Choreography


Artist Statement

I create movement that brings to life the moments we feel absolutely and completely alive in our body, where every fiber of our thinking, moving, breathing being is engaged in the experience of storytelling

 

Inspired by my own identity as a mixed-race artist, my direction and choreography often illustrates the conversation between and along the spectrum(s) of our individual and collective mixed identities. How do we recognize and reconcile difference within ourselves? Within our world? Within a particular season, worldview, or shared human experience? How do we respect difference and probe at how we came to call these things different at all?

 

My work always considers the audience and the many stories we bring to the theatre.

RENT at Duke University 

***Photos by Les Todd***

A Chorus Line at Elon University 

***Photos by Tony Spielberg***

Selection of Concert Dance & Videodance Works

Crystal Roots. Inspired by Nordic goddesses of snow and the three Chinese “friends of winter,” Crystal Roots celebrates steadfastness, tenacity, and resilience during the autumnal transition into hibernation. What can we learn from the lore of winter? From the hearty plum, bamboo, and pine? What does it mean to survive, thrive, and transform in the cocoon of winter?


Reimagining the Sylph.  As a prelude to an extended quarantine, this early 2020 work begins to reimagine classical ballet and western classical music in the context of COVID-19. The piece draws upon a sense of doors simultaneously opening and closing and the peaceful, melancholic, and surely unsure undertones of Dvorak's American Quartet Movement 2, played by the Ciompi Quartet. 


~~~This work was commissioned by the Ciompi Quartet~~~

Thought-Body Work: Renasense. In a never-ending cycle, the mind-body spirals through phases of heaviness, groundedness, gathering, releasing, and rebirth as it evolves towards new modes of expression. The muscles themselves can unfold like blooming flowers but they can also collapse in on themselves, get twisted, and weigh down as they refuse to become unstuck. Are these moments a failure to keep the flow of the rebirth cycle going? Or are they a necessary part of the journey, a human manifestation of the wet, crumpled wings of a butterfly before first flight? Thought-Body Work: Renasense explores a journey of evolving out of this heavy place, of finding movement after stillness, of cycling through the rebirth cycle alongside the butterflies, caterpillars, and larvae of the world.

Waters to Waters: Between Yu & Flow. A 20-minute piece for 10 dancers that explores the similarities and differences between flow, a state of being coined by Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and yu, a concept first described by Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou.  A cultural familiarity with martial arts, longstanding yoga practice, and flow research by Aska Sakuta [1] influenced the movement vocabulary, which viewers described as “occupying a floating space between the ground and the sky.” This work is accompanied by interactive digital artwork by Mingyong Cheng. 

[1] Sakuta, Aska. “Embodied flow states and its role in movement performance.” Presented July 1-4, 2018 at Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities. Figure. University of Kent. https://www.academia.edu/38544507/Embodied_Flow_States_and_its_Role_in_Movement_Performance. 

Thought-Body Work: Bliss. Rooted in aesthetics of pleasure and curiosity, "Thought-Body Work: Bliss,"paves a rich and sensuous journey towards awakening empathy and embodied flow states. As dancers attune sensitively to the environment and sharpen their seven non-visual senses, they strengthen their receptors to intuit and interact with the environment, build embodied foundations for connection and community, and envelop themselves in the pleasure of listening to the complexity of our collective thought-body.

All Good People. A dance film exploring the seemingly insurmountable political, social, and economic challenges that rose to greater heights after the 2016 election. The piece mourns the present violence against BIPOC communities, women, LGBTQ+ identified individuals, and undocumented Americans as it calls us to come together with our heavy and resilient hearts to protect those who are threatened by a reversal of progress.  

Please direct all communication to courtneykristenliu@gmail.com.