”

—by Yating Lu

Annie Chang

Co-Founder, Instructor​

annie@youtopiadanceacademy.com

She’d been worked in Tianjin Huaxia Future Children Art Troupe and lead the students participated and awarded the children’s dance competition performance such as “little Jasmine” National Dance Festival Dance, “edelweiss” Xiao-he Rookie Award, “My Dream” Chinese Children’s Dance etc….In the practice of dance performance and dance teaching for more than 20 years, Annie has summarized her experience in raising seedlings. The concept of “cultivating interest in dancing, forming temperament and habits, and setting up a professional direction” has been recognized by students and parents, and has cultivated many excellent new dancers over the years.“ We inspire students to explore dance and foster their growth through professional classic dance training, mentoring, and creating self-confidence. ”

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Lara Jean Mummertt

Professional Choreographer•Director•Performer•Dance Judge

LARA JEAN MUMMERT SAG-AFTRA EDUCATION Bachelor of Fine Arts, Dance & Acting Purchase Conservatory, SUNY​YAGP 2025 Outstanding Choreographer Award (For all of her works) American Ballet Theatre Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre​The A.C.T. Conservatory​_________ Lara Jean Mummert is a multi-award-winning actor, dancer, and choreographer. At the very young age of 12 she moved to NYC to train with American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and received full scholarship to the prestigious Purchase Conservatory, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. Choreography credits include: The Metropolitan Opera, oxygen network, Sesame Street, The Netflix Bridgerton Experience, All Wheel Sports, Kings Island Cedar Fair, California’s Great America, Disney, Bruce Springsteen Concert Tour, Paris Hilton Concert Tour, and Darren Criss Live Shows

Yi Ning

Hip-hop/K-pop Dance Instructor

Yining, a photographer with a passion for art and design, is drawn to all things beautiful, especially the art of dance. Her relentless pursuit of beauty and art has endowed her with acute perception for dance and develop her distinctive dance style. She has studied various forms of dance, including ballet, traditional Chinese dance, and folk dance, but it is the contemporary and street dance genres that she has devoted the most time and effort to, excelling particularly in hip-hop and K-pop. She believes that the study of multiple dance forms allows dancers to develop their bodies to their fullest potential in the shortest amount of time possible, drawing on the strengths of each form and using them in synergy, which is the hallmark of her signature style. "Dancing to music, forgetting everything in dance, expressing everything through dance, enjoying dance, and loving life!" This is her goal in learning and teaching dance.

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Fang Siyue

​Instructor​

She was top of her class at Wuhan Dance School and Wuhan Sports University where she majored in Classical Chinese Dance and minored in Ballroom Dance.  Years of dance experiences while she was lead dancer in both China Unicom art troupe and Yellow Crane Tower Art Troupe have allowed her to gain a profound understanding of various dance skills and accumulated extensive on stage performance experiences. Aside from being a professional dancer, she also took the role of dance teacher for various age groups in Wuhan iBallet Dance Academy.   Her effective and innovative teaching methods were highly praised by her students.  She has helped students pass the Dance Certification Exam.“I am dedicated and passionate about my students, and I always aim for the success of my students.”

©2020 by Youtopia Dance Academy

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