Resources for Touring China

Compiled by Alison M. Friedman

Modern Dance Festivals

China’s first modern dance troupe, Guangdong Modern Dance Company, in Lui Qi’s “Upon Calligraphy.” Every November the company organizes a major dance festival in the southern city of Guangzhou. Photo by Lin Xiaoyi, courtesy Guangdong Modern Dance Company.

• Although large venues in China do not regularly program small dance companies, a few reputable independent contemporary dance festivals that do include modern dance troupes from abroad. These include:
• Guangdong Modern Dance Festival, organized by the Guangdong Modern Dance Company in the southern city of Guangzhou every November.
• Beijing Modern Dance Week, organized by BeijingDance/LDTX in Beijing every July.
• Crossing Festival, dance and documentary film festival organized by the Living Dance Studio in cities across China semi-annually.

In 2011, Henan Normal University in Central China established a partnership
with the American Dance Festival. Henan U. hosts an annual mini-ADF on
its campus every August. 2013 will mark its third year, and the program
is growing:

• Chinese article about 2012 program:
• ADF blog from 2011
• Article on the program in Dance Studio Life magazine

Sister Cities International

•  Sister Cities International
•  Wikipedia on Sister Cities

Foundations Supporting Touring

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation supports American companies touring to international festivals. For eligibility and application procedures, visit www.midatalnaticarts.org.

Asian Cultural Council
Asian Cultural Council supports “transformative cultural exchange by awarding grants to artists, scholars, and arts and humanities professionals, as well as organizations and educational institutions from the United States and Asia for research, study, and creative work in the United States and Asia and within the countries of Asia.”

Alison M. Friedman is the founding director of Ping Pong Productions, a producing and consulting organization headquartered in Beijing with the mission of cultural diplomacy. Clients include TAO Dance Theater, Mark Morris Dance Group, the U.S. Embassy in China, the British Council, Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, and Los Angeles Theatre Works. As director of Ping Pong Productions, Friedman works closely with Chinese and international governments and arts organizations to facilitate collaborations, tours, and lasting artistic relationships.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and political negotiations, Friedman has worked in the performing arts in China for more than a decade. She served as international director of the Beijing Modern Dance Company, general manager of Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun’s company Parnassus Productions, Inc., and as a producer and host on Chinese national radio and television programs. Friedman graduated Phi Beta Kappa/magna cum laude from Brown University with a degree in Chinese literature/literary translation. She was a Fulbright fellow to China, an arts management fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and a fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts.

An expert in China’s developing arts market, Friedman lectures internationally in both English and Mandarin Chinese, including keynotes at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society, Brown University, People’s University of China, China International Performing Arts Fair Guangzhou, Fulbright Association 31st Annual Conference, and Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. She has contributed articles and chapters to journals and collections published in the United States, China, and Europe. Friedman has been cited as an expert on Chinese performing arts by the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and China Daily.