Manh Quyen (in the middle) received the championship. Photo: TL
Manh Quyen was born to and brought up in a middle-class family in Hue. While he has had great passion in dancing since he was 14, he could only perform dance in the streets because his family could not afford any formal courses. That the whole month allowance the boy saved was still not enough for the tuition really touched Bao Cuong (a teacher at New Life Crew Center). He decided to charged Manh Quyen VND 20,000 instead of VND 40,000.
As he went on foot to the center for dancing practice, many people even mistook him as a boy selling lottery tickets. In 2014, Manh Quyen “took a risk” registering the program “Dancing Challenge” in Ho Chi Minh City, and many of his friends in dancing groups in Hue collected the outfits for him to take part in the contest. Unfortunately, he stopped while in the top 6.
Pursuing the dancing career is a difficult decision for which his family economic situation is not favorable. This hard-training career is short-lived and low-paid. To prepare well for “The Quintessence” contest, Manh Quyen had to choose the music, rent the outfits, look for the dancing trainer and center.
Although his arm injury during practice still hurt just before the final round, Manh Quyen made his greatest efforts in the final round to successfully completed his performance of “The Master of Dreams”, which is inspired from the well-known eponymous movie directed by Michael Gracey. One of the panel members, singer Phuong Dung said with admiration: “Manh Quyen had excellent ideas and great talent.” Manh Quyen has left behind quite several talents such as Tieu Chau Nhu Quynh, Manh Truong, Bao Chu and Vinh Thuyen Kim.
One of Manh Quyen’s performances. Photo: TL
Manh Quyen revealed after becoming the champion that he decided to spend VND 150 million on the injured arm treatment, giving a small amount to his family as a gift, and more importantly, renovating and upgrading the dancing practice hall to offer training courses to younger generations. In addition, Quyen collects equipment, shoes and clothes to donate, as well as selects people with great passion to connect them with dancing groups in his hometown and offer free courses.
It is little known that he has been to different orphanages to teach and inspire the children with dancing for the past year. He would like to take a course in directing in the long run with an ambition of developing a splendid performing stage.
Manh Quyen aspires a directing course and a chance to choreograph internationally-recognized shows. He desires to think out of the box to reach a higher level. His success at “The Quintessence” lays the grounds for this.
Unlike Hue people living away from home, especially successful people, Manh Quyen shows a very typical Hue style, with Hue distinctive accent, which brought him special love from the hometown. In the seventh episode of “The Quintessence” artist Hong Van, who was excited about his performance, wittingly said: “Hey, listen. I did fall in love with Hue before I met you, but now I even love it much more when I’ve seen you perform. Hue people are both well-performing and good-looking.”
Together with the title The Quintessence champion, dancer Manh Quyen has added to his collection of pride other titles such as a top-three Asian Astro Battle Ground in Malaysia, the first prize at Astro Battle Ground in Vietnam, the first prize at BeU Honda for national dancing 2016, and the ISDT certificate (an British international certificate for dancing).
Hue people used to be characterized as shy and reticent in public and in contact with the media although they are smart. Manh Quyen and a generation of Hue young people have changed this image of Hue people, making them more dynamic and confident.
Ha Thu made impression at the Miss Earth 2017 by her lovely look, confident manner and the fluency in English. She is the owner of a restaurant specializing in Hue dishes “O Nho” in Sai Gon. Miss Quoc Hoc Hue, Ngoc Tran took part in the project “Nang tho xu Hue” – a Vietnam-Korea tourist promotion program shown on domestic and international flights as well as on KBS World. Ngoc Tran has also selected as the brand ambassador of a Japanese cosmetics.
Hopefully, artistic talents like Manh Quyen, Ha Thu and Ngoc Tran will gain more confidence and get advances in their art career. It is also hoped that more new talents from Hue will rise up not only from afar but also on their own hometown.
By THUC DAN