Tao Ye

Born in Chongqing, China, Tao Ye graduated from Chongqing Dance School. He worked as a dancer in the Art Troupe of the Political Department of the Shanghai Armed Police Force, Shanghai Jin Xing Dance Theatre and Beijing Modern Dance Company. At the age of 23, he founded Tao Dance Theatre and created the Numerical Series performance including 2, WeightX3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17; Non-Numerical series performance Contrast; and Artistic Site performance such as The Twelve Hours, Infinite Walk, and The World of Movements. He was selected as one of six choreographers in the world by the Sadler’s Wells institution in the United Kingdom for its New Wave Associates program. He has been invited to collaborate with Yohji Yamamoto for a runway show at Paris Fashion Week. As a guest choreographer, he has been commissioned by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and the Netherlands Dance Theatre 1 (NDT 1) to create a dance performance. Tao Ye also appeared in Cui Jian’s film Blue Sky Bones. He has participated in artistic creations in multiple cross-disciplinary fields such as drama, fashion design, and video. In 2022, he appeared on the cover of VOGUE magazine and in 2023, he won with Duan Ni the Silver Lion Award for Dance at the Venice Biennale. Tao Ye’s creative style often employs minimalist techniques of repetition and limitation. He asks dancers to abandon excessive gestures and movements, using only the rhythm of the spine. He also removes music, turning the body into a moving sound source. Sometimes, he even asks dancers to lie flat to visualize the body in two dimensions. And the titles of his works are simply summarized by numbers. His avant-garde concepts are extremely challenging for both dancers and audiences, and he has been evaluated by foreign media as “undoubtedly hits the forefront.”