#SoCaltech: Yu Yu Phua
“My interest in ballet started with the show Gilmore Girls. The main character, Rory, lives in a town with a ballet studio named Miss Patty’s School of Ballet. My parents had asked me if I was interested in learning ballet when I was younger, but I was not. Seeing Miss Patty’s School on Gilmore Girls seven years later, I asked them to let me try it out. I was 14, which is seen as very late for ballet, but I’ve been dancing since then.
Having to move across the Pacific Ocean to attend graduate school here, I thought I would resume ballet at an undefined time after I settled down. However, I found out that class was free at Pasadena Dance Theatre as part of a promotion during my first weekend at Caltech, and I made the decision to walk 30 minutes there. That’s how I got started with the dance theater. The first of many Caltech students I invited to a ballet class with me came one year later, when I met her at ISP [International Student Programs] orientation. We were both orientation leaders and paired in the orientation training during an ice-breaker activity. One of the questions was: If you could go back in time, what would you do differently? My partner said, ‘I would never have quit ballet, because now I think I’m too old to dance ballet.’
Given my ballet classes were taught by a then 96-year-old instructor and have students who are older than 60 who have been a constant source of inspiration, I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ and invited her to a class. Through this friend, I met another dancer who revived the ballet club on campus in 2022, where I now teach ballet dances on Sunday mornings.”
Yu Yu Phua is a fifth-year doctoral candidate studying planetary science. Her research focuses on the geologic evolution of planetary bodies in the solar system using spectroscopy to understand their mineralogical and material properties. Originally from Malaysia, Phua serves as the president of Caltech’s Ballet Club, and she takes classes at the Pasadena Dance Theatre.
#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.