The world is coming to NoHo? Yep. NoHo Tours provided Chinese hip hop dancers and aspiring singers with a dance and voice camp.
You may have seen large groups of young folks walking around our arts community with a happy woman pointing at things and singing NoHo’s praises. That’s us, the NoHo Arts District dot Com team. If you ever see our groups, please make sure to give our tour guests a big “WELCOME to NOHO!” greeting.
In addition to running nohoartsdistrict.com, our team operates NoHo Tours. For 10 years, we have provided tours and arts workshops to high school students from all over the world. The students love NoHo for its “artsy, urban, bohemian, underground” vibe, just a few descriptive adjectives used by our students. The students enjoy a theatre performance and a stroll through the district being amazed at all the theatres, dance and music studios, acting schools and galleries. The excitement really rises when students see the young actors rehearsing their lines at local restaurants, dancers practicing their steps in front of many dance studios with independent filmmakers shooting right on the streets. Tour groups can choose from more than 25 entertainment industry workshops and custom designed training in dance, acting, singing, music and filmmaking.
NoHo Tours was proud to serve its first tour group of high school students from Beijing, China. Students came to NoHo for four days where they took vocal coaching and dance classes at Millennium Dance Complex. They even had a workshop with a seasoned choreographer who explained the “nuts and bolts” of the commercial dance world.
The tour organizer was Zongmei Education & Consulting LTD, a leading student tour company in China. We were pleased to meet Cathy Guo, president, Justine Yu, project director and Stephanie Tang, director assistant. In 2007, Cathy Guo started the student and business tour company. A major motivation was she observed some negative limitations of her son’s schooling such as the demanding amount of time spent on school work and not on the whole child’s well being. Cathy wanted to find a better educational method and sought out experimental education and character development based on travel. After seeing amazing changes in her son through travel, she wanted to share this concept with other families and students. This is how “G Light Project” was created. The program focuses on developing a teen’s character through educational travel providing them with opportunities to experience the arts and interact and exchange ideas with local students. The mission of the program is to inspire students to experience the joy of self development and pursuing their dreams. They found out about NoHo Tours through the Beijing office of Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board who recommended our winter and summer arts training camp.
We asked the Cathy, Justine and Stephanie what they liked about the tours…
We were very warmly welcomed and taken care of by NoHo Tours. The environment at Millennium Dance Complex was very accepting and encouraging…a very positive influence where there was no judgement that promoted self confidence and communication. This arts camp experience gave the students hope to believe they can find that one dream in their life to work hard towards.
How some of the Chinese dance students how they felt about their experience:
“Dance is not just about physical movement but it is about adding your own emotion and using your own way to expressed this dance. Before I would be very critical about the way I dance, but being here, I am encourage by everyone and it motivated me to try my best to dance well.”
Here’s their video where they explain what dance means to them!
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Visit www.nohotours.com for more information on the various tours, workshops and performance opportunities we offer in the booming NoHo Arts District!
**** For information on Los Angeles theatre, tickets to theatre in North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts District, theatre reviews, the NoHo Event Calendar, restaurants, news and local businesses in NoHo, or anything and everything about the NoHo Arts Community, bookmark nohoartsdistrict.com.