Alison M. Friedman
Director and Founder of Ping Pong Productions
Ping Pong Productions produced and managed TAO Dance Theater's international touring and selected domestic projects from 2010-2016,including securing commissions for the works 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
One of the only foreigners regularly consulted by the Chinese Ministry of Culture for her expertise in China's contemporary performing arts with a focus on contemporary dance, Ms. Friedman has worked to develop structures and channels in China to support both established and young independent performing artists. Clients and partners include TAO Dance Theater, Tim Robbins and The Actors' Gang, Mark Morris Dance Group, the British Council, Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Los Angeles Theatre Works, and the National Theatre Company of China. Her productions have toured Lincoln Center, Sydney Opera House, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, China's National Centre for the Performing Arts, and other leading venues and festivals.
As director of Ping Pong Productions, Ms. Friedman works closely with Chinese and international governments as well as non-profit and private organizations to further dialogues between nations at a grass-roots as well as governmental level, using the performing arts as a vehicle to foster mutual understanding and engagement.
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and political negotiations, Ms. Friedman has worked in the performing arts in China for more than a decade. She served as international director of the Beijing Modern Dance Company, general manager of Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun's company Parnassus Productions, Inc., and as a producer and host on Chinese national radio and television programs.
Ms. Friedman graduated Phi Beta Kappa/magna cum laude from Brown University with a degree in Chinese Literature/Literary Translation. Her honors translation thesis Across Borders: The Poems of Xue Di was published by Green Integer Press. She was a Fulbright fellow to China and an arts management fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. She was a 2011 fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), and in 2013 was invited to join their board of directors. She is a board member of the Peking University International Alumni Association, a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and an advisory board member of Americans Promoting Study Abroad (APSA).