Research Statement
2024
As an artist who attempts to build bridges and to find synthesis between cultures, I value exchanges with other artists. As a choreographer who is always eager to perfect her skills, it is extremely refreshing and educational to be exposed to others’ approaches to my same craft. I have always tried to live by this and to inform my dance practice around the ideal of a multicultural dance that can be significant and have an impact in a diverse society.
My work is exploration-based and strongly influenced by surrealism. Using automatism to generate movement, I grapple with issues of cultural identity in current American society. In these imaginary, almost dystopian worlds I conceive of in my work, I create tension by juxtaposing images of extreme realism with those of abstraction. I deconstruct the human experiences of identity creation, power struggle and psychological trauma through the trials of daily life. My work also seeks to explore and portray intense emotions using minimal means, keeping the audience focused on the dance itself. The intention is to raise a reflexive mirror to perceived cultural differences at an individual and societal level. I use a hybrid vocabulary from Chinese dance and modern dance to portray how I have blended my larger senses of Taiwanese and American culture, and somatic movement practices to uncover what it means for the human body to move within and beyond it’s normal parameters.
In past works, I have discovered narrative elements and new ways of embodying human emotion, transposing imaginative states into compositional structures in time and space. I use paintings, drawings and sculptures in the didactic and choreographic process. Currently, I am in investigating the question “How can a dance evoke a culture without borders?” I value a deep dialogue between the artists and performers in the collaborative rehearsal process and I strive to challenge the way that diverse bodies can co-habitate space and cooperate kinesthetically. Through the research, I am employing similar techniques to investigate barriers to access, modes of spectatorship, and the relationship between performer and viewer. My goal is to communicate with people from a variety of backgrounds - recognizing that many people identify with experiencing conflicts and barriers related to their identity.
Chia-Ying Kao
2024
As an artist who attempts to build bridges and to find synthesis between cultures, I value exchanges with other artists. As a choreographer who is always eager to perfect her skills, it is extremely refreshing and educational to be exposed to others’ approaches to my same craft. I have always tried to live by this and to inform my dance practice around the ideal of a multicultural dance that can be significant and have an impact in a diverse society.
My work is exploration-based and strongly influenced by surrealism. Using automatism to generate movement, I grapple with issues of cultural identity in current American society. In these imaginary, almost dystopian worlds I conceive of in my work, I create tension by juxtaposing images of extreme realism with those of abstraction. I deconstruct the human experiences of identity creation, power struggle and psychological trauma through the trials of daily life. My work also seeks to explore and portray intense emotions using minimal means, keeping the audience focused on the dance itself. The intention is to raise a reflexive mirror to perceived cultural differences at an individual and societal level. I use a hybrid vocabulary from Chinese dance and modern dance to portray how I have blended my larger senses of Taiwanese and American culture, and somatic movement practices to uncover what it means for the human body to move within and beyond it’s normal parameters.
In past works, I have discovered narrative elements and new ways of embodying human emotion, transposing imaginative states into compositional structures in time and space. I use paintings, drawings and sculptures in the didactic and choreographic process. Currently, I am in investigating the question “How can a dance evoke a culture without borders?” I value a deep dialogue between the artists and performers in the collaborative rehearsal process and I strive to challenge the way that diverse bodies can co-habitate space and cooperate kinesthetically. Through the research, I am employing similar techniques to investigate barriers to access, modes of spectatorship, and the relationship between performer and viewer. My goal is to communicate with people from a variety of backgrounds - recognizing that many people identify with experiencing conflicts and barriers related to their identity.
Chia-Ying Kao
Curriculum Vitae
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PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATION
2023-Present Dance Department of Skidmore College Visiting Arist in Residence 2020-Present Dance&Theatre Department of Nassau Community College: Adjunct Dance Instructor 2021-Present ArtsConnection: Teaching Artist 2016-Present City Lore: Teaching Artist 2013-Present Chinese Theatre Works: Teaching Artist/Performer 2012-Present Dancewave: Teaching Artist 2012-Present Chia-Ying Kao Dance: Director/Founder TEACHING EXPERIENCE 2024 Skidmore College Dance Department- Modern Dance Workshop/Improvisation/Dance Experience/K-Pop II Preschool of America- Kids Hip Hop and Pre-Ballet PS124 Creative Movement BCA 6th Ave Older Adult Center Chinese Dance 2023 Skidmore College Dance Department- Modern Dance Workshop/Improvisation/Dance Experience/K-Pop 2022 Dance&Theatre Department Nassau Community College- Introduction to Modern Dance PS 203k- Chinese Dance MS 210- Musical Theater Sunset Park Neighborhood Senior Center- Zumba and Chinese Dances STEAM Integrated Dance Women in Need family Shelters: Jazz, Dance Making, K-Pop 2021 Dance&Theatre Department Nassau Community College- Modern Dance Technique I&II, Introduction to Modern Dance Metrokids Tudor City, Metrokids Westend and Metrokids Park Ave- Ballet, Hip Hop, Creative Movement PS 11- Ribbon Dance 2019 Master Class/Twilight Dance Studio, Taian Taiwan- Modern Dance Technique PS 67 Charles A Dorsey- Chinese Dance Residency Master Class/Zen-Light Organization, Hualien Taiwan- Modern Dance Technique/Improvisation PS 200 The Pomonok School And Star Academy- Chinese Dances Growing Up Green II Charter School- Chinese Dances Metrokids Tudor City, Metrokids Westend, Metrokids Park Ave- Ballet, Hip Hop, Creative Movement 2018 Guest Artist/Chinese Culture University Dance Department, Taipei Taiwan- Modern Dance Technique/Improvisation Bishop Kearney High School- Modern Dance Technique 124 Yung Wing School- Chinese Dance Residency 2017 Master class/Dance Department of Broward College, FL- Modern Dance Technique/Composition Master Class/UCLA, Department of World Arts & Cultures/Dance, LA- Modern Dance Technique Master Class at the Dance Department of the University of Taipei- Improvisation/Composition 2016 Guest Artist/National Taiwan University of Arts Dance Department, Taipei Taiwan- Modern Dance Technique/Improvisation/Composition Master class/Tainan University of Technology College of Arts, Taian Taiwan- Lecture on cultural exchange and modern dance in New York PS 181- Dance Foundations Residency 2015 Master class/Open Arts Program at NYU Tisch of the Arts- Improvisation/Composition Master class/National Taiwan University of Arts Dance Department, Taipei- Body Awareness/Modern Dance Technique/Improvisation Master class/Theory of Dance/Movement Therapy, Sarah Lawrence College- Modern Dance Technique/Composition Yeshiva of Flatbush High School Division- Modern Dance/Jazz |
EDUCATION
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