Tao Ye

Artistic Director/Choreographer

Born in Chongqing, Tao Ye is a graduate of the Chongqing Dance School in China. After dancing with the Shanghai Army Song & Dance Ensemble, he joined Shanghai Jin Xing Dance Theater, and later moved to Beijing to join the Beijing Modern Dance Company (BMDC). In 2008, at the age of 23, Tao Ye founded TAO Dance Theater. His main works include: “Weight x 3”, “2”, “4”, “5”, “6”, “7”, “8” , “9” , “10” and “12”. Inspired by Oriental thoughts, he developed “Circular Movement System” in combination with his own style of dance. This system enjoys a high reputation internationally. At the age of 27, he was invited to perform at Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. In 2012, Asia’s Men’s UNO magazine awarded Tao Ye the “2012 Elegance Award” for cultural leadership. He was named Sadler’s Wells 2011-13 “New Wave Associates”. The Beijing News awarded him the 2013 Innovator Award for Dance, and two years later, the 2015 Emerging Artist Award. Tao Ye has been invited to cross-disciplinary collaborations such as film, theatre, fashion design, video, photography and etc.

Tao Ye consistently signifies his choreography with minimalistic style, repetition and restriction. His creative concepts include: focusing on the grooves of the spine while removing the movements of dancers’ limbs, replacing the accompanying soundtrack with live vocals from the dancers seeking to make the dancers become a “mobile sound system”, restricting dancers’ bodies on the dance floor seeking to limit the vision in two dimensions, naming his works simply with numbers, and etc. His concepts were acclaimed“definitely on the cutting edge” and are very challenging for dancers and spectators.

“Mr. Tao has an ability to draw you inside his austere, meditative world; if you go willingly, you realize that the body is a sacred place.”— The New York Times ，USA

Duan Ni

Dancer/Artistic Director

Born in Xi'an, Duan Ni graduated from Shaanxi Art College and then she continued her study at the Modern Dance Choreography Department of Beijing Dance Academy (Guangdong branch), led by dance education pioneer Madame Yang Meiqi, who’s the founding director of Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first modern dance company in China. During school, Duan Ni received an “ACC Scholarship” to support her participation in an exchange program at American Dance Festival.

Duan Ni used to dance with Shanghai Jin Xing Dance Theatre, Akram Khan Company in London, and Shen Wei Dance Arts in New York. In 2008, she joined TAO Dance Theater as the Founding Dancer and Artistic Director of the company. As the first Chinese modern dance dancer invited by international dance companies, Duan Ni embraced all the ideas and styles with her body's inclusiveness, and she formed her own body language and traits, which combine flexibility and resilience, pureness and openness with her rich experience in China and overseas. Duan Ni has performed at Lincoln Center for Performing Arts for three times with different three dance companies. Each time, her performance was singled out by The New York Times, lauded by critics as “extraordinary”, “formidable” and “extreme athletic control”.

”In the first part a woman with a shaved head, the formidable Duan Ni, twirls a long staff. Passing it from hand to hand and behind her back and over her head, she herself turns. The propeller whirl of the stick, catching the light like a circular saw blade, hypnotizes, while the incremental progressions in the movement loops engross.“ —The New York Times，USA