YIN MEI DANCE
LEADERSHIP & STAFF
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
YIN MEI
YIN MEI is a choreographer, dancer, and director known for her work that fearlessly bridges geographic, technological, artistic, and cultural divides. With a unique dance style employing Chinese energy direction and spatial principles, her work explores themes of artistic and spiritual significance arising at the intersection between Asian traditional performance and Western contemporary dance.
Yin Mei was born in China and started her professional career in traditional Chinese dance during the Cultural Revolution. Joining a leading state dance company at the age of fourteen, she was trained in Chinese traditional dance and Peking opera dance. Before coming to the United States to study modern dance on a grant from the Asian Cultural Council, she was a professional dancer with the Henan Song and Dance Troupe and later a principal dancer with the Hong Kong Dance Company, where she danced leading roles in the traditional Chinese dance repertoire. She is now a professor and the Director of dance at Queens College, City University of New York. Her choreography has been hailed by critics as “theatrical magic” (New York Times) and as inhabiting “the tremulous space where dreams and memory reside” (Village Voice). Yin Mei herself is described as a “dancer of exquisite lyricism and delicacy” (New York Times) and “a stunning presence, bringing her classical Chinese training and aesthetic into a blend with her adopted Downtown sensibilities with refined grace” (Dance Insider).
As an artistic director for the non-profit dance company, from 1985 until now, YinMei has received around $800,000 from over 20 foundations all over the world including NYFA, NYSCA, Asian Cultural Council and The Shubert Foundation...etc. She produced and choreographed the repertory work combined with Dance, Visual Arts and New Media, had the chance to present the work and collaborate with internationally acclaimed organizations, such as Princeton University, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Marks Church, Movement Research at Judson Church, City Center Fall for Dance, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (CA), Columbia Dance Center Chicago, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, Bates Dance Festival (ME), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (MA), and more.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
XUEJING CAO
Xuejing Cao is a Dancer and Art Administrator. Graduated from New York University with MA degree, majoring in Performing Arts Administration. She pursued a double degree with BA in Dance and BA in Critical Media Practices (Media Production) with a Performance Media concentration from University of Colorado Boulder. Began her dance training at age six in the Chinese classical and traditional folk dance form, and eventually expanded her dance training to include Modern, Contemporary, hip hop and transcultural fusion dance forms at CU-Boulder.
Xuejing Cao has diverse work experience both in China and U.S: she was the National Training Curriculum Intern at American Ballet Theatre(ABT);Development & Company Intern at Parsons Dance Company; Dance Teaching Assistant at Shandong College of Arts, Photographer in “This_is_Vision” Co. in Shanghai……etc. She Joined in YinMei Dance Company since Spring 2023 as the art administrator,after she graduated from NYU,became the executive assistant at company until now. She is the full-time administrative staff as Education and Family Programs Associate at Flushing Town Hall from October 2023. Xuejing will learn and explore more opportunities in her career path in the future.