survey_47 — contemporary dance

1. Shen Wei — 沈伟 (Hunan, 1968)

Choreographer, artist and director; founder and artistic director of Shen Wei Dance Arts (New York, 2000); choreographer of the “Scroll” segment of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games (2008).

Path — born in 1968 in Hunan into a family connected with the theatre: his father was a director and performer of Chinese opera and a calligrapher, his mother a theatre producer. From the age of nine he studied at the Hunan art school of traditional Chinese opera (1978–1984), while also working in painting and calligraphy; from 1984 to 1989 he performed leading roles at the Hunan State Theatre of Xiang opera. In 1989 he moved into contemporary dance and studied at China's first formal school of contemporary dance in Guangzhou; among his teachers were Ross Parkes and David Hochoy (Martha Graham Dance Company), Betty Jones and Fritz Ludin (José Limón Dance Company), Claudia Gitelman (Alwin Nikolais) and Liz Walton (Paul Taylor), with support from the American Dance Festival and the Asian Cultural Council. In 1991 he became one of the founders of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company — China's first professional contemporary dance collective — and worked there as choreographer and performer until 1994; in 1994 he presented the solo multimedia piece “Small Room” (Guangzhou, Beijing, Hong Kong) and won his first prizes for choreography and performance at the All-China contemporary dance competition.

New York and method — in January 1995 he moved to New York on a three-month scholarship at the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab; he performed with Murray Louis, took part in four productions by Martha Clarke and choreographed for the American Dance Festival and Alvin Ailey II; in 1997 Cloud Gate Dance Theatre performed his work The Bed (an American Dance Festival commission, 1995). In 2000 he founded Shen Wei Dance Arts; in 2003 he made his debut with the company at the Lincoln Center Festival, presenting an exhibition of his own painting at the same time. He developed his own technique, “Natural Body Development”, based on breath, proprioception, weight and gravity; in “The Rite of Spring” (2003), to Stravinsky's music in a recording by Fazıl Say, he used the devices of directed improvisation.

Works and recognition — Folding (2000), Near the Terrace, Part I and II (2001, 2002), Behind Resonance (2001), Rite of Spring (2003), Connect Transfer (2004), Map (2005), The Second Visit to the Empress (2005/2007), Re-Part I—III (2006, 2007, 2009), 7 to 8 and (2010), Still Moving (2011, the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Undivided Divided, Neither (2016). Commissions — Park Avenue Armory, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Lincoln Center Festival, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma; he has choreographed for Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens; in 2008 he designed the staging of Ma Ke's haute couture show in Paris. Awards: the Nijinsky Prize for choreography (2004), a MacArthur Fellowship (2007), the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award (2022). In 2008 he was the director and choreographer of the “Scroll” segment of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games (chief director — Zhang Yimou).

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2. Tao Ye — 陶冶 (Chongqing)

Choreographer and dancer; founder and artistic director of TAO Dance Theater (Beijing, 2008), author of the Numerical Series and of the Circular Movement System.

• Path — born in Chongqing, graduated from the Chongqing choreographic school; danced in the art ensemble of the political department of the Shanghai armed police, then at the Jin Xing Dance Theatre and in the Beijing contemporary dance company. In 2008, at the age of 23, together with Duan Ni and Wang Hao he founded TAO Dance Theater (陶身体剧场) and became its artistic director; in 2021, together with Duan Ni, he launched the clothing label DNTY and opened TAO Studio, and in 2024 he created TAO Dance Theater 2.
• The Numerical Series and method — on the basis of Eastern philosophy he developed the Circular Movement System and created the Numerical Series (重3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18), as well as Non-Numerical Series, Contrasts, Arts Live Series, 12 hours, Infinite Walking and The World of Movements. The company's works reject plot, message and theatricality in favour of an investigation of pure bodily movement; the company has toured in more than forty countries.
• International work and recognition — in 2023 he received the Silver Lion of the Venice Biennale; he was selected by Britain's Sadler's Wells for the New Wave Associates programme; he has received commissions from Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (Taiwan) and Netherlands Dance Theatre 1 (NDT 1); he takes part in interdisciplinary projects in theatre, fashion and video. He collaborates with Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels: in 2026, together with the Shanghai International Arts Festival, he presents Numerical Series 15 & 18, and earlier the programmes 10|11|12|13|14, 13|14 and 16|17. In 2022 the company announced plans to close after a final online showing; the activity continued, and a second company has been running since 2024.

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3. Jin Xing — 金星 (Shenyang (Liaoning), 1967)

Dancer, choreographer, actress and television host; in 1999 she founded China's first independent dance company, the Jin Xing Dance Theatre Shanghai (上海金星舞蹈团).

• Path — born on 13 August 1967 in Shenyang (Liaoning) into a family of ethnic Koreans (chaoxianzu): her mother was a translator, her father an officer of military intelligence. At the age of nine she joined the Chinese People's Liberation Army, in the ensemble of the Shenyang Military Region; at twelve she moved to the PLA Academy of Art, graduating in 1984, returned to the Shenyang company and received the rank of colonel; she won an all-China dance competition with a piece based on a Central Asian ethnic dance. In 1989 she went to New York on a scholarship, where she studied contemporary dance for four years, including with Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham; she then worked and taught in Europe (Rome, Belgium) and toured the world.
• The company — she returned to China in 1993; in 1995 she became one of the first in the country to undergo gender-reassignment surgery; in 1999 she opened China's first independent dance company, the Jin Xing Dance Theatre Shanghai, which became the resident company of the Shanghai Oriental Art Center. The repertoire includes 《贵妃醉酒》 (The Imperial Concubine Has Been Drunk for Ages, an adaptation of a Peking opera plot), 《上海探戈》 (Shanghai Tango), “Cross Border — Crossing the Line” (从东到西, together with the British pianist Joanna MacGregor) and “The Imperial Banquet”. The company has toured in the USA, Europe and Asia. In 2024, performances of her production 《日出》 were cancelled in several Chinese cities.
• Film and television — she made her film debut in the Korean film “Resurrection of the Little Match Girl” (2002) and appeared in the Thai “Tom-Yum-Goong” (2005) as Madame Rose. Since 2013 she has been a judge on the first Chinese season of “So You Think You Can Dance”; after a widely reported remark about how television “picks at the scars” of contestants, she got her own show, “The Jin Xing Show”. She is one of China's most prominent transgender public figures; since 2005 she has been married to Heinz Gerd Oidtmann and has three children.

4. Xie Xin — 谢欣 ()

Dancer and choreographer; founder and artistic director of Xiexin Dance Theatre (Shanghai, 2014).

• Path — before founding her own company she worked as a dancer with the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the Jin Xing Dance Theatre Shanghai, TAO Dance Theater and Beijing Dance/LDTX; she also appeared in productions by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. In 2014 she founded Xiexin Dance Theatre (谢欣舞蹈剧场) in Shanghai and began an independent choreographic career; in 2024 she was appointed guest choreographer of the Hamburg State Opera (die-hamburgische-staatsoper.de).
• Awards — the silver award for choreography and the prize for best performance at the 2nd Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition (2013); the silver award and the audience award at the 29th International Choreographic Competition in Hanover (2015). Guest choreographer of the Hessisches Staatsballett (Wiesbaden) and of the British company BalletBoyz; artistic director of the international laboratory “身体最前沿” (Vanguard Body) in Shanghai.
• International work — in 2026 Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels supports the showing of her works In Site and The Rite of Spring at the Maison de la Danse (Paris). Xiexin Dance Theatre works in Shanghai with a permanent company and a repertoire combining solo and group pieces; Xie Xin's choreographic language is built on the precision of conveying emotion through movement.

5. Hou Ying — 侯莹 (Jilin)

Dancer, choreographer and teacher; founder and artistic director of Hou Ying Dance Theater (Beijing, 2011); a representative of the first generation of Chinese contemporary dance.

• Path — born in Jilin province; she studied folk dance for seven years at the Jilin Institute of the Arts, then worked as a dancer in the Beijing ensemble of the People's Armed Police. In 1994, after seeing the production 《神话中国》 by the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, she moved to Guangzhou and began working in contemporary dance; her very first piece, 《夜叉》, won the gold award of a contemporary dance competition in Belarus. In 2001, with the support of the Asian Cultural Council, she went to the USA, where she later joined Shen Wei Dance Arts and danced in “The Rite of Spring”, 《声希》 and 《天梯》; over eight years in New York she performed on the Lincoln Center stage for four seasons, was mentioned three times in The New York Times and was called by the paper an “outstanding dancer of 2004”.
• The company — in 2006 she founded Vision Dance Theater in New York; in 2008, together with Shen Wei, she took part in staging the “Scroll” segment of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, after which she moved her work to China in 2009 and in 2011 founded Hou Ying Dance Theater (侯莹舞蹈剧场) in Beijing. She combines Eastern plasticity and work with breath and taiji with Western techniques of bodily deconstruction, developing her own method of body movement (意识 — thought — body); she practises improvisation and teaches.
• Works and recognition — the company's repertoire: 悬浮 (2006), 地平线 (2007), 涂图 / TuTu (2009; version 2.0 without colour — 2014), 介 / Interface (2011), 介2 (2012), 冉 (2013), 无穷 / Infinity (2013), 意外 (2015), 那一刻 / The Moment (2015), 色线 (2017). Tours in more than ten countries: Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), the New York Asian Art Festival, the Almada festival (Portugal), Open Look (St Petersburg), 圣彼得堡, the Guangdong Modern Dance Festival, the Shanghai International Arts Festival. The Russian Ministry of Culture called her “the Chinese Pina Bausch”.

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