The Annenberg Center And NextMove Dance Present Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers

The Annenberg Center and NextMove Dance present Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers (KYL/D) in its highly-anticipated Annenberg Center debut, April 12 (8 PM) and April 13 (2 PM). Hailed for its superbly trained dancers and inventive choreography, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers' artistry is a hybrid of Asian philosophies and Western culture infused with a fearless physicality that resonates with the soul, resulting in lush works of poetic sensibility. The New York Times writes "Lin's dances, simultaneously abstract and specific, create and inhabit worlds of their own." The program includes CHI (2002), Moon (1993), The Land (2000), Dreamscape (2016), and the world premiere of Spring 101. Tickets are available at AnnenbergCenter.org or 215.898.3900.

Based in Philadelphia and hailed for its superbly trained dancers and inventive choreography, the internationally active KYL/D probes at the limits of national identity. Drawing upon Eastern philosophies while expanding the perimeter of contemporary dance, Executive Artistic Director Lin's zen-inspired practice of dance manifests in lush works of poetic sensibility. Lin draws upon multicultural insights from his ongoing research throughout Asia, creating a personal movement language that is an unexpected hybrid between Western and Eastern cultures, suffused with strong spiritual underpinnings. KYL/D has performed around the world, including at the Tanzmesse International Dance Festival (Dusseldorf), Busan International Dance Festival (Korea), Jogia International and AsiaTri festivals (Indonesia), Festival Internacional de Danza in Queretaro (Mexico), Victoria Theatre (Singapore) and HsinChu Performing Arts Center (Taiwan). In the U.S., KYL/D has performed at numerous venues including Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, Interlochen Festival, Columbia Festival, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out, the Painted Bride Art Center, the Kimmel Center, the Forrest Theater, the Prince Theater, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation and Philadelphia's City Hall.

Kun-Yang Lin (Executive Artistic Director and Founder)

Lin views dance as his first language. Raised in Taiwan in a home where his parents never spoke the same language, Lin learned to communicate most articulately through gesture and action. Many other tensions in his life have shaped Lin's artistry - he was raised in the faith of his father (Catholicism) in an environment steeped in the traditions of his mother (Buddhism and Taoism), and he navigates life as an Eastern immigrant in a Western society. Lin is deeply invested in the dialogues between innovation and tradition, the individual and collective, the visible and invisible - "in-between spaces" that he finds to be fertile ground for exploration. Among the primary impulses nourishing Lin's artistry are Buddhist and Taoist worldviews and the internal energetic flows of the many Eastern arts he has practiced over the years including tai chi, martial arts, chi gong, calligraphy, meditation and Chinese opera movement. These impulses are filtered through his extensive training and performance experience across a broad range of contemporary dance techniques and improvisation practices, and are framed by Lin's ongoing research in dance as a medium for the integration of body, spirit and mind.

Lin performed in the companies of many iconic American choreographers including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Anna Sokolow, and in the companies of Jennifer Muller, Kevin Wynn, Janis Brenner and "post-modernist" dancemakers, Lynn Shapiro and Paula Josa-Jones. In 1998, he formed his own company, KYL/D, which he re-located to Philadelphia in 2008 when he began teaching at Temple University. He then established CHI Movement Arts Center (or "CHI MAC") to build upon his practice-as-research, deepen his own artistry and advance conversations between the Temple campus and the communities of Philadelphia and beyond. Since 2008, Lin has developed a broad range of programming at CHI MAC for aspiring, professional dancers and community members including the InHale Performance Series for emerging dance artists. Lin's choreography has been commissioned by numerous companies including Dance Ensemble Singapore, Ballet Nacional de Mexico, Ballet Philippines and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. Lin received his BFA from Taiwan National University of the Arts and his MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.