CHENG-CHIEH YU / YU DANCE THEATRE
Cheng-Chieh Yu choreographs dance-theater explorations at the intersection of social-political perspective, gender ascription, and cultural hybridity. Yu combines the primary kinesthetic languages of modern and post-modern dance, in reformations that are informed by non-western movement practices. Currently, Yu's dance practice internalizes the martial arts of TaijiDaoYin (太極導引) and BaGuaZhang（八卦掌）. Yu began her performance career touring with Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan, then residing in New York City from 1989 to 2001, she performed in the touring companies of Jose Limon, Gus Solomons Jr., Bebe Miller, and as a guest artist for the Ralph Lemon Dance Project. Her choreography has been produced by numerous venues in NYC and Los Angeles as well as internationally in Germany, Israel, Malaysia, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Choreographic commissions include from the Chinese Information and Cultural Center, Movement Research, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church in NYC, the Beijing Modern Dance Company and Guangdong Modern Dance Company in China, The Jumping Frames International Dance Video Festival in Hong Kong, the Creative Society, Sun-Shier Dance Theatre and Taipei Dance Circle of Taiwan. She has received fellowships from City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the UC Humanities Research Institute and grants from the Cultural Council and the National Endowment for Arts and Cultures of Taiwan, the Jerome Foundation, the Durfee Foundation, DTW Suitcase Fund and UC Institute for Research in the Arts. Her dance film Martiality, Not Fighting is steamed at Link TV, PBS Southern California. This film has received the Dirorphte Jury Award in Amsterdam (2016), The Best Short in Dance Camera West, Los Angeles (2015), as well as the Best Performance Award from the InShadow International Festival of Video, Performance and Technology in Portugal (2014). Yu is a Professor of choreography at UCLA, Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, and currently guest teaching at the Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan.
Headshot Photo: Ming-Xun Li
Media Collaborator:
Marianne M. Kim (b.1970 Seoul) is a Korean American interdisciplinary artist working in screendance, multimedia installation, choreography, and performance art. Her areas of research include the disorienting effects of technologized labor, cultural identity, consumerism, and most recently the forces within industrial food production and promotion that mediate race, gender, and bodies. Her most recent presentations include Athens Video Dance Project, Dance Film Association/Film Society of Lincoln Center, Wexner Center for the Arts, International Screendance Festival at ADF, MIVSC Sao Carlos Videodance Festival, Agite y Sirva Festival Itinerante de Videodanza, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Cine-Corps Festival de Films Sur La Danse in France, The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, The Feldman Gallery + Project Space in Portland, de la Cruz Collection in Miami, and the Poznan Biennial in Poland. Kim’s short film Martiality, Not Fighting was awarded a Dioraphte Jury Award at Cinedans 2016 in Amsterdam, Best Performance Award at the Voarte – InShadow International Festival of Video, Performance and Technologies in 2014, and Best Short Film at Dance Camera West 2015 in Los Angeles. In the past Kim has been supported with grants and fellowships from EMPAC-Dance MOViE Commission, Jacob K. Javits Foundation, MacDowell Colony Fellowship, NEA/Dance USA, Meet the Composer, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Scottsdale Public Arts Fund, and the Illinois Arts Council.
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