Yang Chen, resident of New York City, has become the first Asian-American to be elected National President of USA Dance, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit, multi-sports ballroom dance organization comprised of 160 chapters and serving as the National Governing Body for DanceSport in the United States. USA Dance is the USA member organization of the United States Olympic Committee and member of the 92-country World DanceSport Federation (WDSF), recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the global governing body for DanceSport.

Chen, 49, is an attorney, graduate of NYU School of Law and Binghamton University, and also serves as Executive Director of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, a position he has held since 2009.

“I am honored to have been elected by the members of USA Dance, in an election with record turnout, to serve as the organization’s next President,” says Chen. “I will carry on and build upon the work of the leaders who have preceded me, and I look forward to laying the groundwork for the future of USA Dance as it reaches is half-century mark in 2015.”

Chen has been an active member of the USA Dance for 25 years and will serve as president of this 20,000-member organization on a volunteer-basis. Chen also served for many years as volunteer president of the USA Dance Greater New York Chapter, the organization’s largest chapter with approximately 600 members.

With his active involvement and under his leadership, the Greater NY Chapter also has organized the country’s largest and most prestigious amateur ballroom dance regional competition. The Manhattan Amateur Classic, known as the MAC, will be held this month, Jan. 17-19, 2014 at the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center and will host more than 1,000 of America’s top DanceSport athletes, ages 7 to 70, who seek to qualify there for the USA Dance National DanceSport Championships in Baltimore, Mar. 28-30, 2014.

Chen’s three-year term as USA Dance National President commenced Jan. 1, 2014.

MORE ABOUT USA DANCE:

USA Dance will reach its 50th year milestone in 2015. USA Dance was founded in 1965 as the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association. Among its primary goals was to obtain Olympic recognition for competitive ballroom dancing, which occurred in 1998 when the International Olympic Committee granted recognition to competitive ballroom dancing as DanceSport.

USA Dance is recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as the National Governing Body for DanceSport in the United States. USA Dance does business as USA DanceSport, sanctions 11 National Qualifying Events each year and organizes the annual USA Dance National DanceSport Championships which selects national champions in both International and American styles of ballroom and latin dancing and also selects the official United States World Team representatives, who will compete at the WDSF World Championships and World Games.

With 160 active chapters throughout the country and in Hawaii, USA Dance is the representative organization for all social and recreational ballroom and latin dancers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly national magazine American Dancer, distributed to its members and the supporting dance industry. For more information: www.usadance.org