Chia-Ying Kao 高嘉瑩
Mission/Artist's Statement
Dance, in my vision, is both a record of life and an insurgent act—a site of resistance. Through movement, the body preserves memory and becomes a catalyst for transformation. My work engages both personal and collective histories by dismantling inherited forms and reconfiguring them into hybrid vocabularies that weave movement, sound, and visual art. These performances illuminate overlooked stories and reveal resilience amid cultural and historical fractures. Grounded in research and improvisation, my practice explores the intersections of Taiwanese traditional culture, Asian diasporic experiences, and global contemporary dance. I approach choreography as a form of embodied inquiry, seeking balance between discipline and spontaneity, ritual and experimentation, reason and spirit—allowing the body to become a vessel for thought, perception, and healing. My current research focuses on how dancers from diverse diasporic backgrounds, each carrying distinct movement vocabularies, can build trust through collaboration and foster belonging across cultures. Through improvisational structures and shared embodied research, I explore how cooperation can decentralize power and reimagine inherited hierarchies. By connecting gestures from Taiwanese folk rituals and Chinese dance with postmodern movement vocabularies, I create hybrid choreographies that challenge dominant narratives and cultivate solidarity through embodied exchange. To me, performance is a space of connection—where movement becomes a collective language of care, resistance, and imagination, transforming isolation into connection, and individual experience into shared understanding.
藝術自述/創作理念
我的藝術視野將舞蹈視為一種生活的紀錄，亦是一個抵抗的場域。身體在流動中保存記憶，也在變化中催化改變。我的創作以個人與集體的歷史為線索，透過解構並重組繼承的形式，編織出融合動作、聲音與視覺藝術的混合語彙。這些表演如同光線，照亮被忽略的故事，並在文化與歷史的斷層中顯現韌性。在研究與即興之間，我的實踐探索台灣傳統文化、亞洲僑民的經歷，以及全球當代舞蹈的語境。我將編舞視為一種「身體的探問」（embodied inquiry），在紀律與自發、儀式與實驗、理性與心靈之間尋找平衡，讓身體成為思考與感知、詰問與療癒的容器。我目前的研究聚焦於不同背景的舞者如何在共創中建立信任，並在多重文化語境下生成歸屬感與對話。透過即興結構與共享的身體研究，我探索合作如何成為一種去中心化的力量，重新想像繼承的權力架構。藉由將台灣民俗儀式與中國舞中的手勢結合後現代舞蹈的語彙，我創造出挑戰主流敘事的混合編舞，並在身體的交流中生成團結與共感。對我而言，表演是一個孕育連結的空間——在此，動作化為關懷、抵抗與想像的共同語言，將孤立轉化為連結，將個體的經驗化為集體的理解。
Dance, in my vision, is both a record of life and an insurgent act—a site of resistance. Through movement, the body preserves memory and becomes a catalyst for transformation. My work engages both personal and collective histories by dismantling inherited forms and reconfiguring them into hybrid vocabularies that weave movement, sound, and visual art. These performances illuminate overlooked stories and reveal resilience amid cultural and historical fractures. Grounded in research and improvisation, my practice explores the intersections of Taiwanese traditional culture, Asian diasporic experiences, and global contemporary dance. I approach choreography as a form of embodied inquiry, seeking balance between discipline and spontaneity, ritual and experimentation, reason and spirit—allowing the body to become a vessel for thought, perception, and healing. My current research focuses on how dancers from diverse diasporic backgrounds, each carrying distinct movement vocabularies, can build trust through collaboration and foster belonging across cultures. Through improvisational structures and shared embodied research, I explore how cooperation can decentralize power and reimagine inherited hierarchies. By connecting gestures from Taiwanese folk rituals and Chinese dance with postmodern movement vocabularies, I create hybrid choreographies that challenge dominant narratives and cultivate solidarity through embodied exchange. To me, performance is a space of connection—where movement becomes a collective language of care, resistance, and imagination, transforming isolation into connection, and individual experience into shared understanding.
藝術自述/創作理念
我的藝術視野將舞蹈視為一種生活的紀錄，亦是一個抵抗的場域。身體在流動中保存記憶，也在變化中催化改變。我的創作以個人與集體的歷史為線索，透過解構並重組繼承的形式，編織出融合動作、聲音與視覺藝術的混合語彙。這些表演如同光線，照亮被忽略的故事，並在文化與歷史的斷層中顯現韌性。在研究與即興之間，我的實踐探索台灣傳統文化、亞洲僑民的經歷，以及全球當代舞蹈的語境。我將編舞視為一種「身體的探問」（embodied inquiry），在紀律與自發、儀式與實驗、理性與心靈之間尋找平衡，讓身體成為思考與感知、詰問與療癒的容器。我目前的研究聚焦於不同背景的舞者如何在共創中建立信任，並在多重文化語境下生成歸屬感與對話。透過即興結構與共享的身體研究，我探索合作如何成為一種去中心化的力量，重新想像繼承的權力架構。藉由將台灣民俗儀式與中國舞中的手勢結合後現代舞蹈的語彙，我創造出挑戰主流敘事的混合編舞，並在身體的交流中生成團結與共感。對我而言，表演是一個孕育連結的空間——在此，動作化為關懷、抵抗與想像的共同語言，將孤立轉化為連結，將個體的經驗化為集體的理解。