Dana Macalanda was always into martial arts. She grew up watching Jackie Chan movies and was enrolled  into taekwondo at age 10. She practiced her craft intermittently until the end of high school. She continued with martial arts all throughout college and joined the wushu club, which didn’t seem like a far-off next step for her. Except it was.

Wushu is entirely performance-based. In other words, no hitting.