Guest Lectures
2023 (Feb) “Director-choreographer Collaboration in Dance Film Production,” Auro-Apaar Manifest Dance Film Festival, India
2022 (Nov) “Incorporating Choreographic Thinking in Filmmaking Process,” Film and Media Studies, Grinnell College
2022 (Sep) “The Act of Corporeal Listening in Experimental Dance Documentary,” Department of Dance, Temple University
2021 (Mar) “Experimental Dance Documentary and Gender Embodiment,” Department of Dance, West Michigan University
2020 (Mar) “Dance Film as A Site for Negotiating Cultural Identity,” UCLA Geffen Academy
Self-Designed Courses
Dance Film: Documentary Aesthetics in Dance-Moving Image Practice
Dance film: Documentary Aesthetics in dance-moving image practice
This course combines theoretical inquiries with production experiences to explore the intersection of documentary aesthetics and dance filmmaking. The course offers a methodology for conceiving screendance through the observation of everyday life and highlights the performative mode of engaging with social issues and cultural memories. Students will be exposed to and critically analyze dance films and documentaries by choreographers and filmmakers working in various cultural contexts. They will also investigate and experiment with different ways of incorporating documentary elements into their experimental dance films through a series of hands-on exercises and a final project. This course is first offered in Spring 2024 at Duke University.
Video Tools and Techniques
Video Tools and techniques
This course introduces students to basic video tools and equip them with key techniques of video production, spanning pre-production, production and post-production processes. The course format includes interactive practical sessions in which instruction in video tools and techniques is accompanied with in-class demonstrations, screenings, hands-on exercises, and feedback sessions. To develop skills of filmmaking, students will create three short films based on different prompts throughout the quarter. This course was originally taught at the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA in a span of five years.
Dance Technique/
Performance Courses
Performance: Contemporary Chinese Dance in the Diaspora
Performance: Contemporary Chinese Dance in the Diaspora is a practice-based interdisciplinary performance course designed for undergraduate students interested in contemporary dance performance practices beyond western dance forms. Bringing together music, movement, creative writing and multimedia, students will investigate different modes of performance to explore personal and social histories. In this creative process, students will also engage in critical discussion on contemporary Chinese dance in the diasporic context informed by scholarly readings, films, talks, and works of prominent Asian American choreographers. This course is first offered in Spring 2024 at Duke University.
Chinese dance
This is an introductory studio-based course on Chinese classical dance and folk dance. Students will learn three forms of Chinese dance, namely Dai, Xinjiang (Uygurt), and Chinese classical dance. The course will also introduce students to the history of Chinese dance and the transnational cultural influences that have informed it. This course was first taught at the Department of Dance at the University of Iowa in 2013.
Arts for Building Critical thinking and Creativity
Arts for building critical thinking and creativity - instructor & curriculum designer
The course is designed through an arts organization (Creative Capacities International) that I co-founded in 2012 and ran for two years. The course focuses on using various forms of arts, such as music, dance, and visual art, to teach critical thinking skills and creativity. Along with my co-founder Shua Chang and other teachers in the program, we were able to teach the curriculum to students at Taktse International School in Sikkim, India and L'Ecole de Chaperon Rouge in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.