The American Dance Festival (ADF) has launched 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 16 individuals, conducted on Zoom between June 2022 and May 2023, is fully bilingual with English and Chinese closed captions to ensure accessibility. It is now available to the public.
Jodee Nimerichter, ADF’s Executive Director, says, “This project not only provides insight into the past 40 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 Charles 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 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 U.S. 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 Reinhart and Ralph Samuelson.
For more, visit americandancefestival.org/planting-seeds.
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