By Selin Ozgur
Carrie Lee grew up with a fond love for dance, which she discovered at the age of six. After moving from China to Canada she dabbled in several genres, including hip hop, jazz, and even ballet. Despite her immense dedication and passion for dance as a whole, Carrie has always kept her education a top priority. This eventually led her to stopping competitive dance outside of school, and joining Collingwood’s hip hop crew instead.
Her advice to others is to find your own artistic style, and to step out of your comfort zone. But even Carrie herself has had issues with this, but she still strongly believes in finding it and that it can take dancers many years to find themselves and their unique flare. As she so eloquently states, “when taking a class, once you get the choreography, try to add your own personality into it while still delivering what the choreographer wants! No one else can dance the same way as you can, so embrace that!”
Carrie Lee grew up with a fond love for dance, which she discovered at the age of six. After moving from China to Canada she dabbled in several genres, including hip hop, jazz, and even ballet. Despite her immense dedication and passion for dance as a whole, Carrie has always kept her education a top priority. This eventually led her to stopping competitive dance outside of school, and joining Collingwood’s hip hop crew instead.
Her advice to others is to find your own artistic style, and to step out of your comfort zone. But even Carrie herself has had issues with this, but she still strongly believes in finding it and that it can take dancers many years to find themselves and their unique flare. As she so eloquently states, “when taking a class, once you get the choreography, try to add your own personality into it while still delivering what the choreographer wants! No one else can dance the same way as you can, so embrace that!”
Currently, Carrie has taken her passions to UCLA to study psychology, and is on the hip hop team ACA. When it comes to carrying on dance at university, she has realized just how much inspiration and passion she can draw from her peers. Being surrounded by such hardworking and multi-talented individuals truly has been eye opening for her, as it is a constant reminder of dedication, improvement and good form, all of which Carrie hopes to build from. Even during the most difficult of situations, including challenging practices that span more than eight hours, which take place in filthy parking lots, each team member is still smiling and encouraging each other by the end of it! So far her team has competed twice this year, at Prelude Nor Cal and Bridge, and her next competition is Vibe in March!
Outside of dance Carrie loves to be with friends and watching documentaries on Netflix. As for her studies she has realized just how interested she is in psychology, and hopes to be involved in research projects abroad, including in Asia. After graduating from UCLA Carrie hopes to complete grad school for psychology, which will truly open her eyes to the depths of her studies.
Many of Carrie’s videos can be found on Youtube.