COMPANY PROFILE

Elegant, sensual and captivating, the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company melds ancient Chinese forms with modern dance in an artistic and inventive marriage of styles. The Company bridges the continuum from past to contemporary - form spectacular court dances of Chinese dynasties to contemporary works fusing classical Chinese and ballet, complemented by dazzling costumes, original music, and multi-media designs. Established in 1988 by Lily Cai, the Company performs and tours extensively throughout California and the United States, appearing at major performing arts venues, festivals,university theaters, schools, community centers and special events.

In 1994 the Company opened the Grateful Dead's concert celebrating the year of the Dog at the Oakland Coliseum, and in 1995 performed for United Nations' 50th Anniversary Celebration in San Francisco. In 1996, the Company received two coveted awards for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography and Company Performance Awards from Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee for their collaborative performance with Oakland's Dimensions Dance Theater entitled “Common Ground”. That same year, the Company also premiered “Chinese Myths Cantata”, a successful collaboration with The Women's Philharmonic and Chanticleer.

Through Cai's increasingly contemporary and artistically intimate works such as “Candelas” (1997) with lit candles, “Southern Girl” (1998) with the Alexander String Quartet, and “Detours: Common Ground II” (1999) with Dimensions Dance Theater, and “Strings Calligraphy” (2000) with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Company performs concerts that highlight Cai's signature technique and the professional artistry of each dancer. Touring nationally, the Company offers two distinctive programs “Dynasties and Beyond” and “Dance Calligraphy” (with live music). From 2001 through the 2003 season, the Company introduced a variety of new pieces including “Bamboo Girls”, “Silk Cascades” and “SHE: Portraits of the Chinese Woman .” In Spring 2003, the company performed a new work, Si Ji (Four Seasons) commissioned by the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, for its 25th anniversary celebration. Represented by Kamstar Artist Management of San Francisco (www.kamstar.com), the Company has been on the California Arts Council Touring Roster since 1992, and has appeared on the juried Arts Northwest and Utah Performing Arts Tour Roster. The company is a member of Dance USA, Western Arts Alliance, and Arts Presenters.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Lily Cai

A native of Shanghai and former principal dancer with the Shanghai Opera House, Lily Cai is a prominent member of the Bay Area's dance community. Since arriving to California in 1983, Lily has choreographed dozens of new works and expanded traditional Chinese dance forms into contemporary choreographic and theatrical settings.

Founder and Artistic Director of the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company and the co-founder of Chinese Cultural Productions, Lily's strengths as a choreographer derive mainly from her ability to combine and integrate Chinese traditional, folk and classical dance, Western ballet and American modern dance. As a soloist, Lily Cai has performed and toured extensively in the United States and the Europe. A 2000 Irvine Fellow in Dance, a 3 years Choreographer's Fellowship recipient from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 9 years receipt of the Artist-in-Residence Program from the California Arts Council, Cai has won commissioning project awards from the California Dance Educators Association Artist Heritage Award, the Asian American Arts Foundation's Sandra Sakata Memorial Award, the Bay Area Fund for Dance, San Francisco Arts Commission, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Council, Rockefeller Foundation's Multi-Arts Production Fund, and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund / Creative Work Fund. In 1996, Cai received the Outstanding Achievement Award in Choreography from the Isadora Duncan Awards Committee for her collaboration with Deborah Vaughan of Dimensions Dance Theater in “Common Ground”. In 2003, Lily Cai received two commission works: Si Ji for the 25 th anniversary for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and “Madame Mao” the world premiere for the Santa Fe Opera.

Cai served as a Dance panelist for the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Council, the California Arts Council and Artist Trust in Seattle, and as a committee member of the International Dance Festival and the Bay Area Isadora Duncan Awards. Today, Lily Cai is considered a major authority and resource in Chinese dance.

Lily Cai's Profile with KQED

MUSIC DIRECTOR

Gang Situ

As one of the most active Chinese-born composers in the United States, Situ has composed works for orchestra, chorus, dance, and chamber ensembles. His compositions have been performed in China, Europe, Canada and United States.

The recipient of many awards and fellowships, Gang Situ received a series of Artists-in-Residence Program awards from the California Arts Council from 1989 to 1994, a Commissioning Award from the Ross McKee Foundation in 1994, the Composers Fellowship from the California Arts Council in 1995, the Honored Festival Composer award from the Shanghai International Music Festival in 1996, two Individual Artist Commission Awards from the San Francisco Arts Commission in 1995 and 1999, the Creative Work Fund award in 2003 and the Opera/Theater Musical Award from The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation in 2004.

Situ’s Double Concerto for Violin and Erhu has been played by orchestras around the world since its premiere in 1994. In 1997, San Francisco Symphony premiered his San Francisco Suite, which includes solo parts for Chinese, Japanese, South America, and African American jazz instruments to dramatize the numerous musical traditions flourishing in the City. In 1998, Situ was named one of six national recipients of a three-year commissioning award from Meet The Composer's New Residencies Program. Through the residencies, Situ has composed new scores for the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company in collaboration with the Alexander String Quartet, Dimensions Dance Theater, erhu master Jiebing Chen and the New Century Chamber Orchestra.. More recently, Situ composed Concerto for Erhu, Yangqin and Orchestra for Melody of China and The Women’s Philharmonic, Red Seal-Strings Calligraphy II and Chinese Opera Suite for San Francisco Symphony.