Chapman dance community remembers Sun Lee, shares favorite memories

Sun Lee, a senior dance major, is fondly regarded by Chapman friends and professors as a passionate dancer and a magnetic extrovert. Photo courtesy of the Lee family

Friends and dance professors at Chapman University remember Sun Lee as a passionate, talented dancer who always exhibited confidence and authenticity. She wasn’t afraid to be herself as she moved her body in various shapes and positions during her performances.

“(Lee) was an amazing dancer,” said Sean Greene, a professor of modern dance who taught Lee. “She could make her body into more shapes than you’d ever see in your life, different shapes than you’d ever see in your life.”

Greene, among the rest of the Chapman community, was jarred by the news of the senior dance major’s death, which was announced in an Oct. 19 email sent by Dean of Students Jerry Price. The cause of Lee’s passing was not disclosed to The Panther out of respect to her and her family.

Later that week, Chapman’s Fish Interfaith Center held a memorial service, officiated by Director of Church Relations Nancy Brink. During the service, Brink revealed Lee’s posthumous degree would be sent to her family.

Greene first met Lee as a freshman when she enrolled in his dance improvisation class. In subsequent semesters, she enrolled in his technique class for sophomores, as well as his senior-level technique class and his non-major improvisation class. Having the opportunity to take four classes with Greene is a rarity, as students would have to work their schedules around in order to get back onto his student roster list.

In modern dance, dancers come up with their movements and base the routine on their interpretation of a piece instead of strictly following a set number of steps. Greene noted Lee’s talent and skill for this type of dance.

“I looked at (Lee), and she was a dream for a modern dance choreographer because she could make her body into anything,” Greene said. “She could be very high-energy; she was a little strong (and) dynamic, (and she) could burn down the house.” 

Greene recalled how Lee was able to approach and solve problems the improvisation class encountered in a different way compared to her peers.

“She would periodically just go, ‘No, I see it going this way,’ and go in a completely unique direction from anybody,” Greene said. “She was usually persuasive enough in terms of her energy and magnetism to change the direction of the improv (and) change the direction of the class.”

According to Greene, Lee was also talented, smart and focused.

“I’ll miss her coming to me in five years and going, ‘Hi, Sean, look at what I did,’” Greene said. “And it could be anything; it could be ‘Hi, look at my kids’ (or) ‘Hi, look, I’m a nuclear physicist.’ I’ve had that happen. Or ‘Hi, Sean. Here’s a ticket to Dorothy Chandler for next month, (and) I’m going to be there with this company,’ (because) I’ve had that happen, too.”

While Greene normally sits down with each of his students and asks why they love dance and where they see their career heading, he was unable to learn Lee's reasoning because she was absent that class period. He did learn, though, she wanted to work in modern dance — which was fitting, since modern dance requires its dancers to be artists.

“I didn’t go back to her again (and ask why she enjoyed dancing), which was my fault, because I want to know when the lightning bolt hits you,” Greene said. “Dance is hard work; you’ve got to work, and you’ve got to enjoy working as hard as you can all of the time. You have to refresh that thought, and it’s good to remember that first day when you went, ‘Wow. I’ve got to do this. This is too wonderful.’”

Lee’s friends and roommate spoke to her character and the memories they cherished of her at the memorial service. Audio files were recorded in advance by Chapman dance alumna Vanessa Wasbin, who graduated this past May, which Greene played during the service.

In an interview with The Panther, Wasbin said one of her favorite memories of Lee was when the two went to choreograph a dance at the Partridge Dance Center around 10 p.m. one night. Wasbin was going through a rough time in her life then, but dancing with Lee that night had put her in a “really good mood.”

“I just remember us dancing to a Christina Aguilera song and just laughing in the late hours of the night,” Wasbin said.

The two first met during Orientation Week before their classes had started. A beach day for the dance majors had been planned, and they went with a group of girls in the same car.

Sun Lee (right) and alumna Vanessa Wasbin (left) prepare for the annual Chapman show “Works in Progress,” which features a dance choreographed by Wasbin and performed by Lee. Photo courtesy of Vanessa Wasbin

Wasbin also said, in her spare time, Lee loved watching “Love Island” and “Glee,” and she also enjoyed going to the Cinnabon bakery restaurant in The Outlets at Orange.

Wasbin described another memory with Lee where they learned they had gotten into Chapman’s Alpha Phi sorority. She fondly recalled how happy and excited the two were.

“I just remember we got that letter that you open up when you find out (your sorority), and I just remember we ran up to each other, because everyone was just all excited when they found out,” Wasbin said. “I remember we had run up to each other smiling super quick and laughing, and we were just super excited that we had gotten into the same one.”

Lee’s dancing abilities were also praised by jazz technique professor William Johnston, who described Lee as determined and focused with genuine attentiveness. Johnston related to Lee based on their similar experience growing up and dancing in the Bay Area.

“She took every correction and every piece of information and applied that instantaneously,” Johnston said. “I saw her development over the course of a couple of years I had her, and I’ve always really appreciated it, because we were very far from each other in terms of our natural way of moving. That was always a very exciting and challenging thing, because it just took that much longer for us to kind of understand the same thing.”

Johnston also said, although jazz techniques don’t rely on a dancer’s flexibility or mobility, Lee was able to apply hers to jazz.

“I thought that was a really interesting way of approaching (jazz) and using what she was familiar with while learning something that was very unfamiliar,” Johnston said. “I think that’s kind of where (Lee’s) authenticity comes from. In addition to her sense of determination and focus, (Lee’s flexibility and mobility) brought about a sense of authenticity when (she was) moving, too.”