Annarose Monroe Photography

Senior Kaylee Yeung performs in a 2023 Nutcracker production with her dance studio.

In the winter of 2018, senior Kaylee Yeung — in sixth grade at the time — stared in awe as she watched a full production of “Coppélia,” performed by her studio, Hong Kong Youth Ballet Academy where she practiced ballet. Yeung was impressed with the older dancers and their ability to re-enact and artistically express their character’s roles. 

Yeung said this event ignited her long-lasting passion for ballet and her desire to consider it as a profession. 

“I think [ballet] helped me develop discipline because even if you don’t want to do it, you still have to do it,” Yeung said. “It requires persistence and pushing through because it can hurt.”

Even before watching “Coppelia,” Yeung started learning ballet at age 3. She lived in Hong Kong until three years ago and danced at a local recreational studio there once or twice a week. After attending the studio throughout her elementary years, she switched to Hong Kong New Ballet, which she attended three times a week. She later switched to a Russian ballet school followed by an American school, Edge’n Pointe Dance Centre. 

“Growing up, I attended a more recreational studio, so once I moved to the Russian studio, it was a bit challenging,” Yeung said. “I wasn’t used to what they were doing and the intensity.”

After moving to the U.S., Yeung started attending Los Gatos Ballet. She now practices there two to three hours per day, six days a week. 

From March 22-24, Yeung saw her interest in ballet came full circle when she performed in “Coppélia” with her dance studio at Santa Clara University. “Coppélia,” a classical romantic ballet, follows the storyline of a man who falls in love with a life-size dancing doll. 

Yeung performed in the Czardas, a character group dance that occurs in the third act of the production. When preparing for her role, Yeung focused on performing turns on pointe shoes and her turnout, a technique where the feet are pointed outward with the heels touching, 180 degrees being the ideal angle.

“I feel like in ballet, it can never be perfected,” Yeung said. “There will always be something you need to work on.”

Though she wants to pursue ballet professionally, she does not hope to attend a fully concentrated art school, as she wants to pursue a double major in ballet with kinesiology.

Currently, Yeung is looking to apply to colleges with a full concentration on ballet, such as Indiana University, UC Irvine and the University of Arizona. 

“[A ballet profession] is something I would like to try and pursue, even if it’s small,” Yeung said. “It’s a nice escape for me from school and a way to challenge myself in a different way because there’s always something to work on.”