Photo above courtesy of Henry Liu.
here at new century dance we ensure that you have the best dance instructors possible.
Fenhua Lu - Founder & Principal
Fenhua Lu, affectionately known as "Lu Lao Shi," is the principal and sole founder of New Century Dance.
Her excellence, creativity, and heart for teaching stems from her extensive dance experience. When she was nine, she was selected by the prestigious Shanghai Dance School to live and breathe the essence of dance for over a decade. After performing professionally abroad in Canada and the United States for another 15 years, she opened New Century Dance School in California.
For two decades, Fenhua has introduced the beauty and grandeur of traditional Chinese dance and ballet to new generations of dancers. Her passion for dance has touched over one thousand students and their families. Through her innovative and disciplined leadership, New Century Dance has become a cornerstone in the Bay Area dance community.
Olivia Du - Ballet Teacher & Choreographer
Yuqing Du is a dance instructor and choreographer for New Century Dance’s Youth Performing Group. She began her dance journey at the age of 3, receiving her early training through Shenyang Conservatory of Music’s Chinese Dance Program. By the age of 13, she had earned the highest achievement of pre-professional level and was named Teen Best Dancer nationally.
In 2020, Yuqing joined Ballet Theatre - San Luis Obispo (BT-SLO), where she continued her ballet study and danced as a company dancer. She has performed lead roles in many full-length ballet productions, including Theresa Slobodnik’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, The 12 days of Christmas, Les Patineurs, and Gilbert Reed’s The Firebird, among others.
In addition to her prowess in dance, Yuqing spent five enriching years studying Peking Opera. This experience deepened her love for the performing arts, allowing her to merge the expressive nuances of opera with the physical storytelling of dance.
Outside the dance studio, she expresses her creativity through architectural design and photography, constantly exploring new ways to blend her artistic talents.
Erin McMahon - Ballet Teacher & Choreographer
Erin McMahon is originally from Houston, Texas where she trained under Caryn Stoll, Kathleen Waltz, Miroslav “Misha” Bart, and Milena Leben before attending City Ballet of Houston. From there she attended Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre where she performed in the school and with the company.
After graduating high school, Erin attended The University of Utah where she received her BFA in Ballet, BS in Economics and a minor in Modern Dance. She performed in many works both with the ballet and modern department as well as a guest artist with Salt Lake City Ballet.
After graduation, Erin danced with Central West Ballet where she danced soloist and principal roles such as Lucy in René Daveluy's Dracula, Winter Fairy from Cinderella, Prayer in Coppelia, and Mrs Madlock from The Secret Garden. From there, she moved to Virginia to dance with Roanoke Ballet Theatre where she performed roles such as Snow Queen from The Nutcracker, Spring Fairy from Sleeping Beauty, Helena from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the Evil Queen in Rolando Sarabia’s Snow White. She currently is a dancer with San Jose Dance Theatre. Erin has worked with renowned teachers like Oleg Vinogradov, Ronn Guidi, Margo Marshall, Soili Arvola, Leo Ahonen, and Norbert Nirewicz.
Erin has taught at many studios including Ballet West summer intensive, Kingsport Ballet summer intensive, Central West Ballet Academy, San Jose Dance Theatre, and at Depelchin Children's Center where she taught underprivileged children ballet.
She is also a 200 Hour Yoga Certified Teacher, Level One Character Dance Instructor under Inna Strabrova, Rhythm Works! Integrative Dance Certified Teacher where she has taught Sensory Ballet to children on the Autism spectrum.
Nicole Khoo - Ballet Teacher & Choreographer
Nicole moved to the Bay area in April 2022 and since then has enjoyed performing in productions with Western Ballet, San Jose Dance Theatre, Oceanica Ballet and New Ballet. Growing up in Singapore, she started with Classical Chinese Dance, and completed vocational levels with the RAD and CSTD under Donato C. Ferrer. She joined Singapore Ballet’s pre-professional program, directed by Janek Schergen. After dancing soloist and lead roles with Tampa Ballet Theatre, she joined The Georgia Ballet under Daet Rodriguez. She has enjoyed performing in classical and contemporary works, including Cinderella, Paquita, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Carmen, Giselle, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Coppelia, Les Sylphides, Una Danza Para Ti, Pentimento, and Haydn. Nicole feels so fortunate to be a part of the cast of Dracula with San Jose Dance Theatre.
Francisco Avellan - Ballet Teacher & Choreographer
Born in Nicaragua, Francisco studied classical ballet with teachers including Alexi Zubiria and Maria Vegh. He has danced professionally since 1985 with several Bay Area companies, performing in leading roles such as Franz in Coppelia; the Cavalier, Russian, and Snow King in The Nutcracker, the Peasant pa de deux in Giselle; Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and the Bluebird pas de deux in The Sleeping Beauty. Francisco is known for his warm and compassionate teaching style with students, who’ve ranged from complete beginners to advanced levels. He also holds a teaching certificate in the Vaganova Method from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Francisco is also a Certified Pilates instructor and has extensive experience teaching ballet for rhythmic gymnastics.
Ethan Sun - Chinese Cultural Dance Teacher
Ethan is a dancing engineer, he holds a Master of Fine Arts from University of California, Irvine and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the same school. Ethan received classical training in Chinese dance, Ballet and is a seasoned modern dancer. He was personally coached by Donald McKayle, a modern dance pioneer, for performing Mr McKayle's original work created for him. Ethan received modern dance training from Bonnie Oda Homsey for Martha Graham technique. He attended Winter Intensives at the Paul Taylor Dance Company in NYC, and received training in contemporary dance techniques during his attendance at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina. Ethan is also an explorer in the realm of dance and technology and showcased dance works created with motion capture and 3D rendering technologies.
Jocelyn Lu - Assistant Principal & Choreographer
Jocelyn Lu is a dance instructor, choregrapher, and the competition team lead at New Century Dance. Studying with the J&H Dance School in Houston, Texas, she earned her Young Professional Artist Certification with Beijing Dance Academy at the age of 16. She has numerous regional and national awards in Chinese and modern dance, and is highly acclaimed for her exceptional artistry and style. While earning her undergraduate at MIT, she became a director and choreographer for various dance companies in the greater Boston area and held the role of principal dancer at the semi-professional troupe Dance Revelasian.
After moving to the SF Bay Area, Jocelyn joined New Century Dance in 2014, where she has been teaching and performing since. She is the lead instructor of New Century Dance's competition team, developing and leading students to numerous regional and national titles at American Dance Awards, Starbound, Spotlight, and WeShine.
She currently is the lead instructor of NCD’s competition team.
Jing Zhang - Lead Ballet Teacher
Jing Zhang began her ballet studies at the same prestigious Shanghai Dance School as Lu Lao Shi in 1993. In 2000, she progressed to the Specialty of Dance Department in the Opera and Dance College of the Shanghai Theater Academy. During her tenure at the Theater Academy, she participated in numerous competitions and garnered many awards: third place prize in the Ballet Junior Group "Peaches and Plums Cup" in 2000, first place prize in the Shanghai Music Festival in 2001, the Excellent Player award in the Shanghai International Competition in 2001, and many more. She joined Ballet San Jose in 2005, eventually making her way over to New Century Dance in 2011 where she has been teaching ever since.
Andrea Cheung - Dance Conditioning Teacher
Andrea is a versatile teacher of many disciplines; she is a musician, dancer, and engineer.
She was a software engineer at Apple and Adobe before following her parents’ footsteps to become a teacher. She currently is a school teacher within the Sunnyvale School District and is an independent violin and piano teacher as well. She has also been teaching dance conditioning and beginning ballet classes to students of all ages. Andrea discovered her passion for ballet as an adult after having been a long time distance runner and practitioner of Pilates. She appreciates the perfect synergy of musicality and graceful movements of ballet. She has studied with many outstanding ballet teachers in the Bay Area. Her most influential teachers include Linda Rickert, Ommi Pipit-Suksun, Rudy Candia, Rudolph Cassand, and Peter Hershey.
Andrea seeks to instill in her students a deep appreciation of the subject matter, as well as a life-long desire to grow in whatever disciplines they choose to pursue. Her ballet and movement classes emphasize a logical understanding of correct alignments, movements, and their inherent connection to the music. She encourages the students to move and dance with mindfulness in order to create meaningful expressions. Andrea is delighted to join New Century Dance’s team.
Asia Bui - Guest Ballet Teacher
Born in Tampa, FL, Asia Bui began her classical ballet training at America’s Ballet School under the direction of Paula Nunez. She continued her classical training at the Harid Conservatory (Boca Raton, FL) and in Houston, TX as a member of Houston Ballet II. She danced with the Houston Ballet from 2013-2015 and joined the Sarasota Ballet in 2015, where she is currently dancing. She has had the privilege of working with many renowned choreographers and repetiteurs from around the world. Her work includes featured roles in classical and contemporary repertoire, including Christopher Wheeldon’s There Where She Loved, The American, George Balanchine’s Jewels, Theme and Variations, Anthony Tudor’s The Leaves are Fading, Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring, Paul Taylor’s Brandenburgs, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs, Sinfonietta, Sir Peter Wright’s Giselle, ‘Clara’ in Ben Stevenson’s The Nutcracker, and ‘Mary’ in William Tuckett’s The Secret Garden. During her time in the Bay Area Asia is looking forward to building a relationship with New Century Dance while working with the school’s talented students!