Artistic Statement

As a dance artist, practitioner, and educator, I have been investigating cross-cultural practice and research between the East and West. My artistry is rooted in my cultural heritage. With a long-term practice and research in Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, I approach pedagogy, performance, scholarship, and artistry as a cohesive oneness by finding their integrity and interconnectivity. Taoist concepts of Yin and Yang, wu wei, harmony, balance, and cosmopolity guided my exploration of the relationship between humans, nature, and the universe. Buddhist Zen, Emptiness, Nirvana, Samsara, and Impermanence informed my inquiry into body, mind, spirit, presence, and human experience. Confucian principles shaped my pedagogical approach to relational learning, ethics, and cross-cultural choreography. Among these three Chinese philosophies, the concept of 氣(Chi/Qi) - air, breath, energy flow, life force - has become a significant role in bridging the sophisticated concepts into an embodied inquiry. CHI Awareness Practice, funded by Kun-Yang Lin, has been my core methodology to centralize my practice-as-research, exploring how breath, sensation, stillness, movement, and energetic awareness connect with one’s internal and external worlds. 

I see dance movement as another linguistic study. Each style/form of practice carries its meanings, myths, and mysteries. My research brings Chinese traditional practices in Tai Chi, Martial Arts, and Chinese Classical, Folk, and Ethnic dances into dialogue with Western modern and contemporary dance forms, including Graham, Cunningham, Limón, and Release. Through this cross-cultural inquiry, I investigate the dynamic relationships between physical and spiritual, internal and external, inside-out and outside-in, stillness and movement, and time and space. I desire to understand the body as a living site of cultural knowledge and philosophical inquiry where dance becomes a medium to connect self, others, and nature with the universe.