This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCSD chapter.
Ryan Cabang is a 4th year Structural Engineering major at Muir College. He is one of the directors of UCSD’s hip hop dance team, Ascension. Along with his dedication to education and dance, he also holds membership in the student organization, Kaibigang Pilipino. He helped start up KP’s dance team, Kasama Modern. Ryan was also a part of UCSD’s Concrete Canoe team; he helped design and construct a canoe out of concrete! To learn more about this amazing individual, keep reading.
Explain your dancing journey.
My biggest inspiration in dance was my older brother, who I have watched dance since I was in elementary school. I first started dancing in my sophomore year of high school, when I was super into breakdancing like my brother. In my junior and senior years, I joined my high school’s hip hop team called Funktion, where I first started to learn choreography. When I moved to San Diego, I took a year off from dancing until I auditioned for Ascension and, starting my fourth year, I became the Co-Artistic Director. Since June of last year, I have had a dance scholarship at Studio FX; I work the front desk every Saturday morning during the kids and teen classes.
What do you like most about dancing?
My favorite thing about dance is that it’s not only physical, but artistic. For me, you can express all these feelings which otherwise you wouldn’t. It’s a lot like acting, as you can be gangster, simp, fierce, sexy, whatever or whoever, all while coordinating your body to be in sync with music and the rest of the team.
How has dance affected your life?
First and foremost, dance has made me happy and given me a family that I will be able to go back to for a lifetime. Secondly, it’s ruined my grades. Be that as it may, I would never trade a quarter of my memories with my dance team for a set of A’s in my classes, no doubt.
Who is your role model?
My biggest role models in life have got to be my mom and dad. They have literally sacrificed everything so my brother and I can pursue higher educations and have better futures. For that I will be forever thankful, and growing up I learned from them to take nothing for granted.
How is being a captain different from being a member of Ascension?
As a captain, the amount of responsibility towards the team increases tremendously. With that responsibility, comes hours of work, extra stress, and a lot of emotional investment. For every hour the entire team spends at rehearsal, the captains and directors spends an extra hour for all the preparation and behind the scenes work to make everything possible.
How do you balance dance with other activities?
For the most part, I think I balance my time pretty well. I go to most of my classes, do all of my homework, get okay grades. I always tell myself and the team that we’re students first, and dancers second, so I try to put my academics before any of my extracurricular activities. They say you can’t have a social life, do well at school, and have good health; but you can if you just don’t sleep.
What do you like to do in your free time?
During my free time I nonstop Skype with my girlfriend, eat junk food, and take regular naps. Every now and then I take part in the regular college life shenanigans as long as I’m caught up on all of my school work.
Where is your favorite place in San Diego?
My favorite place in San Diego has got to be Rimac Activity Room 2 and 3, where we have rehearsal every Wednesday and Sunday.