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Our Story
Dragons Dance is a contemporary dance company that places community at the center of the creative process. We believe that the process of making dance is as vital as the performance itself, and that care is the foundation of artistic sustainability. Our work cultivates inclusive spaces where dancers of all backgrounds and experience levels are supported to engage more deeply in creative risk-taking and community connection.
Dragons Dance is a 501c3 organization founded in 2020 by Erin Yen. The company features Yen's unique choreographic voice which uses physicality as a way to honor collective histories, invite collaboration, and imagine sustainable futures.
Mission
Dragons Dance is a dance company that focuses on community building as the cornerstone for the art making process. Through performances, classes, and collaborative projects, we position the arts as essential cultural labor worthy of fair compensation and respect.
Vision
Our vision is a dance ecosystem where artists can live and thrive above the poverty line, and where creativity, community, and sustainability are interdependent rather than competing priorities.
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About Artistic Director / Founder Erin Yen
My name is Erin Chih-Fang Yen (she/her.) I am a female mixed-race, Taiwanese and Irish, contemporary choreographer and dance teacher living in San Francisco, CA. My creative practice, which focuses on community building as the cornerstone for the art making process, is evidence of my belief that dance can model more just and sustainable ways of working together.
I have danced my whole life, learning from a diverse range of movement languages to inform my practice. I started in Irish, Chinese and tap dance classes, completed years in the competition dance circuit, fully believed I could be a musical theater star, and then found ballet, modern, and contemporary dance.
In 2018, I received a BFA with Distinction Honors in Dance from the Ohio State University. Here I became fluent in Laban Movement Analysis and was the first to Labanotate work from acclaimed choreographer Doug Varone. I have performed works by internationally acclaimed choreographers and I have danced with notable American dance companies. I use the full extent of my experiences as a dancer, artist, and collaborator to ensure care is the foundation of artistic creation at Dragons Dance.
