The Bee Hummingbirds in the Cracks
(2022) New York
The Bee Hummingbirds in the Cracks is a dance performance that explores and presents the double dilemma of Chinese immigrant women: the complexity and contradictions of women's cultural and living circumstances.
I worked with movement, props, and language to design this work, and it was my first time working with my mother and incorporating her experience into my dance-making. Through multiple conversations and interviews with her, I revisited and reviewed a life of leaving, losing, returning, and finding. This work is also about the process of listening, responding, translating, and understanding.
Choreographer: Na An
Performers: Mingjun Han, Sabrina Gail Lobner, Chloe Schafer, Ruby Rose O'Brien Stigers, Equem Roël, and Na An.
Length: 40 minutes
Music: NO TRACE不留行, John Yannelli, and Na An
Voice Recordings: Zachary Peng Zhou, Kris Li, Xiwen Li, Max Klarich, Shengyu Chen, Wei Dai, and Nan Jiang.
Monologues: Xinhua Wang and Na An
Text: Equem Roël and Na An
Lighting Design: Allysen Hooks
Costume Design: Na An and Amy Page
Photography: Walter Wlodarczyk
Performed at BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance),
the Bessie Schönberg Dance Theatre, Sarah Lawrence College.
Burning Cracks
(2021) New York
Burning Cracks is a dance performance that combines movements, interview recordings, and poetry to discuss the immigration experience from a gender perspective.
Choreographer: Na An
Dancers: Mingjun Han, Sabrina Lobner, Bailyn Dupont, and Na An.
Music: Daniel Lizzul and John Yannelli
Lighting Design: Allysen Hooks
Length: 15 minutes
Poetry in English: Yuexing Sun
Voice: Kenia Rosete-Myers
Interviewees in Chinese: Bofang Zhou, Elly Zhang, Winnie Feng, Xiaoyan Wang, Mengna Chen, Jie Ma, Ping Liu, Lucy Liu, and Joyce Liang.
Costume Design: Na An and Amy Page
Photography: Maria Baranova
Video recorded and edited by Na An
Performed at Bessie Schönberg Dance Theatre, Sarah Lawrence College.
I Am Another You, As You Are Another Me
(2021) New York
JNBY Project 江南布衣项目
(JNBY, a Chinese designer brand)
Director: Kimisa H
Photography: Kimisa H
Director of photography: Doug Durant
Choreographer: Na An
Featuring: Umi Akiyoshi
Makeup/hair: Nana Hiramatsu
Gaffer: Anthony Sur
DP ac: Peter Harrison
Camera ac: Dondre Stuetley
PA: Mae Ye
Editor: Jordan Strong
Music: Guitarra Flamenca by Danilo Dawson under Creative Commons license.
Four Chapters about She, We, Women
(2021) New York
Four Chapters about She, We, Women is a video-based performance composed of four poems I wrote for four females, including Medea, Nora Helmer, Virginia Woolf, and myself. The performance is an inquiry into the question, "Are female identities still being persecuted?" I am also interested in exploring how the monitor, computer, and iPhone interplay with my movement.
Creator/Sound/Performer: Na An
Blocking
(2020) New York
Blocking is a video-based performance; the performers are these blocks. I choreographed the blocks to have a conversation and reflection on institutionalization. The work has been inspired by Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish, and what happened in 2020.
We are stuck in such a small space. Everyone becomes the implementer of power and the object controlled by power. Who determines what our rights are? Where can we draw the line between security and freedom? Can we make the rules together? Who or what should we develop resistance against if we want to see real change?
Creator/Editor/Sound: Na An
Here or There
(2019) New York
I had a weird dream that night when I moved to New York.
An apple was devouring the rainbows.
Tears streaming down her face, the little girl was hidden away in a corner.
My eyes started to dance.
The fire was then sharply erased.
Gradually, the moments faded away, my surroundings dissolved, and I disappeared.
Creator/Editor: Na An
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Room 264
(2018) Melbourne
Short Film | 4.40 Min | 2.35 | Melbourne, Australia
A woman arrives in an unfamiliar environment and reflects on how she got to be there. As the room comes to life, she reaches for a sense of self - using a physical langue to expresses emotions that are otherwise ineffable.
Winner:
Audience Choice Award - Melbourne Women in Film Festival
Semi-FInalist: Thessaloniki Cinedance International
Official Screenings:
Flatpack Festival- Screendance (BAFTA Qualifying Festival) 2021, UK
Sydney World Film Festival 2020, Australia
River Run International Film Festival 2020, USA
Bestias Danzantes Dance Film Festival 2020, Chile
Carmarthen Bay Film Festival 2020, UK
ARTS x SDGS Festival 2020, USA
The Reelgood Film Festival 2020, Australia
Brisbane International Film Festival 2020, Australia
Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival 2019, HK
Blow-Up International Arthouse Film Festival 2019, Chicago, USA
Short and Sweet Festival Hollywood 2019, USA
Thessaloniki Cinedance International 2019, Greece
PÖFF SHORTS Official Selection 2019, Tallinn, Estonia
Melbourne Women in Film Festival 2019, Australia
White Night Festival Bendigo 2018, Australia
Byron Bay Film Festival 2018, Australia
A Collaboration between Brodie Rowlands & Na An
Writer & Director: Brodie Rowlands
Dancer/ Choreographer: Na An
Director of Photography: Alice Stephens
Assistant Camera: Bonita Carzino
Gaffer: Scott Pope
Composer: Zain Awan
Colorist: Abe Wynen
Absentee
(2015) Beijing
Who defines and writes about being perfect? Who defines and writes about failure? Absentee is a dance video that questions those words.
Choreographer/Performer: Na An
Cinematography: Yuan Liu
Editor: Ice He
Music: Alva Noto
Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China.
Boxes
(2014) Beijing
Boxes explores the topic of desire. This work was inspired by Beijing, where I lived as a nonlocal for almost thirteen years.
These boxes, each a self-contained space, symbolize the individuals in this city, driven by their desires to establish their own lives, rules, and limitations. Blue represents social space, red symbolizes emotion, and white signifies the self. Inhabitants of these boxes yearn for freedom, yet paradoxically, they find themselves confined by their own creations.
Director/Choreographer: Na An
Dancers: Yiling Wang, Yaojian Cai, Zhiwei Xu, and Na An
Length: 45 minutes
Music: Tao Liu
Lighting Designers: Zhiguo Han and Hong Ling
Cinematography: Chao Wen and Zhiguo Han
Video Editor: Chao Wen
Producers: Hui Li and Wulin Jin
Performed at 1919 Theater, Beijing, China.
Nightmare
(2012) Beijing
A woman struggles between reality and her dream.
She has had the same dream over and over.
She asks,
What in this world is not evanescent?
What in this world is real and unseen?
Director/Editor: Na An
Performers: Rui Hao, Zheng Liu, Weixin Pan, Yiling Wang, Na An, and undergrad dance students from Tianjin Chuanmei University.
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto
Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China.
The Girls
(2011) Beijing
The Girls is a dance performance that incorporates movement, live music, and props to tell the story of two girls as they navigate their coming-of-age experience, including their self-image, friendship, emotions, and societal expectations.
Directors: Na An and He Gao
Choreographer: Na An
Dancers: Ivy Tsui, Dongge Zhu, Man Wei, and Na An
Live Music: Fan Yang
Length: 70 minutes
Poster: Rou Jiang 肉酱
Lighting Designer: Zhao Liu
Costume: Beistyle
Video Making: X-IMAGE Studio
Video Venue: Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China.
Performed at the After Sars Theater, Beijing Chaoyang Culture Center Nine Theater, China.
Produced by 北京身体力行戏剧舞蹈工作室
旧疙瘩
(2010) Beijing
In a room with two chairs, a woman wears a ring and has a glass of water. She walks back and forth between the chairs and recalls her story.
Director: Shu Xie
Choreographer/Performer: Na An
Text: Paul De Bruyne
Length: 40 minutes
Performed at the After Sars Theater, Beijing Chaoyang Culture Center Nine Theater, China.
Produced by 北京身体力行戏剧舞蹈工作室
© 2024 by Na An
