FILMS / FILMMAKERS (alphabetical order)
24 TAGLINES HALFWAY HOME
24 Taglines Halfway Home based on devastatingly exposing the fragmented personalities and broken images in disintegrated society. I try to portray middle-class families crisis of identity and breakdown of communication in human relations and resultant tragic effect of boredom and despair constitute the theme. I take 24 taglines or words to make this film. Words or lines is like: identity, gender, loneliness, sensitive individual's desire, marriage, what is missing my life, adolescent, following the path, do everything for us, is this me, all my rights on you, sexuality and awareness, frustration etc.
Vikram Mohan, a versatile dance practitioner with a passion for organic and improvisational movement, performance creation, research, and filmmaking. Vikram's dedication and talent have earned him prestigious accolades, including the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar-2018 and eight nominations in the Mahindra Excellence Theatre Awards for his production "After Death: The Spiritual Journey" in 2016.
With a keen eye for innovation and artistic expression, Vikram has made significant contributions to the global dance community. His participation in events like the International Choreographer Week in Tilburg, Netherlands, in 2014, and the success of his short dance film "Stillness" in international festivals, including the 60 Seconds Dance on Screen Film Festival in Sweden, attest to his creativity and skill.
As a performer, choreographer, and educator, Vikram has left an indelible mark on numerous national and international festivals, universities, and schools. His dynamic approach to dance and commitment to sharing his knowledge have enriched the lives of students and audiences alike.
Explore Vikram Mohan's portfolio to discover the depth and diversity of his artistic endeavors, from captivating performances to thought-provoking research and compelling filmmaking.
IG: @vikrammohan79
CORRALLING OF CIRCLES
This short film is a far cry of the impulses to escape from a suffocating but all-too-familiar setting, which erodes our souls. The circular shapes, repetitive tasks, swirling movements seem to carry the lady into a sinking hole.
Can she finally break free and find her way out?
Siye Tao is a dancer, choreographer, and dance filmmaker of the post-90s Cenozoic era in China.
Siye Tao started her rigorous and professional dance training at the age of 11 in Beijing. For over fifteen years, she studied and practiced under the guidance of some prominent dance educators, who are from Tibet, Xinjiang, inner Mongolia, Yanbian, and Yunnan provinces. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA) in Dance Performance, and a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) in Dance Education from Minzu University of China College of Dance, Beijing. Since 2015, Tao has worked as a director, choreographer, performing artist on stage and on screen.
Tao was the prize winner in choreography at the 15th Beijing Dance Competition (at the national level). She was also the dance director and choreographer of the music and dance gala ‘The Poetry of China (2015-2017)’. Tao’s choreographies and dance films have been showcased nationally and internationally, such as Beijing Tian-Qiao Performing Arts Center, Nanshan Culture and Sport Center in Shenzhen, Shanghai Film Art Center, Glór Theater in Ireland, Dansmuseet in Stockholm, Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center, Sophia Gordon Center for Performing Arts, Théâtre du Marais in Val-Morin, Detroit Film Theater of Detroit Institute of Arts, etc. In particular, her recent two dance films, ‘Watch, and Being Watched’ and ‘Shattered Ripples’ have gained international recognitions and awards.
Recent years, Tao has been working on a public screen dance series with people who had no previous dance experiences, and questioning “Why not dance everywhere and any time?”
Website: siyetao.com
IG: @siyetao
DAUGHTER
daughter is a screen dance work directed, choreographed, written, and performed by Li Chiao-Ping. About her own mother's journey from China, Li's "daughter" reflects the optimism and fortitude of immigrant parents. Cinematography by Michael Eckblad and Jason Bahling; editing by Jason Bahling; and music by Stephen Vitiello. Completed in 2012.
Li Chiao-Ping’s work has been praised in the NY Times, Village Voice, Dance Magazine, LA Times, Washington Post, & SF Bay Guardian. She “takes us to a different place in dance. The vision is both Asian and western, combining the essence of both worlds." (Martha's Vineyard Times) Known for her originality, trademark physicality, humanism, & visual design, her work has been shown in major venues/festivals in the U.S. & abroad, including Jacob’s Pillow, Bates, American Dance Festival (ADF), Kennedy Center, Dance Place, Danspace Project, ODC Theater, CounterPulse, & around the world. Named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to watch”, Li Chiao-Ping is a multi-hyphenate artist, a 9-time NEA grant awardee, and a MAP Fund grant recipient, who creates layered works that combine multiple art forms to explore themes of culture and identity. Li was Director of Dance at Hollins College & former Chair of UW-Madison’s Dance Dept, where she continues to teach. Honored to be a recipient of an Outstanding Woman of Color in Education Award, NEA grants, & US representative in ADF’s International Choreographer’s Program, Li’s work addresses topics of identity, diversity, inclusion, space, & place. She recently won Best Direction Award for her screendance work “Provenance: A Letter to My Daughter” from the 2023 Experimental Dance & Music Film Festival and Best Picture, Best Experimental Film, and Best Dance Film from the 2024 Los Angeles Chinatown International Film Festival for her screendance “in silence is the offering presented”. Recent/current projects include DIRTY LAUNDRY”, a work for the stage that begins touring in 2026, “Never Lost”, her latest screendance work completed in 2025, and “HERE LIES THE TRUTH”, a work for the stage and the subject of a new documentary project.
Website: www.lcpdance.com
IG: @lcpdance
DESIRE
The human body is a living creature full of mysteries. Whether we realize it or not, humans often use their bodies to understand the world, convey their aspirations, and even function as instruments of political influence. Clad in a male body, Otniel Tasman felt he had succeeded in voicing his conscience through the art of Lengger, a traditional dance typical of Banyumas, Central Java, Indonesia, which is danced by men dressed as women.
He represents his body as an open door, ready to accept all the consequences of the paradoxical world. He is prepared to live in the gray area between the traditions of masculinity and feminism, which he often calls "nyawiji", namely "when two entities become one".
Through Lengger, Otniel Tasman reconstructs the relationship between performing arts, spirituality, and gender identity in understanding body elements and non-binary gender struggles through traditional, spiritual, and cultural approaches.
Deny Ardianto is a dance film director and a lecturer in film and media at Sebelas Maret University in Indonesia. His films have been showcased at various festivals and have received several awards. Many of his dance films are rooted in a rich traditional background, both in terms of narrative and dance choreography.
IG: @d.t.ardianto
FLOW
Renewal
Wild and pure,
A cycle of creation,
Through pain and strength.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Shoko Tamai's choreography embodies a raw and natural expression that transcends dance forms.
Deconstructing movement and tapping into a shared ancestral dance vocabulary, she reveals a universal language that connects us all.
Her work is a journey to access the profound emotions and experiences that often remain unexplored, inviting audiences into a heart-to-heart conversation with themselves and the world around them.
Her work is a call for authenticity, empowerment, femininity, and vulnerability, creating a space for emotional exploration and connection that comes from inside.
Shoko Tamai, a Japanese-Korean choreographer based in New York City, conveys messages of human connection and environmental consciousness through dance.
With training in ballet, contemporary dance, and martial arts since age two, Shoko has studied at prestigious institutions such as the Central School of Ballet in the UK, Yumi Classical Ballet in Japan.
She has performed with renowned companies like Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, and Cirque du Soleil.
Shoko is the founder of the New York based dance company Ninja Ballet. Her work brought her to stages around the world as well as Mother Nature, she has set the choreography in sacred cenote caves in Mexico.
Her international recognition includes the Solo Seal award, a Gold Medal in the New York Ballet Competition, and a Merit Award at Premio Capri Danza International.
She's also been a Finalist in The World Ballet Competition and nominated for a New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Choreography in "The Tempest".
Website: shokotamai.com
FORMS
Forms 形 is a dance film inspired by the ancient Chinese cosmological system of the Five Elements (五行)—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.
Each element unfolds through choreographic and cinematic choices. Movement, camera, and environment act in relation, as the body moves through cycles of balance, tension, rupture, and renewal.
Through these cycles, the film reveals an understanding of identity not as fixed or fractured, but as fluid: an ongoing process of transformation between forms.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
I created Forms 形 as a way to think about “change” in the body and identity.
Forms 形 is inspired by the Five Elements as a way of observing the natural world. By paying attention to the elements around me, I became interested in the idea of how one state gives rise to the next, and how one's identity can shift through the cycle of life. These thoughts are translated into bodily experience, where movement, environment, and image continuously influence one another.
This work is deeply connected to my background and embodied history in dance. My training in Chinese classical dance and folk forms naturally informs my choreographic language—not as something I consciously impose, but as something that emerges naturally through the body. I allow movement to happen as it needs to happen, fully embracing what the body carries and where it wants to go.
This film grew from my interest in the relationship between editing, framing, and choreography, and in how movement can be reshaped and re-choreographed through the art of filmmaking. Rather than positioning the camera as a detached observer, I treat the lens as a mover—one that shifts perspective and reorganizes movement through rhythm, composition, and time, shaping how the body is seen.
The film was created through close collaboration with many student artists, with original compositions and designs developed throughout the process. The work embraces each collaborator’s ideas and perspectives. Forms 形 exists not only as a personal work, but as a collective one—shaped through trust, exchange, and collaboration.
Linxin “Kisa” Li 李琳馨 (she/they/ta) is a multidisciplinary artist-scholar, choreographer, and filmmaker. She is an Instructor of Dance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Alabama, and the co-Artistic Director of the Emerging Choreographers’ Showcase (2025–26). She previously served as Visiting Scholar of Dance at the University of Dayton and the Artistic Director of the UD Dance Ensemble. She holds an MFA in Dance from Florida State University and a BA in Dance with a minor in Psychology from the University of Dayton.
Kisa’s research and creative practice explore the body as a site of translation—between cultures, artistic mediums, and emotional states. Her published scholarship includes “An Autoethnography: Chinese Contemporary Dance as a Catalyst for Inclusive Dance Studies” (Dancer-Citizen, Issue 19) and “At the Table: Authenticity, Vulnerability, and Vocation” (NetVUE: Studies in Vocation and Calling).
Kisa’s performance, choreographic work, and dance films have been presented internationally in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Germany, the United States, Japan, Cyprus, and the United Kingdom. Notable works include the dance film "劫: Self-Deconstruction," which received Best Experimental Film at both the Hong Kong World Film Festival (2022) and the World Class Film Awards (2024), as well as Best Director at The Music Dance Screenings Film Festival Consonance (2023). Her film "Dear Kisa" received Best Choreography at the X World Short Film Festival (2023). She was also awarded the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs’ Dance Award (2024) for her choreography "A Touch of Zen" and for her artistic directorship of the UD Dance Ensemble.
In addition to her creative and scholarly practice, Kisa serves on the Programming Committee for the Dance Studies Association (DSA 2025) and has adjudicated for the Utah Dance Film Festival and the Student World Impact Film Festival (2022).
IG: @kisa_productions
I SEE
*STUDENT FILM
Exploring themes of intimacy and perspective, I SEE examines physical and emotional vulnerability, both on an individual and interpersonal level. The film presents two dancers, acting at times as two individuals and at others and one unique entity, as they explore the true meaning of human connection. As the film progresses, they peel off layers, eventually coming to the realization that we are all connected through our shared humanity. Only when one comes to this realization are they truly able to see.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
I SEE is a film that focuses on human connection at its core—beyond gender, identity, and circumstance. The film explores the intimacy that exists between people as human beings, and through movement captured on both a micro and macro level — the larger, unspoken connection we share with the natural world around us. I SEE serves as a reminder that even though we may not always be able to recognize it, we are interconnected at our foundation, and that is powerful and worth nurturing.
DIRECTOR
Olivia Brancato is a Los Angeles native director who loves crafting stories that feel authentic and unfiltered. She has been studying for her BFA at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Film and Television Production and will graduate in May 2025. Olivia strives to entertain by exploring the complexities of human nature, and maximizing those emotions through visual storytelling. She is passionate about capturing performances on screen in ways that feel intimate, dynamic, and emotionally resonant.
IG: @oliviabrancato
CHOREOGRAPHER
Born and raised in New York City, Tyler Chang is a multidisciplinary Chinese-American artist committed to discovering the various intersections that dance has to offer. They began their dance education at LaGuardia High School additionally training at Broadway Dance Center, Ballet Hispánico, and MOVE|NYC|. During their time at LaGuardia they became the first dance major in the school’s history to hold office as class president.
Throughout their time at USC Kaufman, they had the honor of performing works by Kyle Abraham, Christopher Wheeldon, Hope Boykin, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Saleemah E. Knight, Tyce Diorio, Shahar Binyamini, and several others. Professionally, Tyler performed works by Thomas Ford and Steven Atwater. They studied at The School at Jacob’s Pillow contemporary program, Springboard Danse Pittsburgh, Orsolina 28, and at the Ballets Jazz Montréal summer intensive. They additionally were a 2025 Arnhold summer fellow studying dance education and leadership.
In addition to dance performance at USC, Tyler has researched social dance practices, on screen acting, cinematography, musical composition, community organizing, movement direction, drag performance, and choreography. The interdisciplinary collaborative short they choreographed and executive produced, i see, gained international acclaim through film festival recognition. Additionally, Tyler became the first director of multi-disciplinary events for Southern California Choreographic Collective in their junior year.
Following graduation, Tyler will be joining Visceral Dance Chicago for their 2026/2027 season as a performing apprentice. Tyler considers themself a multifaceted artist, with their identity alone offering and igniting innovative perspectives.
IG: @tylerchxng
FILMS & FILMMAKERS (alphabetical order by film title)
LOOK AT ME
*STUDENT FILM
Sometimes if you look close enough, you can get pulled into your own reflection. What lies within that world is all of you, the parts that you guard, parts that turn against you, all the fragmented aspects of yourself. You slip from fragment to fragment, watching and being watched through it all. If you are so lucky as to meet your ego, you can pull yourself out. If luck does not fall upon you however, pray that you don’t meet a part of yourself that you despise.
Eon Allum (they/them) is a queer, Asian American dance artist and filmmaker born and raised in San Diego, California. They received their BFA in dance at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in 2025. They have a love for creating dance films and they use visual effects, makeup, and poetry to craft their worlds.
They incorporate various dance forms into their movement language including modern, butoh, contact improv, dance theater, and hip hop, and are recognized for their fluid, intricate style emphasizing texture and connectivity. They have a love for improvisation and spontaneous composition of stories through movement.
Their films have been screened at the 2026 Liminal Dance Film Festival and at DISCO RIOT’s 2026 Queer Mvmnt Fest. Their art is drawn from the whimsy and disquiet of modern life, and they aspire to make more space for queer and Asian voices in the arts and create works that fascinate and comfort through liminality and fantasy.
IG: @eon_aallu
MOTHERHOOD
In the light of dawn she awakens in her nest,
one baby under her wing, the other two in search of food.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Who am I?
A question that can present itself to new mothers.
As I navigated the grief of losing myself after the birth of my youngest and the inner turmoil that came with those feelings. I’ve slowly started the journey of finding myself again. This film is personal, inspired by a morning in bed with my two beautiful children.
My love letter to mothers.
DIRECTOR
I’m an artist and a mother (in no particular order).
Nicole Spring is a filmmaker currently experimenting with fragmented memories and movement.
With a background as a classically trained dancer, Nicole's film work is heavily influenced by dance. Her latest short film, "Motherhood" is a deeply personal project inspired by a morning in bed with her two young children and is currently screening at dance film festivals worldwide.
With an art process approach, Nicole is excited to continue exploring, collaborating, and connecting with other humans across various mediums as she develops as a producer and director.
CHOREOGRAPHER/DANCER
Stephanie Kim has been a professional dancer in LA for 16 years. Traveling as a performer to many countries, cities, and stages, she branched out early as a choreographer of movement and dance in a variety of artistic medium as well. The enjoyment and fulfillment she has found creating a narrative through the body is immense. Supporting a visual dream is a beautiful way to be a part of a creative team while using the knowledge she has used first hand in her own performance. Credits include; various music videos for artists including Kygo, Ellie Goulding, De’Wayne, Rita Ora, Warbly Jets, Caroline Vreeland, U2, and Amy Manford, a AAA commercial, a stage performance for Andrea Bocelli’s Australian tour, as well as a few short films, including one for care.org. Ms. Kim’s repertoire ranges from classical dance to pedestrian movement. Always looking to be challenged and welcomes every invitation to grow.
IG: @stephaniekimkim
COMPOSER
Sami Freeman creates evocative, ethereal, and haunting worlds through sound. She is a singer/songwriter, pianist, and composer from San Francisco who gravitates toward emotive music grounded in strings, synths, and keys. Sami lives in the Outer Sunset of San Francisco with her husband and son, where she scores film and bodysurfs.
IG: @samifreemanmusic
RED FATE
Red Fate reimagines the Japanese legend of the Red String of Fate through dance and cinema. Set in Moncalvo, Italy, the film follows a woman caught in an imbalanced relationship, exploring themes of entanglement, loss of self, and the resilience found in reclaiming balance. Blending movement, myth, and modern partnership, Red Fate is a meditation on fate, female empowerment, and the quiet strength of choosing freedom over control.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Rooted in the Japanese legend of the Red String of Fate, Red Fate is a deeply personal reflection on romance, female empowerment, and the search for belonging through a mixed-identity lens.
When my father arrived in the U.S. from Singapore, he fell in love with my mother, drawn to the Western ideals of the new life he wanted to build. Yet as a parent, he rooted our home deeply in his South Asian heritage. Raised at this crossroad, I found myself navigating a complex internal split. At the intersection of these two worlds, I learned early on to view love and identity through a dual lens. Connecting with choreographer Hiroki Ichinose, who is half-Japanese and half-Hawaiian, grew out of a shared curiosity about this exact space. Together, we wanted to explore a feeling familiar to so many multicultural individuals: the tension of assimilating into a Western landscape, only to find ourselves entangled in relationships that ultimately don't feel culturally grounding.
Set against the backdrop of the iconically Western landscape of Moncalvo, Italy, Red Fate reimagines an ancient East Asian myth through dance and cinema to capture this emotional rupture. The film follows a woman caught in an imbalanced partnership, charting the quiet heartbreak of losing oneself in a relationship that lacks cultural resonance, and the resilience required to choose freedom over control.
Ultimately, Red Fate is a journey toward balance. It speaks to the peace and true love found when we embrace relationships that feel like home, honoring the roots that anchor us while continuing to celebrate the Western landscapes we inhabit today.
DIRECTOR
Natasha Mynhier is an award-winning director with roots in
professional dance, science communication, and commercial cinematography. Known for her sculptural choreography and emotional precision, she creates art films, documentaries, music videos and fiction films that blend visual poetry with social justice. With The North Face, she directed BEYOND THE SUMMIT, a climate film shot in the Arctic that supported the conservation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She received a $2 million grant from the Zcash Foundation to direct a documentary series about privacy technology featuring Edward Snowden and Vitalik Buterin. Recently, Natasha was selected for the AFI Directing Workshop for Women+ to create APTITUDE, a sci-fi short about the future of testing, and was awarded the Orsolina 28 residency where, supported by Chanel, she directed a dance film in Italy with dancers from Netherlands Dance Theater. Beyond her art films and documentaries, she has directed commercial and social media campaigns for brands including Berkley Fishing, Anova Culinary, Heretic, MD Anderson, and Neom. Her cinematography credits include projects for Netflix, Marvel, The New York Times, Dropbox, with celebrities such as Eva Mendes and Selena Gomez. At the heart of it all, Natasha is drawn to rhythmic, visually poetic storytelling – and dancing while cooking.
IG: @natashamynhier
CHOREOGRAPHER/DANCER
Hiroki Ichinose is a Japanese-American choreographer and dancer originally from Hawai‘i. His choreographic works include RED, created through the Orsolina28 Art Foundation’s Call for Creation Fellowship which was supported by CHANEL, and Lay Him Quietly, a full-length work that premiered at Stora Östgötateatern as part of Riksteatern’s inaugural REACT International Theatre Festival. Most recently, he collaborated with Ane Brun as choreographer and co-director of the music video Hold Me. He has also collaborated on stage performances with musicians including Ane Brun and Little Dragon.
Ichinose was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2016. His work has been presented internationally in Sweden, Italy, and Japan, including at the New National Theatre Tokyo. In 2026, he received the Griman Award for Dancer of the year for his performance in The Garden with Iceland Dance Company.
As a performer, Ichinose has worked with many internationally renowned choreographers throughout his career, most notably during his time with GöteborgsOperans Danskompani (2018–2025). He previously danced as a soloist with Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballet (2015–2018) and has appeared as a guest artist with Iceland Dance Company, Grand Théâtre de Genève/Eastman, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, and Aszure Barton & Artists, among others.
IG: @hiroki.ich
SO WHAT IS THERE?
Experimental dance film in which one dancer encounters another on a staircase who is unable to continue her ascent.
John (Ji-heuk) Kim is a South Korean-born American writer, director, and editor based in New York City. His work centers on nuanced narratives of Koreans in the U.S. As a writer/director, he has received the Indian Paintbrush Production Grant, and as a co-writer, he has participated in the Berlinale Talents Tokyo Screenwriting Lab and advanced to the second round of the Sundance Development Track. He is currently in pre-production for his next short film, They Fell From Ginkgo Trees, and developing his first feature, The Loneliest Shade of Green.
IG: @hellojohnkim
THE YEAR OF THE GREEN SNAKE
Martha Graham Company’s principal dancer Xin Ying embodies the spirit of the snake in a fluid metamorphosis. Drawing on themes of rebirth and reinvention, the dichotomy of repulsion and seduction, Ying’s dance improvisations evoke the Snake-woman motif in Chinese folklore and the Sorceress Medea in Graham’s “Cave of the Heart”.
DIRECTORS' STATEMENT
The Year of the Green Snake features Martha Graham Company’s principal dancer Xin Ying in costumes by Christian Joy, with musical score composed and performed by Jason P. Grisell.
In Graham’s Cave of the Heart, we watched Ying dance with a piece of red string as if in a duet with a snake. Mesmerized, we began to imagine a piece where she could fully embody the spirit of the snake. Ying spoke to us about the Snake-woman motif in Chinese folklore, as in the Legend of the White Snake, where a female snake spirit becomes a woman and pivots between being an animal and a seductive sorceress. We were intrigued by a supporting character in the legend - the Green Snake spirit; she’s traditionally depicted as a younger devoted sworn sister of the White Snake, and is typically described as being more animalistic, free-spirited and self-reliant, embodying the feminist attitude of a more contemporary character.
Our Green Snake is also inspired by Russian folktales featuring the Mistress of the Copper Mountain who appears to gem miners as a green-eyed woman in a malachite gown or as a green lizard or snake, who controls underground riches.
In yet another iteration of snake mythology, Goethe’s fairy tale The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily displays a similar dichotomy between a powerful animal snake spirit and a cursed Maiden. Reflecting on these themes of rebirth and reinvention, appetite and desire, repulsion and seduction, we envisioned a stage where Ying’s dance improvisations could evoke these haunting characters in a fluid metamorphosis.
DIRECTOR
ioulex is an artist duo. Through an ethereal approach to photography and filmmaking, Julia Koteliansky and Alexander Kerr explore the invisible connections between the natural and the human made, the overlap between the concrete and the surreal.
Their editorial portraits, fashion and reportage stories have been published internationally, commissioned by The New Yorker, the New York Times, M le Monde, TIME and ZEITmagazin among others. ioulex’s work was the subject of solo exhibitions at Pavlov’s Dog gallery in Berlin and Audio Visual Arts (AVA) gallery in New York. Their experimental short films have been screened as part of official selection of ASVOFF festival at Centre Pompidou and Dover’s Market, Dance on Camera at Symphony Space, The Museum of Art and Design, Parsons Gallery, NOWNESS, and Vogue Italia.
Julia and Alexander met as students at Parsons School of Design in Paris. They reside with their daughter in New York.
IG: @ioulex
CHOREOGRAPHER/DANCER
Xin Ying, dancer and choreographer, MFA from NYU, Dance Magazine cover star and a mother, joined the Company in 2011 and performs many of Graham’s own roles, including Herodiade, Errand into the Maze, Chronicle, Cave of the Heart, and others. Her performance as The Chosen One in Rite of Spring was noted as “Transcendent and heroic” by the NY Times. She has also been featured in works created for the Company by many contemporary choreographers including Nacho Duato, Annie-B Parson, and Hofesh Shechter. Her posts of her improvisations have garnered attention across major social media and press platforms, and her growing resume as a collaborator and choreographer, includes commissions from Co. Lab Dance, Ballet Arkansas, Art Bath and 92NY for its 90th year celebration. She also has assisted Janet Eilber on creative projects including The Feast with the Long Beach opera. Xin has created a LLM for the Graham Company, MarthaBot, as well as Lamentation: Dancing the Archive, a project using volumetric film and AR tracking technology premiered at Jacob’s Pillow. Letter to Nobody, a collaboration with media that allows her to dance with Martha Graham is received its world premiere last season at The Joyce, her work In the Folds of Her Purple is premiered this spring at Guggenheim museum.
IG: @xin_ying_dance
YOU HUO 悠活 (SLOW LIVING)
You Huo 悠活 is a film about how the pace of our lives affects the art we make. As is core to Eastern philosophies, we seek balance - which is to say slower or faster is neither better nor worse. Through a playful practice, this idea is embodied in my friends Daniel, a dancer and choreographer, and Hao, a composer and improv pianist. Often transcending mediums and conventions, their work is often as much about how they feel in a moment as it is about planning and vision. I find these same ideas particularly present in both calligraphy and graffiti, where these mediums are about practice and feelings in the moment of an instant stroke - an expression frozen in time.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
The idea of this project was to bring together different worlds which I intersect - filmmaking & freestyle dance & visual art - and see what we make when we remind ourselves to live slowly and play. The resulting 12 minute film is entirely and playfully improvised: including the camerawork, music, and movement.
DIRECTOR: Aarong Hwang
I’ve been a documentary filmmaker and editor for 10 years now. My appreciation of materiality and optics is forged from my time as a mechanical engineer in camera design. Even now, momentum and movement still underscores my work, pairing with a fierce creative practice of exploratory analog creation.
Growing up as a traveller moving from place to place, my filmmaking journey began when living in Shanghai. Since then, my interests as an artist have taken me to Vietnam, Nepal, Pakistan, and Alaska. My focus now is to create work that offers intimate portraits to different ways of being. For me, this exists where science and social justice intersect, and in amplified diasporic voices.
IG: @aaronwenli
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