Rourou Ye Present Online Dance Exhibition MAY I DANCE ON YOUR SCREEN? Through December 31

Dancer, choreographer, and media artist Rourou Ye presents May I Dance on Your Screen?, a movement-centered online exhibit of video works created specifically for the digital platform.

The project, comprising of five interdisciplinary works created over the period of the COVID pandemic, explores the need for connection in the time of isolation and the possibilities of translating the physicality of dance into the language virtual space.

May I Dance on Your Screen? launches online at digitaldance.space on October 1 and remains on view through December 31, 2021.

A Zoom conversation and Q&A with the artist, led by the renowned dance writer Wendy Perron, is scheduled for October 28, 2021, at 7:30 pm (RSVP at https://www.digitaldance.space/in-conversation-with-wendy-perron).

All content is available free of charge.

May I Dance on Your Screen? is the newest online project by Chinese-born Rourou Ye, known for her reality-defying performances that combine dance, design, shadow puppetry, and multimedia technology. What sets it off from her previous project is the intention to create work that could not exist in the non-digital realm and convey the complex feelings related to the pandemic isolation. Confined to her home and deprived of the usual human contact and the opportunity to create in a physical space, the artist embarked on a journey of making innovative in form, dreamlike short dance films that strive to touch audiences metaphorically when real touch is not an option. Ranging from playful to wistful to heartbreaking, Ye's works also reveal the challenges of her Chinese immigrant experience in the U.S.

"While harrowing to me as a human being, the experience of being cut off from the world for so long had a silver lining to me as an artist," says Rourou Ye. "The video-based techniques I developed in my earlier work turned out perfect for creating intimate pieces that are cinematic in nature and can now reach the audience much broader than what a live performance in a theater space would allow. I hope these highly personal films, born out of my own experiences and thoughts connected to the COVID lockdown will touch on something universal and visceral and thus forge a connection with the audience that transcends the confines of space and time."