General Admission: $10 (General Museum Admission included)

MOCA Members: Free

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Museum of Chinese in America’s Performing-Artist-In-Residence program welcomes a cohort of 3 performing artists to generate a theme-based project. This year’s theme, Declaration of Independence, encourages the resident artists to interrogate what it means to be “American,” to see self-determination, or to stake a claim to visibility, freedom, and belonging.

During this program, the resident artists will present works-in-progress and share the creative vision behind their projects. Audience members will have the opportunity to engage in an in-depth conversation with the artists, offering feedback, asking questions, and gaining insight into the cultural contexts and personal motivations that shape each work.

Join us for an intimate evening of artistic exploration, dialogue, and discovery.

PRESENTER:

Shuning Huang,  choreographer / dancer

Shuning Huang, born in Nanjing, China, is a New York–based dancer and choreographer. She holds an M.A. in Dance Education from New York University and a B.A. in Dance Studies from Beijing Dance Academy. Trained in Chinese classical and folk dance, ballet, modern, and contemporary, she brings a cross-cultural and multidisciplinary voice to the stage.

She is a principal dancer with Six Degrees Dance and the New York Chinese Culture Center, and has performed at major venues including the US Open, Queens Museum, Colden Auditorium, and Tilles Center, as well as the Mark O’Donnell Theater, the Tank, Dixon Place, and the New York Botanical Garden. Her choreographic works have been featured at Spark Theatre Festival, The Outlet Dance Project, and other platforms, often exploring the intersections of tradition, identity, and contemporary expression.

PROJECT:

Unpapered

UNPAPERED is a 40-minute dance work that treats paper as choreography – folding, sealing, filing, sorting – asking how “paper” (forms, letters, records) shapes identity, visibility, and belonging, and how bodies can “write back” beyond what is documented.

Inspired by the paper trails that mark migration and diasporic life – applications, archives, family letters, and everyday documents that authorize or restrict. UNPAPERED builds a movement world where paper is not a prop but a partner and a score. Rooted in Chinese classical and folk dance alongside contemporary composition, the work also draws from the logic of Chinese calligraphy and Chinese painting: line, breath, pressure, and the power of negative space. Paper’s edges, grain, resistance, and fragility generate timing, pathways, and group architecture onstage.

Created for MOCA’s “Declaration of Independence” theme, the piece moves between quiet ritual and collective insistence, tracing the tension between being categorized and self-authorship. UNPAPERED asks what it means to declare agency on one’s own terms, when the page is never neutral.

PRESENTER:

Yu-Wei Heath-Hsiao, violinist / pianist / educator

Dr. Yu-Wei Heath-Hsiao, known as Yoyo, is an exceptional violinist, pianist, and educator from Taiwan, holding a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Violin Performance from Rutgers University and an MM from the Mannes School of Music. He is a winner of the 2024 Charleston International Music Competition and a recipient of the 2023 Flushing Town Hall Arts Grant. Yoyo serves as first violin at the Berkshire Opera Festival and previously as concertmaster for the Miami Music Festival.

Beyond his classical performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Yoyo’s versatile crossover skills, including piano, dance, and composition, have led to featured appearances at diverse events like US Open Fan Week, Broadway in Bryant Park, the New York Fashion Week Fashion Show, Queensboro Dance Festival, and with groups such as the Weill Cornell Jazz Band and Battery Dance. Formerly an emerging artist at Culture Lab LIC, Yoyo is now the co-creator of the NYC-based Taiwanese show “Islanders-寶島慢播” and a member of the dance group Chieh & Yoyo.

PROJECT:

Bowing Reminiscence: My Violin through a Memory Decoction

“What does heritage taste like, and how does memory sound? In this immersive performance and sensory installation, violinist Yu-Wei Heath-Hsiao (Yoyo) invites the audience into a deeply personal ‘apothecary of the soul.’ By weaving together the flavors of traditional herbs, including Hawthorn, Goji, and Red Dates, with his unique take on herbal wellness tea, Yoyo explores the intricate layers of the Taiwanese immigrant experience.

Through evocative original compositions, reimagined Taiwanese folk songs, and contemporary classics, each ‘ingredient’ serves as a portal to ancestral wisdom and personal identity. From the childhood innocence of Haw Flakes paired with playful tunes inspired by the classic nursery rhyme ‘天黑黑Thinn Oo-oo (When the Sky Grows Dark),’ to the steadfast core of Red Dates mirroring the unspoken strength that holds a relationship together when life is most chaotic, this project is a multi-sensory journey. Through live violin performance, narrative storytelling, and communal tasting, BOWING REMINISCENCE is more than a concert; it is a shared ritual of healing, a reconciliation with the past, and a celebration of the traditional herbs that sustain us across borders and generations.”