Shape in Water
Allen Chunhui Xing
Photo courtesy of Tina Leu
Shape in Water
Performed by
Allen Chunhui Xing
MUSIC
The Departure/The Quality of Mercy by Max Richter
Allen Chunhui Xing is a dancer and choreographer based in Maryland. He holds a BFA in Dance from Shanxi Academy of Arts, a M.Ed. from Salisbury University, and a MFA in Dance from University of Maryland. He currently is the Artistic Director of Xing Dance Theater and City Dance Festival.He is a former member of Huajin Dance Drama Ensemble (China) and performed in the production Forbidden Fruit Under the Great Wall which internationally toured from 2007-2011. Rapture as performer by PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER 2015. A Man’s Requiem as soloist by Korea Busan Metropolitan Dance Company 2018, 2022. Casita as performer at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival by PrioreDance 2018.
His work has been invited and selected to perform nationally and internationally including at the Dance Gallery Festival NYC, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, NextNow Festival, Peabody Spring Dance Showcase, Washington DC Global Perspectives Festival, Maryland Dance Festival, Beijing Dance Festival, On the Move at the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Dance Invitational, Richmond Dance Festival, Peabody Dance! Festival, Detroit Dance City Festival, SpectorDance’s Choreographers Showcase, Japan SAI International Dance Festival, Finland International Gala, Seoul Choreography International Festival, Asian Contemporary Ballet Festival, Mexico International Contemporary Dance Festival, Dance Place 2020 season production, the Clarice second season production, and 2021 DC Choreography Dance Festival. Xing is the Both 2020 Baltimore and Maryland State Independent Artist First Place Award awardee, 2021 Baker Artist Award recipient, 2021 Russian Season School Choreography Grant recipient, 2021 Baltimore Artist Relief Grant First Place Award, 2021 Singapore International Dance Festival Choreography Gold Award.
PROGRAMME NOTES
As a young child, my father taught me to swim. I enjoy swimming and go diving often. The feeling of weightlessness and lightness in the water removes pressure found on land and allows my inner-self to explore. I look to the sun through the surface, deep under water in awe. I am a good swimmer, but also afraid of the water. The silence below the surface; the danger lurking beyond sight; the seclusion; combining to create a sense of exhilaration, of anticipation. The inspiration of Shape in Water was from the image I had of a man falling to the bottom of the ocean. The subconscious thinking process that he had lingering between life and death. It embodies the memory of my sense of water and the conflict between desire and fear.
