YANG JUN（Grace Yang )
Yang Jun is a Chinese language educator, choreographer, dancer, and experienced arts administrator.
Born in the 1980s, she holds a Master of Arts degree from Sichuan University’s School of Arts and also studied at the Beijing Dance Academy’s Department of Modern Dance. From 2001 to 2017, she served as a professor of dance at the School of Arts, Southwest University of Science and Technology in China. In 2017, she relocated to New York, where she has since worked as Director of Chinese Language Education at Love’s Giving Art and as a Chinese language teacher at the United Nations International School. Since 2020, she has served as a board member and research fellow at the New York Research of Contemporary Arts.
Yang’s a recognized expert in Chinese language instruction and a leading researcher in Qiang ethnic dance. She has served as an adjudicator for Chinese national dance grading programs and was awarded the Youth Research Grant by China’s Ministry of Education. Her choreographic works have received multiple national and provincial honors, including Top Ten Works in the National Lotus Award Campus Dance Competition, First Prize at the 6th Sichuan University Student Arts Festival, and Silver Prize in the “Brilliant Starlight” Dance Competition. She was also honored as an Outstanding Instructor at the 6th Sichuan University Student Arts Festival. Her academic contributions include dozens of published papers and a 300,000-character monograph titled Research on the Kinetic Language of Qiang Women’s Dance.
Since immigrating to New York, Yang has focused on using artistic creation, exhibitions, and performances as tools for social engagement and fostering intercultural dialogue. In 2022, she was awarded the Creatives Rebuild New York Artist Leadership Grant.
In 2020, a contemporary art exhibition curated in New York during the epidemic《“Pandemic • Empathy”Invitation Exhibition of Overseas Chinese Artists》. For more information please refer to “疫情•移情”域外华人艺术家邀请展
In 2006, discussing body language in dance with Chinese dancer Wang Yabin in Beijing.
In 2008, a group photo with Chinese film and television actress Jiang Wenli at a contemporary art exhibition curated in Beijing.
In 2012, he acted as the choreographer in the large-scale dance epic “Qiang Wind” of the Qiang people in China.
From 1998 to 2017, he choreographed and performed some works during his study and teaching in the Modern Dance Department of Beijing Dance Academy, the Department of Dance, School of Arts, Sichuan University, and the Department of Dance, School of Arts, Southwest University of Science and Technology.
