Yin Mei (born in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

) is a choreographer and dancer, and the founder of a dance company based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

.Company History
Retrieved 27 October 2011

Life and career

Yin Mei was born and raised in China during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. Her experiences during this time greatly influenced her artistic philosophy. As she writes in her artist statement: Artistic Director
Retrieved 27 October 2011

''I am part of a generation of artists who lost their childhood to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, who experienced a world gone mad…Five thousand years of Chinese art and culture tossed in the garbage heap. From this, a generation of survivors – and of fighters – my generation – was born. But from this, how does one make art? How does one deal with memories that burn in the brain, that haunt one’s waking hours, that tattoo images of rage beneath one’s skin? For me, the trauma of my early years has led, not toward social engagement, nor toward abstraction, but toward the unmapped provinces of my own heart. What I have come to understand is that my work is essentially an exploration of the wounded self: How does a fighter dance?''

Yin Mei started dancing professionally aged 14, joining China's Henan Province Dance Company; she moved to the United States in 1985. Ms. Yin’s memories provide a driving force to her works. For example, ''Nomad'', a quartet of pieces, is framed by voice-overs taken from Ms. Yin’s diaries as a 7-year old in China and includes revolutionary slogans.

Yin Mei Dance company

Yin Mei Dance was founded in 1995 to further the choreographic and performance efforts of founder and artistic director Yin Mei. The company has performed across the United States in venues such as

Jacob's Pillow Dance Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The organization is known for a Summer dance festival. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives a ...

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

, and

Dance Theater Workshop Dance Theater Workshop, colloquially known as DTW, was a New York City performance space and service organization for dance companies that operated from 1965 to 2011. After a merger it became known as New York Live Arts Located as 219 19th Street ...

and internationally in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Yin Mei Dance aims to evoke a personal or spiritual connection with audiences by offering interdisciplinary work that goes beyond the immediate performance. Artistic director Yin Mei melds visual art and Western contemporary dance with her training in Chinese court and folk dance,

Peking Opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

T'ai chi Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. ...

, and other traditional Asian dance forms to create

dance theater Concert dance (also known as performance dance or theatre dance in the United Kingdom) is dance performed for an audience. It is frequently performed in a theatre setting, though this is not a requirement, and it is usually choreographed and p ...

works. To date, the company has 18 pieces in their repertory.Company Repertory
Retrieved 27 October 2011 Yin Mei has pursued notable collaborations, including work with visual artist

Xu Bing Xu Bing (; born 1955) is a Chinese artist who served as vice-president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is known for his printmaking skills and installation art, as well as his creative artistic use of language, words, and text and how t ...

and composer Tony Prabowo on ''Empty Tradition/City of Peonies'' (1998), and visual artist

Cai Guo-Qiang Cai Guo-Qiang (; born 8 December 1957) is a Chinese artist who currently lives and works in New York City and New Jersey. Biography Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China. His father, Cai Ruiqin, was a calligrapher ...

and composer

Robert Een Robert Een (born 1952) is an American composer, cellist, and vocalist. Career Known for his use of extended vocal and cello techniques, Een has recorded eight albums of his compositions and scored several films. He received Bessie Awards for musi ...

on ''/Asunder'' (2001).

Reception

Yin Mei's piece ''Empty Tradition/City of Peonies'' draws inspiration from her hometown,

Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...

, where peonies have a long history, but were banned during the

because they were too colorful. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' dance critic Jennifer Dunning wrote that ''Empty Tradition'' "recreates the experience of living under a repressive government and society where forbidden language, thoughts and feelings nonetheless push through like green grass cracking concrete paving." Jennifer Dunning, writing of the piece "/Asunder" in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', describes Yin Mei as having "a striking visual sense and an authoritative way with social and literary themes." Deborah Jowitt, writing in the

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

, describes the action and background of ''City of Paper''. "In a perfectly synchronized duet for Mei and Kanako Yokota, the women .. move along a sheet of heavy paper that has been unrolled with a startling snap from the wings". The movements repeat, with a "purity" of effect. "The two spool out the movement as if it were an exercise in calligraphy—their coiling hands and arms and softly sinuous torsos fluent but precise. Whether the source behind the choreography is writing or some other exacting task, the dancers are serene." While, writes Jowitt, there is no "harsh critique" of Chairman

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

, the piece ends in a startling way. "Mei holds up a blank horizontal scroll. Bit by bit, black words appear on it: ''On a blank sheet of paper the freshest and most beautiful pictures can be painted.'' The words are Chairman Mao’s." The meaning, Jowitt notes, could be at once ironic and hopeful.The Village Voice
Deborah Jowitt. Review of ''City of Paper'', August 11, 2010. Larry Murray, writing in ''Berkshire on Stage'', said of Yin Mei that she ''"combines her training in classical Chinese dance with contemporary forms and a unique spatial awareness to create powerful, innovative work."'' Larry Murray, 28 July 2010, ''Yin Mei's City of Paper''
Berkshire on Stage
Retrieved 22 October 2011 Jennifer Fisher, in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', comments that Yin Mei "has a strong sense of design and is a dancer of luminous clarity.... In the strongly evocative solo that begins "/Asunder," her movement hallmarks emerge: a combination of delicacy and strong intention, and firmly rooted feet that support swooning explorations of arms and torso."Jennifer Fisher, 20 September 2002, ''Yearning, Longing, Searching''
Los Angeles Times
Retrieved 24 October 2011

Works

*''A Scent Of Time'' (2010) – commissioned by The

Beijing Dance Academy The Beijing Dance Academy (BDA, ) is a municipal public professional dance college at Haidian, Beijing. The academy is the highest institution for dance education and assessment in the People's Republic of China, conducting the nationwide teache ...

*''City Of Paper'' (2010) – collaboration with Dai Jian, Kota Yamazaki *''Cursive'' (2006) – also titled: ''Ink/Paper/Body/Scent, Wild Grass'' *''Nomad: The River'' (2005) *''Nomad: Te''a (2002) *''/Asunder'' (2001) *''Empty Tradition/City Of Peonies'' (1998) *''Seeing In The Rain'' (2003) *''The Tipsy Concubine'' (1999) *''Empty Bell'' (1997) *''I Move To Keep Things Whole'' (1997) *''Sun/Moon/Me'' (1997) *''Love Suicides At Amijima'' (1996) *''Book Of Women'' (1996) *''Solo I & II'' (1996) *''Fan and Shakuhachi'' (1996) *''Legacies'' (1995) *''Shaman'' (1995)

References

External links