Flye Dance Fitness’s founders met at a Hong Kong salsa club. Photo: courtesy of Flye Dance Fitness
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https://scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3007164/how-two-music-lovers-started-class-mixing-dance-fitness Health & Wellness
How two music lovers started a class mixing dance fitness and friendship in Hong Kong
- An Australian ballroom dancer and a Chinese Panamanian lover of Latin dancing combined their love of music and fitness to open Flye Dance Fitparty
- Sessions are 55 minutes and include various musical genres, and are for young professionals who don’t like working out in the gym
Flye Dance Fitparty co-founders Eliza Jiang (left) and Upekha Senaweera. Photo: courtesy of Flye Dance Fitness
Meeting friends in a new city is always a challenge. For Eliza Jiang and Upekha Senaweera, two young female professionals working and living in Hong Kong, a mutual passion proved two people with starkly different backgrounds can bond over some of the most basic human interests – music and dance.
Chinese-Panamanian Jiang is a lawyer who grew up dancing to salsa, merengue and reggaeton in her birth city of Panama. Jiang moved to Canada to obtain her bachelor’s degree and then later New York for her master’s in law before finally settling in Hong Kong.
“I wanted to come to Hong Kong as it is one of the prime places, alongside Singapore, for international commercial arbitration work, which has been growing and booming as China grows its economy and invests abroad,” says Jiang.
“And outside work, in the city, I mingle with people from all different backgrounds – Sri Lankan Aussies like Upekha, Latin Chinese, British, German – all of which adds to the city’s vibrancy and multiculturalism.”
While Jiang continued to practise law in the city and explore, she frequented various dance classes and clubs, which led her to her friendship with Senaweera.
“The first time we met was at a salsa club in Hong Kong,” says Jiang. “Upekha loves to dance, I love to dance, and we met through a common friend who is also a dancer.”
Senaweera hails from Melbourne, Australia and has been a registered physiotherapist for over 10 years but what first brought her to Hong Kong was dancing – ballroom dancing to be exact.
“Hong Kong is a big hub for ballroom dancers from around the world,” says Senaweera. “I moved over here initially as a dancer and I did one year of dancing, training and competing full time.”
When she reached 28, Senaweera knew by industry standards she was becoming too old for competitive dancing and turned her focus back to her physio work while she and Jiang enjoyed the sights and sounds of Hong Kong, along with the many other cities they visited together.
Jiang recalls travelling with Senaweera to places such as Rio de Janeiro to build on their passion for dance, music and fitness. “When we go travelling together we must first find live music venues and places with dancing,” says Jiang.
Jiang (left) and Senaweera researched the fitness sector in Guangzhou and found constant gym membership was lacking. Photo: courtesy of Flye Dance Fitness
Combining the dancing duo’s backgrounds and interest in the fitness industry, the two launched Flye Dance Fitparty.
This concept fitness class infuses divergent musical genres and varying dance moves in a party style setting meant to attract the young professional who knows exercise is important but who doesn’t necessarily want to spend time in a gym.
“We wanted to recreate that high of dancing our hearts out to tunes from different genres as an amazingly fun way to stay fit and be immersed in other cultures,” says Jiang. “Flye brings together culture, dance and music from faraway places to create an addictive fitness party.”
Like many other dance fitness brands, the workout lasts roughly 55 minutes and incorporates all kinds of moves that work multiple muscle groups.
The two did their own market research into the fitness sector in Guangzhou, and found that consistent membership at a gym was lacking.
Wellness seekers are more interested in trying something new than routine gym memberships. Photo: courtesy of Flye Dance Fitness
“A lot of young women have an awareness that there is a need to exercise, however, the conversion is not there, meaning that they don’t really go to the gym and lift weights like perhaps in the US,” says Jiang.
“In China, it is a very small percentage of women [that go to the gym]. They still by and large go to classes – they want to do something that is fun, that is energetic, that makes them forget that they are actually working out.”
In 2016, the China’s State Council launched the National Fitness Programme for 2016-20 that aims to get 435 million people to regularly take part in physical exercise.
The fitness industry in China has grown by 11.2 per cent to a revenue of US$7 billion in 2018, according to IBISWorld, a global business intelligence information provider.
Jiang acknowledges dance fitness is not new and, in fact, has always been popular, dating back to the creation of Jazzercise in South Florida in the 1960s.
But, as culture, music, and exercise have changed, so has the dance fitness industry. While many dance fitness companies like Zumba have found their groove using a specific formula, Jiang believes that formula is becoming obsolete in the new boutique fitness world.
“A lot of people think that we are doing a version of Zumba, people associate dance fitness with Zumba because they have been very successful, but I do think that [Zumba] is becoming a bit dated,” says Jiang.
“[Zumba] does not have the component where they curate choreographies from dance genres and musical styles from different parts of the world … we want to bring that cool component,” says Jiang.
The budding company will host its first fitness dance party at the Iris: Your Escape wellness festival on April 27. The weekend festival at Central Harbourfront will feature more than 80 of Hong Kong’s most popular fitness personalities and instructors.
Flye Dance Fitness gives professional females somewhere to let loose and get fit. Photo: courtesy of Flye Dance
Flye Dance Fitparty’s first themed workout will see participants “fly” from Seoul to Rio de Janeiro. Jiang and Senaweera will lead the 55 minute workout accompanied by a live percussion band and intimate club lighting against the Hong Kong skyline.
“In the Seoul edition, we will be mixing a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout to K-pop music and then ‘flying’ people to Rio de Janeiro, where we will continue our HIIT-based routine to very popular Brazilian funk music, after which we will introduce participants to some samba based moves and we will finish the whole thing with a dance-off,” says Jiang.
After Iris, Flye has secured club space in Hong Kong on May 12 and 26 to continue to build brand awareness. In the future, the company hopes to extend its reach into Guangzhou and Macau and open studio space in Hong Kong.
Beyond bringing their dance fitness concept to the world, Jiang and Senaweera are hoping to combat one of the growing dilemmas in the overly connected world.
Taking cues from their own rare friendship, Jiang and Senaweera hope they can inspire others to reach out to a stranger.
“To be honest, I’ve never walked into a gym or fitness class and made a friend,” says Senaweera. “We want that not to be the case for us, we want to get people together and we want them to have fun. When they leave, we want them to leave with a friend.”
For details about the Iris: Your Escape wellness festival, see irishkg.com.