Tanner Cheel, a sophomore from Taiwan studying business education, has practiced the art of animation dance for sixteen years.
He started off as a child and had an interest in hip-hop because he felt it appealed to him as the most popular type of dance. “I craved for attention as a kid,” Cheel remarked when asked how he got started.
On Jan. 30, Cheel performed in front of an audience during the “Dancing Through Life” dance concert. It took him three hours to choreograph his animated dance which he performed. “That was the first I’ve ever done professionally or at least on a nice stage with a crowd,” he said.
“Most of the time, my other chances of dancing were after school. The high school would have break dance battle that I would join.”
Kason Martinez, a junior from Virginia studying ICS and peacebuilding, also a friend of Cheel, said, “Tanner is a very outgoing and friendly guy. He is the kind of guy who remembers you.”
Martinez attended the dance concert performance and watched Cheel perform. “He is ridiculously talented. It takes a ton of practice to get your body to be able to dance like he can.”
He also noted Cheel’s ability to entertain. Martinez said there was a particular part where all of the other male dancers were holding their female partners, but Cheel was being held by his female partner.
“It was something to make you laugh if you were paying attention,” he remarked. “It is definitely an anchor for me to be proud of myself,” Cheel said. “You can always have something to go back to that you’re good at when you make a mistake, kind of like playing an instrument. Whenever you’re feeling sad, you can go back to that something you like to do. Dancing is always there for me. It’s like a best friend.”
Cheel said the best way for someone to educate and train themselves on how to become an animation dancer is by going to YouTube, a site Cheel calls “the main source of all inspiration.”
He said when he is looking for new work, he often watches videos of other animation dancers for ideas about new moves. “Your body is made of gears, and to start, you practice moving one at a time,” Cheel stated during a tutorial dance session he gave. “Most of it is math.”
He modeled this concept for the group by starting with a four-point movement: finger, hand, elbow, and shoulder. Raising the fingers up and down is one, followed by your wrist, then your elbow, and last, your shoulder. When he put them altogether his arm formed the motion of a wave from one side to the other.