The guidance of choreographers to student dancers… some might argue that that guidance is a dance of in and of itself.

How does the choreographer convey his or her vision to the dancers? To what degree is that vision accomplished by way of collaboration? What does that collaboration actually look like? And what impact does it have on the development of the dancers?

Back in 2014, during the Dance Concerts season at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, choreographers Ming-Lung Yang and Kimberly Bartosik met with David Ford between rehearsals. Kimberly, based out of New York City and a graduate of UNCSA, is a Bessie Award-winning performer and longtime member of the legendary Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She has traveled extensively around the world as a dancer. Her work is deeply informed by literature and cinema, and it involves a complex play on space, time, and audience perspective… as a way to shed light on the fleeting nature of performance. Ming-Lung Yang earned degrees in dancing (a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts) both from his native island of Taiwan and from the US. He currently teaches contemporary dance at UNCSA, and in his role as a dance professor, Ming stresses the importance of recognizing that a student's learning process is a personal journey.

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