For most high-school students, the prospect of missing school and spending countless weekends at international dance competitions would be considered an unheard-of opportunity — but for Gunn High School junior Jaslyn Kwan, it’s been a regular experience for her since beginning competitive dance at just eight years old. 

Now, she competes regularly at the Youth American Grand Prix — an international ballet and contemporary dance program — and won second place in the contemporary dance category of the YAGP’s 2025 semi-finals in March. In most competitions, Kwan participates in ballet, ballroom and contemporary dance. 

Kwan is currently enrolled at both Gunn High and Bayer Ballet Academy. As a sophomore, Kwan made the choice to enroll full time at Bayer Ballet and join an international online school, hoping to engage in more intense training to improve her ballet skills. 

However, Kwan’s experience with online school caused her to enroll in-person at Gunn High for her junior year. Because of her personality and penchant for interacting with her peers in school, Kwan said online school wasn’t a good fit for her and felt she learned much better in-person.

“She’s a people person,” Kwan’s mother Jenny Kwan said. “She loved doing group projects. She loved doing group things.” 

Kwan also experienced an injury to her ankle, which both she and her mother said was likely from overworking her muscles due to her overly rigorous schedule. Cutting back on her training was a difficult decision, Kwan said, but ultimately, she felt that taking care of her body was the best choice to make. 

“If I put so much pressure on my feet, if I’m constantly dancing every single day and if I want to heal it, then it’s never really going to heal,” Kwan said. “It [recovering] is just not realistic.”

Kwan’s passion for dance was born thanks to her mother, a former competitive ballroom dancer who signed Kwan up for lessons at just three years old. Jenny Kwan offers Kwan ample support in the form of ballroom dancing advice, but she also ensures that Kwan has the space she needs to explore her own styles of dancing.

“I try not to [give too much advice],” Jenny Kwan said.  “I [have] learn[ed] to let her explore her style and her techniques more because that’s important. It’s one thing to hear advice from other people …, but [it’s] another when you try to learn from your own mistakes.”

As a young child, Kwan said she was constantly moving, enjoying the way dancing let her express herself. Her enjoyment of the sport quickly brought her from lessons to competitions — and Kwan has never looked back since.

Onstage, Kwan’s love for dance is seen in her precise footwork and musicality, said Inna Bayer, teacher and artistic director at Bayer Ballet Academy. Even when Kwan first joined the Academy, Bayer said she noticed Kwan’s deep connection to performing from the heart — something that she said has been an invaluable quality that sets Kwan’s dancing apart. 

“She can dance emotional[ly],” Bayer said. “She’s very artistic, not just mechanical [when] making movements.”

As Kwan continues to compete at YAGP, she has said she enjoys being able to make connections with other contestants. She uses competitions as a benchmark for her own improvement rather than simply winning, such as what skills she’d like to improve upon by her next competition.

“The main reason why I [compete] is really just so I can have a solid goal [for myself],” Kwan said. 

But Kwan’s dancing doesn’t stop with her own training and competing — currently, Kwan teaches contemporary dance to younger students at Bayer Ballet. In the studio, Bayer said Kwan is always prepared to help other students when they need it, whether it be through helping them memorize their dances or coaching students through difficult movements.  

“I’m proud that she’s dancing great, and she’s also choreographing and teaching,” Bayer said. “I’m happy when my students display so many different things independently.”

Kwan has several aspirations for her dancing post-graduation, including her hopes to take a gap year in order to join a professional dance company. Another one of Kwan’s goals is to branch out into learning new styles as she continues to expand her skills.

Regardless of where her dancing takes her, one thing remains constant for Kwan: She plans to continue honing her craft in both dance and choreography. Bayer said she is confident that no matter what Kwan chooses to pursue in the future, she has the intellect and the drive to achieve it. 

“She’s disciplined and she’s strong,” Bayer said. “She can choose a goal and find how to reach the goal.”