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By Laura Salinger

    Since 1993, renowned dancer, choreographer, and producer Li Chiao-Ping and her dance company, Li Chiao-Ping Dance, have
made Madison, Wis. their home. A professor in the UW-Madison dance program, Li’s work has been described as athletic,
emotionally charged, and visually stunning. As a Chinese American, she has often explored culture and identity in her charged
performances. She has produced and performed over 60 works for the stage and screen, including “Yellow River” and
“Odyssey,” and continues to use her visionary dance style to create unique and powerful performances.
    Having traveled worldwide to perform, she is a much decorated dancer and choreographer. In 2001, she was named by Dance
Magazine as one of the 25 “we’ll be watching in 2001 and for years to come!” She has received first place awards in
Choreography and Performance for the Los Angeles Arts Council, has been twice nominated for a Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund
North American Award, and has received numerous other awards, grants, and commissions. In an interview with Asian
Wisconzine, Li shared her passion for dance, her challenges in getting where she is today, and her upcoming performances.
    A native of San Francisco, Li, whose parents emigrated from China, is a first generation American. Although a teacher back in
China, Li’s father worked in the laundry along with their mother. The family was not rich, but Li described a certain contentment
among the children and their hardworking parents.
    “I had a good childhood,” Li says. “My parents worked very hard to provide for us. We didn’t have a lot, but I don’t ever
remember not having food on the table. For the most part, the kids took care of each other.”
    While not formally trained in dance as a youngster, Li remembers a very visceral response to the art form from a young age.
“I really responded to dance when I saw it on T.V.,” she explains. “It was something that I tried to imitate from a very early age. It
was something that I gravitated towards.”
    While Li took dance lessons here and there as a child, she wouldn’t formally begin her training until late in her teens and as a
college student. It was while in college at UC-Santa Cruz, that she says she found her way to what would ultimately become her
passion and her career.
    “I really didn’t know it was something you could do as a career,” Li says.  Li went to a winter dance concert audition at UC-
Santa Cruz, took a technique class, and she says “basically never left” the world of dance after that.
    Li would go on to UCLA for a Masters in Dance. From there, she would produce celebrated works that would gain her notoriety
in the dance world.
    “I kind of came of age during a fairly political time, a time when we were becoming more multiculturally aware,” Li says. “I
started doing identity work.” One such work was “Yellow River.”
    “It’s essentially about growing up as a Chinese American. I created it as a way to resolve my issues of discovering who I was
as a Chinese American. For me, it was trying to make sense of my experiences.”
    It seemed Li had made it in the dance world has awards, grants and performances piled up. Yet, for a woman noted for her
creative productions and athleticism, Li would face the unthinkable after a 1999 car crash. Essentially, she explains, she faced a
near amputation of her foot. It was a real possibility, at that time, that Li’s dance career was over.
    “The crash nearly severed my foot off,” she says. “I certainly was in denial for a while about the severity of what happened.”
    Li was in the hospital for over five weeks and would undergo nine surgeries.
    “It really tests you,” Li says. “I worked really hard. A lot of people worked hard and prayed hard. I learned a lot about people
and about life.”
    What looked like possibly a career ending injury, turned instead into a life lesson for Li who worked extremely hard to one day
dance again. Yet, because of the accident and her growth as performer in general, her dance has transformed through the years.
    “My dance has evolved,” she explains. “Earlier on, it was highly virtuosic, very physical, powerful, athletic, and somewhat
gymnastic. It required a lot of skill. It has a evolved a bit. Now, there is balance of that and communication, conscious is very
important to me as well. I direct more than I used to. I’m working more visually. I have a very strong interest in multimedia, other
visual elements, video, and making costumes.”
    In her works “Venous Flow: States of Grace,” created along with visual artist Douglas Rosenberg, Li used her choreography to
examine her experience with the car crash. The title refers to the act of measuring the blood flow through veins of her injured leg.
The performance is described on Li Chiao Ping Dance’s website: “Li Chiao-Ping, as she retrains her body subsequent to her near-
fatal auto accident, has been exploring alternate ways of moving through space that allow for her injury and compensate for the
state of her physical body, expanding on her movement vocabulary. This group work refers to a test administered to Li in the
hospital that measured the flow of blood through the veins in the damaged area of her leg. The device used amplified the venous
flow and made it audible to both the nurse and to Li and Rosenberg as well. The act of listening to one’s blood flowing through the
traumatized area of Li’s body created a sense of well being for the collaborators that was directly related to the healing of Li’s
injury. Venous Flow: States of Grace used Li’s athletic and demanding choreographic process and Rosenberg’s direction/video
imagery to address the physical nature of hope and renewal in the face of great adversity.”
  
Li Chiao-Ping: Visionary dancer and survivor
Laura Salinger is
a freelance
writer based in
Madison, Wis.
Li Chiao-Ping in various dance movements during a few of her many concerts. (L-R) Li Chiao-Ping;
Becoming; Venous Flow.
From the ashes of a near debilitating and career ending
injury, Li has evolved her work and continues to master
the stage today. Most recently, Li Chiao-Ping Dance
finished up a summer dance camp, which was the
companies first ever camp and intensive that was
inclusive of all ages and abilities. The theme was
celebrating dancing through life and the goal was to
empower individuals through creative expression. The
week-long dance camp included dance and movement
classes, and culminated with two performances.
   Li’s next endeavor is an LCPD production of “The
Knotcracker.” The concert will be performed Dec. 3-5,
2010 at the Overture Center for the Arts/Promenade Hall.
Still a work in progress, Li describes the performance
as a sort-of fairy tale, fantasy piece that will include
plenty of audience involvement.