Current Project

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"Dream Letters: Revolution/Simulacrum" is an interdisciplinary intercultural dance installation and visual art performative event that will feature four professional dancers from Yin Mei Dance, as well as MA, MFA, and other students from the School of Arts Queens College and the Flushing Glow Cultural Community Center

 

This performance and pilgrimage delve deeply into historical significance, tracing connections from the Silk Road to TikTok, from the inception of Buddhist traditions to the evolution of our modern world. This era is marked by the diminishing allure of the societal concept of "intimation of Immortality" that we all experience. Moreover, it endeavors to challenge and revolutionize traditional Chinese calligraphic art and its ancient materials, while tackling contemporary themes, particularly the harmful impact of racial divisions. The practice of "walk and mark" emerges as a potent tool for emphasizing that the only way to prevent hatred and prejudice from estranging us from our own humanity is to lead our lives like poetry.

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The performers will blend immersive movement and sculpture-like human installations with a visually stunning setting. The performance will take place in a unique environment created by a 30ftx5ft paper roll installation titled "100 Scrolls." This visually engaging experience aims to ignite the Queens community, and invite them on an enthralling and immersive sensory journey. Accompanying the performance will be a soundtrack and opera singing composed and collaborated by Huang Ruo, a Chinese-born composer and the sound from the performers’ body within. The music will be synchronized with the performers' heartbeats using EEG sensors and also embedded in the paper, creating a dynamic relationship between sound/body in space/time throughout the performance.

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The inspiration for "Dream Letters: Revolution/Simulacrum" comes from the ancient DunHuang murals and sculptures, a complex system of over 500 caves scattered along the Silk Road. For a millennium, these caves were adorned with Buddhist parables and Buddha Dancing Apsaras, believed to originate from a divine source. Yin Mei, the concept/choreographer/director of the project, captures the essence of these stories, from the vivid imagery of 《舍身饲虎》(feeding one's own flesh and blood to the hungry tiger) to the illusion of the Shadow Image (影窟) or reflection that is visible from a distance but invisible upon closer look. These images encompass Buddhist concepts of nature and heaven, dispelling the illusion of separation between the two realms and emphasizing the existing harmony on earth. "Dream Letters: Revolution/Simulacrum" encourages us to embrace the fundamental truth that we are all part of one collective subjective experience.

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In this innovative exploration, Yin Mei, an artist from the Chinese diaspora deeply rooted in the New York contemporary dance scene for many years, combines her dance theater expertise subvert the timeless Chinese tradition of ink on paper. She utilizes her body, limbs, and extremities as mediums, imprinting her movements and biological history onto paper, creating a dynamic interplay between "Motion and Representation," with the painted surface as her partner. This approach, involving all participants, builds upon the metaphorical "road to heaven" depicted in the DunHuang cave murals, fostering a contemplative and creative practice that invites the audience to engage in a "pilgrimage" of "danced ink" on 30-foot-long scrolls - the "100 Scrolls" at the core of the project, linked to participants through TikTok as their everyday language. This performance not only encourages both performers and audience members to symbolically embark on this shared journey as "seekers," but also serves as an eloquent artistic invocation, harmonizing the cultural fabric of society and the community with the artists' concepts In doing so, it magnifies the influence and significance of art is social practice in Queens and beyond.

 

Regarding venues, we envision presenting this work in two stages. Firstly, in non-traditional spaces, such as site-specific environments,. We mark and engage our arts with white paper rolls on street, boulevard, in front of walls etc., to cumulating the 100 rolls of marks. Secondly, as a museum exhibition that combines live performances with the display of the real people’s artistic works, allowing the gesture, the dance to continually narrate their stories throughout the exhibition/performative event. We aim to the duration of the performance range from 10 to 40 days, actively involve MA/MFA, undergraduate students and activists from Queens College to Queens community, together with their active participation we embodying the principles of public social art practice.

 

Yin Mei Dance intends to seek a residency and performance/exhibition space from May 2023 to November 2025. During this time, the work will be created, rehearsed, refined as a work-in-progress, and presented to the public with the involvement of participants and audiences.