Currently DanceVisions Residents are chosen by invitation only. At present only one resident per year is selected. A panel of nationally known local choreographers and directors review the applications in the summer and selections are made in the Fall. Most years the resident artist premieres their work in May over the course of three performances at the Performance Garage.
The Performance Garage provides the DanceVisions Resident Artist with mentorship, marketing, publicity, box office, and a $10,000 stipend. Included in their support is video documentation, photography, and light design for their three-performance season when they premiere their new residency choreography.
January 6th, 2023: DanceVisions MasterClass at the Performance Garage.
Students attend Franklin Learning Center, part of the Philadelphia School District.
MEET WEIWEI MA
OUR DANCEVISIONS 2022 - 2023 RESIDENT ARTIST!
We are pleased to select Weiwei Ma as our 2022-2023 DanceVisions Resident Artist. Her work “24 Solar Terms” (working title) premieres at the Performance Garage on Thursday, May 18, 2023 at 7:30 pm and runs through Saturday, May 20th.
Having immigrated to Philadelphia from Beijing in 2013, Weiwei is now a senior dance artist and commissioned choreographer for the 22-23 season of Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers.
Weiwei Ma’s artistic practice and goals of embracing traditional Chinese culture and exploring Eastern and Western art collisions and integrations impels her upcoming work 24 Solar Terms (working title).
“The goal of my work,” says Weiwei, “is not simply to impose American contemporary dance on Chinese bodies or vice versa, but to find a way to balance the technical and the artistic through my personal experiences and embody artistic values in my work. I combine traditional culture, contemporary views, traditional aesthetics, and contemporary bodies on the stage. Nowadays, choreography is not only about unique movement vocabularies and superb dancers. The alchemy involves aesthetics, drama, technology, physics, spirit, and culture. I’d like to make my piece go beyond physical boundaries to become a way of conveying my artistic philosophy.”
The working title, 24 Solar Terms, refers to 24 terms in the traditional Chinese lunar and solar calendars. These terms reference different phases of life—the past, present, and hope for the future—and serve as a channel to express some Chinese cultural and dance elements. Further, as a recent transplant to Philadelphia, Weiwei wishes to convey the realities of and need for acceptance in a multicultural world. “Nature awakens our ability to embrace change and we must respond in a positive way.”
ABOUT CHOREOGRAPHER WEIWEI MA
Weiwei Ma is a Chinese dance artist, instructor, and choreographer, who started professional dance training at age eleven. She graduated from The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Arts with a BFA degree in choreography. Before coming to Philadelphia, Weiwei taught Chinese classical dance and choreography at Beijing Contemporary Music Academy from 2009 to 2013. Weiwei earned her MFA degree from Temple University in 2016. One of her works was selected for performance at Boyer College in 2015, which she represented at the 2016 ACDFA conference in Brockport, NY. Weiwei has been a member of Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers since 2013 and is the lead Chinese performer for KYL/D’s cultural programs. During the pandemic period, Weiwei has collaborated with Evalina (Wally) Carbonell to produce “Blood” in 2020 for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival; and another collaboration dance work of “Dream Chapter” in 2021.
DanceVisions began in 2017 with the aim of developing more seasoned work from the selected choreographers by having the time, space, and support for thoughtful and mentored creation.
Below are our selected artists and the work they created while in the DanceVision program.
2022-2023 Weiwei Ma
2021-2022 yaTande Hunter & Jude Sandy
2020-2021 Joe González
2019-2020 duende
2018-2019 Dawn Marie Bazemore | #dbdanceproject
2017-2018 Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet