WE ARE DANCE CREATION ENTITY BASED IN WEST GERMANY
Our Story
Dancer, choreographer Chun Zhang (1988, Shanghai, China) met Kai Strathmann in 2015, during their master of choreography study, in the Folkwang University of Arts, Essen, Germany. In 2019, both of their productions with the Folkwang Dance Studio got nominated by the renowned Kurt Jooss Prize. Chun won the jury prize with her piece 'Being Far Away From' at the end. Same year, they founded YIBU DANCE.
'Yibu, Yibu' means 'step by step' in Chinese, representing the ethics and aesthetics of our works:
Vision - we regard movement composition as emerging aesthetics and formats, of our newest experience of living in a human body. We strive for visual, playful, refined and inventive approaches, guiding to movement observations that have never been experienced before.
Originality - treasuring research and experimentation, each production has its own unique creative process that derives from movement exploration and may involve sound, light, video, design and stage set.
Execution - demanding consequent and precise physicality, movements have been released from genres and styles, and become expression themselves.
Our works have been invited, shown and resided in Fabrik Heeder, TanzFaktur, International Tanzmesse Düsseldorf, Festival Tanz NRW, First and Further Steps Festival, Move Festival, Campania Teatro Festival (IT), SILK Kliscope (AT), Yokohama Dance Collective (JP), CN D Lyon (FR) among other theaters in Germany and China. We collaborate with other international freelance artists from diverse disciplines and engage in artistic researches, workshops and dance films.
Community
Artisitic director, choreographer, dancer, co-founder: Chun Zhang CV
Music/Sound design, co-founder: Kai Strathmann CV
Freelance artists: see each production
Sponsors: Kurt Jooss Förderpreis, Stadt Essen, Stadt Krefeld, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft NRW, Fonds Dastellende Künste, Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste, Stadt Arnsberg, Stadt Velbert, Dachverband Tanz, Kreativ Transfer, NRW Landesbüro Tanz, Bihong Zhao, Xiaoming Zhang
Partners and friends: Beijing Dance Academy, Folkwang University of Arts, Folkwang Tanzstudio, Fabrik Heeder, International Tanzmesse, Lehmbruck Museum, Landesbüro Tanz, TanzTausch Festival, Cinars, Tanzfaktur, SILK Kliscope, Sauerland-Theater, Campania Teatro Festival, China Shanghai International Arts Festival, Yokohama Dance Collective, CN D Lyon, Projektraumkunst Busch 8, CAP • Centre d'art de Saint-Fons,
SE.S.TA – Centre for Choreographic Development