Ching-Ying Chien

Dancer

Ching-Ying was born in Taiwan in 1988 and trained at the National Taiwan University of Arts.

She began working with Akram Khan Company in 2013 as a dancer in iTMOi, followed by Until the Lions and Outwitting the Devil. Her performance in Until the Lions won the Outstanding Female Performance (Modern) at the 2016 National Dance Awards (UK). Dance critic Lyndsey Winship praised her as “a woman of powerful but serene stillness, who shape-shifts between delicate, melting movements, stubborn decisiveness and contorted convulsing.” Now, she acts as a rehearsal director and regularly teaches workshops for the Company.

Outside of theatre, she was the dancer and choreographer for Stranger, a music video for hip-hop musician Plan B, and a number of videos for British electronic band The Chemical Brothers, both projects directed by Adam Smith. Together with Akram Khan, she co-created a duet for Can We Live with Robots, a TV documentary commissioned by Channel 4.

In 2020, she started working with James Thierrée-Compagnie du Hanneton on the creation of MO’s and ROOM.

Her latest work, Vulture, was performed at the Lilian Baylis Studio of Sadler’s Wells and the Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts. It has been supported by LMF Dance Fund, National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan), Akram Khan Company, and has also been selected as one of 20 pieces in Aerowaves 2023.

Back to top