Naishi

Wang

Photo by Martin Hüsges

I'm Naishi Wang

As an independent contemporary dance artist and artistic researcher, my curiosity brings me to observe and study how and why people move. Dance exists in the melding of shared experiences between bodies and can be accessed by everyone. I believe performative arts create a collective imagination of the future. I trust that the presence of the body can hold embodied meanings. I love dancing.

Based in culturally diverse Toronto, and born in Changchun, China,

I began my training with Chinese martial arts, Chinese Classical and Folk dances at Jilin College of Art. In 2004, I moved to Canada to attend The School of Toronto Dance Theater.

Subsequently, I became a company member of Toronto Dance Theatre for nine years.

Photo by (from left to right). Guntar Kravis, David Hou, Jeremy Mimnagh and Guntar Kravis.

In 2015, I was inspired to work extensively as an independent dancer with diverse talented artists and choreographers around the globe.

Photo by. Jeremy Mimnagh(left), Heiko Marquardt(right), Xavier Curnillon(top & bottom).

Meanwhile, I started my career as an independent choreographer. I started to work collaboratively in Germany and co-choreographed with Berlin-based Tanz-Theater artist Christoph Winkler. Together, we created two solos and duet projects: “Can Asian Dance?”, “Crossing Half of China to Sleep With You”, and “Tale of the Dragon and Lion”.

Photo by Dieter Hartwig(all)

In 2018, my solo “Taking Breath" was premiered in Toronto, followed by a tour to Montreal, Annapolis Royal, Halifax and Hamburg, Germany. In 2019, a commissioned work entitled “Free Steps” by the Toronto/Halifax based company Nostos Collective was created and premiered.

Details on Naishi's work

Photo by Martin Hüsges(left), Omer Yukseker(right bottom) & Francesca Chudnoff(right top).

In 2020, I received Small Creation Fund from CanDance Network and Respiration du FTA. In 2021, During the Pandemic, I continued to observe and study the underlying motivations of the body’s movements and the emotions it conveys. Renowned to form an improvisational practice, which I have turned into incarnations of bodily meaning. My drawings and writings, which take the form of dances on paper, echo my work in dances. In 2022, My duet as an embodied emotional journal Face To Face premiered at Citadel in Toronto in April followed by FTA at La Chapelle Montreal in June and toured to Tanzmesse, Düsseldorf Germany in September.

Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh(left top & bottom), art work with Master Man Kuen Wong (right)

Currently, I am an artist in residency at Citadel+Company and in partnership with TO Live for the new creation of Eyes, Wide Open. In addition, I'm working on a project called Deciphers, collaborating with a UK based artist Jean Abreu. In November 2022, with much gratitude, I received the Chalmers Arts Fellowship from OAC.