“While the dancers decide how to transfer the impressions they feel and the wisdom of their bodies into movement, they also share their opinion with the audience and communicate the shared experience with the audience, like a conversation. My approach takes into account each dancer’s opinion in the choice of movement, generating a collaborative work in which the spirit of the dancers communicates through the work of art that is their body.

In every class or workshop I give, my aim is for the student to become aware of their body language and acquire the tools to better understand and learn from themselves, opening up to new possibilities, and looking for ways to refine the formulation of their ideas and movements.”

– Dai Jian

Biography

Dai Jian has been based in Lyon since 2016, after 12 years dancing in New York alongside Trisha Brown and Shen Wei. Independent, he choreographs his own projects. Dai Jian is also passionate about contact-improvisation, a technique he developed with Kristie Simpson and Michael Schumacher.

An artist of Chinese origin, he draws his inspiration from contemporary and classical dance, as well as the martial arts. Choreographer, visual artist and set designer, Dai Jian has been working on his own works alongside his career as a professional dancer since the age of 18. In 1998, he was awarded a prize at the National Dance Competition in China, and went on to win the Guangzhou Performing Arts New Star Award (choreography and dance) with his first solo creation, which in 2012 served as a compulsory piece at the Boston International Ballet Competition.