Durham, NC, November 18, 2024—The American Dance Festival (ADF) is excited to announce the launch of Planting Seeds: ADF and Modern Dance in China, an oral history project tracing ADF’s involvement in nurturing the development of modern dance in China. The collection of more than 21 hours of video interviews with sixteen individuals, conducted on Zoom between June 2022 and May 2023, is fully bilingual with English and Chinese closed captions to ensure accessibility. Jodee Nimerichter, ADF’s Executive Director, says, “This project not only provides insight into the past forty years of modern dance in China but also informs conversations about what is needed to support the continuation of Chinese modern dance.”
ADF’s connection with China began in the 1980s when Chinese choreographers, educators, and administrators, including Yang Meiqi, attended ADF. Yang Meiqi asked ADF Director Emeritus Charles L. Reinhart if ADF would help establish the first modern dance program in China, resulting in the Guangdong Modern Dance Experimental Program at Guangdong Dance Academy and later the Guangdong Modern Dance Company. The goal was not to copy what was being done elsewhere but for American choreographers and teachers to give Chinese dancers the tools to develop modern dance from their own culture. Yang Meiqi and Charles L. Reinhart are among those interviewed, sharing how their original goals and hopes were realized and how the seeds they planted led directly or indirectly to success stories, such as the careers of several artists, particularly Shen Wei and Jin Xing, who are also interviewed.
The project further documents the experiences and impressions of the artists who taught in China and the students who participated in classes. The recently deceased Sarah Stackhouse recalls teaching foundations of modern dance and pieces of Limón repertory in 1987. Ruby Shang, who taught at Guangdong in 1988, gives her perspective while her students Jin Xing and Wang Mei talk about their first experiences with modern dance. Interviews with Wang Yabin, Hou Ying, Eiko Otake, and Wen Hui shed light on how ADF’s international initiatives, like the International Linkages Program (ILP) and the International Choreographers Residency (ICR) program, have fostered collaboration and cultural cross-pollination between the US and China.
Beyond preserving the participants’ experiences, the project aims to document what was happening in dance in China while ADF was offering international exchange programs and fostering new ideas and modern dance. Interviews with Ralph Samuelson, who served for over three decades in various functions at the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) and its predecessor, the John D. Rockefeller (JDR) 3rd Fund, and Michelle Vosper, Director of the ACC in Hong Kong from 1986 to 2012, reveal the institutional support that was necessary to make the vision of Yang Meiqi and Charles Reinhart become a reality.
Interviews were conducted in Chinese and English by Emily Wilcox, a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, scholar of Chinese dance studies, and associate professor at William & Mary, who served as Project Director. Captions were created by Yao Xu, a doctoral candidate in dance studies at Temple University, who served as Production Assistant. Dean Jeffrey, ADF Director of Archives, oversaw technical aspects. The project as a whole was developed, designed, and produced by Jodee Nimerichter, ADF Executive Director, with special thanks to Cecily Cook, Yang Meiqi, Charles L. Reinhart, and Ralph Samuelson.
This project was made possible by the support of the ADF Reinhart Fund and the Asian Cultural Council.
PRESS CONTACT
National Press Representative: Lisa Labrado
lisa@ll-pr.biz
Mobile: 917-399-5120
North Carolina Press Representative: Katrin Deil
katrin@americandancefestival.org
Office: 919-684-6402/Mobile: 919-886-6389
About ADF:
Throughout its 91-year history, the American Dance Festival has been the home of an art form, attracting artists, audiences, and thousands of students worldwide. By preserving our modern dance heritage, promoting the creation of new works and collaborations, educating generations of dancers through intensive training programs, supporting artists at all stages of their careers, presenting live and screen dance to the public, and developing humanities and international exchange programs, ADF has served as a laboratory for experimentation and innovation.
Since 1984, through the International Choreographers Commissioning Program and the International Choreographers Residency Program, ADF has brought 522 choreographers from 95 countries on 6 continents to ADF to share, exchange, and experience the work and ideas of people from cultures around the world. ADF’s International Linkages Program has included mini-ADFs in Korea, Russia, India, Japan, China, and Korea and teaching residencies in 30 countries. ADF has helped develop modern dance in China, Russia, and Mongolia and introduced French, English, Russian, and Chinese modern dance and Japanese Butoh to US audiences.
ADF was founded at the Bennington School of Dance and moved to Connecticut College in 1948. For the past 47 years, ADF has taken pride in calling Duke University and Durham home. Since 2012, ADF has managed its first year-round facilities, the Samuel H. Scripps Studios, offering movement classes for students of all ages and abilities, as well as choreographic residencies and outreach programs throughout the community.
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