You might be surprised to learn that Helen Dang only started dancing at age 17. Today, she’s an actor, choreographer, and martial artist who has been building the acting career most people dream of from a young age. Since booking her first film role as a dancer in 2019, Helen has gone on to work on major projects like Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, Disney’s Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, Riverdale, and more.
Helen’s most recent project, Mina Shum’s Whatcha Want, is a culmination of her hard work across acting and dance. In the film, she plays Penny, a dance coach who is one of the main character Yin’s (Isabella Wei’s) closest friends, and behind the scenes, she worked closely with choreographer Megan Lawson to find the moves that best represented Penny.
We caught up with Helen to find out how she’s been building all this momentum and get her insight on how dance and acting fall together perfectly.
Showstopper Magazine Online: Hi, Helen! Tell us a bit about yourself!
Helen Dang: Hi everyone! I’m Helen Dang — a dancer, actress, and martial artist, with a little bit of anime and K-pop sprinkled in! I was born and raised in Beijing, China.
SMO: How did you begin your work as a dancer and actor?
Helen: I discovered hip hop dance when I moved to Canada alone for university at 17, and I immediately fell in love with it. Through dance, I started performing, competing, battling, choreographing, teaching, and eventually found my way into the film industry.
I booked my first film job as a dancer in 2019, which opened the door for me to explore acting as well. Now I get to bring together dance, acting, choreography, and martial arts in my work. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you don’t have to have your whole path figured out — sometimes you just have to follow what makes you excited and see where it takes you!
SMO: Recently, you’ve been building your acting credits. How has dance influenced your acting?
Helen: For me, movement is usually the first code I break when I’m finding a character. Because I’ve spent so many years understanding people through movement, I naturally start noticing the little things — how a character stands, walks, gestures, or carries themselves.
When I dance, I’m always using characters to shape each performance and make it unique, and that has helped me a lot with acting. Sometimes I’ll even find a piece of music and create movement that takes my character through a scene. It helps me understand them on a deeper level and discover things I might not find through words alone.
Dance has also taught me how to be comfortable being seen. I’ve learned to welcome the camera into my world, while my comfort with movement helps me express a character through my body.
I’m very grateful to dance for giving me that foundation.
SMO: How do you maintain your skills in both fields?
Helen: Rather than seeing acting and dancing as skills that I need to maintain, I look at them more as a lifestyle that I choose to live.
My acting coach once told me, “The best acting class is the movie of everyday life.” I pay attention to the things I see, the stories I hear, and the behaviours happening around me. I watch some of my favourite scenes and study them. This way, I keep my plate full, keep my library alive, and keep myself ready to draw from it when I need to.
It’s the same with dancing. I always start with the music. I pay attention to how I feel when I hear it, the lyrics, the way the singer is singing, and then I express it through my body. I also analyze my favourite dancers, choreography, and dance scenes.
Of course, investing in my foundation training and developing those foundations to the point where I can use them as naturally as I use words when I talk is the first step.
Beyond that, I make sure to do the things that keep the spark and love for dancing, acting, and martial arts alive. They’re the things that make me happy, and I think that’s an important part of staying connected to my craft.
SMO: Most recently, you’ve been able to flex your dance and acting skills in the short film Watcha Want. Can you tell us a bit about your character Penny and what it meant to take on that role?
Helen: Penny is a dance coach and mentor who is a real ray of sunshine. She genuinely believes in the people around her, cares deeply for her community, and wants to see their dreams come true. She sees other people’s success as her own, which I think is such a beautiful quality.
Playing Penny was especially meaningful to me as a Chinese-Canadian artist. The story explores immigrants finding themselves through the love of dance, and I connected deeply with that.
It felt very special to bring together my Chinese-Canadian background, dance, and acting through one character and one story.
SMO: You and Penny share a dance and choreography background. Where did you relate to her most? How do you feel that you two are different?
Helen: I relate to Penny most through our love for dance and the way we care about the people around us. We both find a lot of joy in helping others grow, and I understand that feeling of seeing someone you believe in succeed and feeling proud of them.
I think my energy is actually more laid-back compared to Penny. She wears her emotions on her face, while I tend to keep more of mine inside, even though I’m still quite expressive with my facial expressions. I also carry myself with more steeze, and with that mature energy.
That was one of the fun parts of playing Penny — finding the parts of her that felt familiar to me, while still making sure she had her own personality and life beyond Helen.
SMO: You worked alongside Mina Shum and your co-stars Isabella Wei, Ming-Na Wen, and Tzi Ma. What stands out to you about that experience?
Helen: First, I feel very honoured to have shared this experience with Mina, Isabella, Ming-Na, and Tzi. The little girl Helen would be so proud!
What really stands out to me is how much I learned just by being around them. Everyone came from different backgrounds and generations, and hearing their stories, learning about their journeys, and watching how they each prepared for their work was incredibly inspiring.
I also really appreciated how kind and grounded everyone was. We had such a great time together, and they reminded me that you can be incredibly talented and accomplished while still being a genuinely kind person.
SMO: Did you have any input in the role dance and choreography played in the film?
Helen: Yes! Dance is such an important part of Whatcha Want, so I was very excited to be able to contribute from my own dance background.
I worked closely with our amazing choreographer, Megan Lawson, on the nuances of Penny’s movement and her choreography. I’m very grateful that Megan was so open and welcoming to collaboration on some of the details. It allowed me to bring some of my hip hop flavours, movement qualities, and performance experience into the character.
It was really special to have a role where my dance background wasn’t just part of my own performance, but also helped shape how the character and story were expressed.
SMO: Watcha Want premiered last week at the Toronto International Film Festival. What was that experience like?
Helen: It honestly felt a little surreal! Whatcha Want is such a meaningful project to me, so getting to celebrate the premiere at TIFF with our cast and crew was really special.
One of my favourite parts was sitting in the Royal Alexandra Theatre and watching the film for the first time alongside everyone else. I got to take in the story, see my own work on the big screen, and experience the audience’s reactions all at the same time. It was such a special feeling to realize that this story was no longer just ours — everyone was experiencing it with us.
And of course, getting to be in Toronto with the cast and crew, celebrating together, laughing, taking photos, and having this wonderful reunion made it even more special. It’s definitely a moment I’ll always cherish.
SMO: How does Watcha Want represent where you are in your acting and dance careers at this point? Are you looking forward to more dance movies in the future, or does this feel like a special moment?
Helen: I think this project represents a really beautiful point in my journey because it brought many parts of me together. Dance was what first brought me into the film industry, and now I’m getting to explore acting more deeply, so having a role where both of those languages are part of the storytelling feels very full-circle.
Whatcha Want also reminded me how much I love projects where I can bring my different disciplines together rather than having to choose just one.
At this point in my career, I’m really curious about what else I can discover when elements from my dance, acting, martial arts, music background, and my own Chinese cultural background meet in one project. I look forward to all the different combinations in the future roles and projects.
So yes, I would absolutely love to do more dance films in the future! I’m actually currently in the process [of] filming an exciting Disney film!
What excites me is if the stories I tell, or the characters I play, can make someone think, feel, or laugh, make them feel seen through the work, or see themselves a little differently; that’s very special to me.
Whatcha Want will always feel special because it showed me what’s possible.
SMO: Is there anything else you’d like people to know about you or your work?
Helen: I’d love to invite everyone to check out my short dance film, Revenge of the Black Widow, produced by Team Red Pro. It brings together martial arts, acting, Chinese culture, and dance — a combination of many of the art forms and influences that are a big part of who I am as an artist. I hope you’ll enjoy it!