Grit and Grip

17cm*13cm ｜ Pencil

This piece portrays my period of adjustment after moving to the States and learning to dance with a partner. Out of nowhere someone punched through the wall and gave me their hand, making me the following figure in the dance routines. By taking me out of something (dance) I had always known how to do alone, I see the implied reasoning that women typically assume the position of the following figure in society.

Winter in Beijing

17cm*13cm ｜ pencil, pen, and marker

This is a sketch of a security pavilion during Beijing’s winter. With a fine-liner sakura pen, I outlined the shadows of the pavilion as well as the footprints of the security guard in the snow. With it snowing outside while the inside of the pavilion looks illuminated and warm, this is only a brief look at the working situations of security guards in Beijing.

Tear Away

15.2cm*21cm ｜ Mixed Media

This piece is drawn on top of a cyanotype print of my knee injuries. The colored pencil shows torn knee pads I used in 2021 and 2022. The strings pulling the knee pad out to the sides symbolize strained muscles and torn ligaments.

Back in Shape

15.2cm*21cm ｜ Mixed Media

This is a cyanotype print of an x-ray of my spine. The two ropes are added with blue colored pencils, symbolizing the force pulling my body back into the right position. During the first two years of my injury, I visited numerous doctors, chiropractors, sports recovery centers, and Pilates instructors to get x-rays, acupunctures, and recovery instructions that were supposed to get my body back into the correct position. Similarly, the pulling of my muscles with every dance move I did in competitions and performances was another rope shaping my body.

Dancer Duality

30cm*30cm ｜ Oil

Wearing bright-colored gloves made my hand motions stand out more on stage. These are one of the many pairs of gloves I have used at competitions and performances, painted using bright oil paint colors. The two gloves, one with a hand in it and one without, show my two different states as a dancer: one physically tired, the other tense and energetic in competition.

In the Spotlight

40cm*40cm ｜ Oil

This oil painting uses a brown color scheme mainly surrounding the centerpiece and shows my dance shoes under the spotlight. Of the 4 or 5 pairs of shoes I use each year (30 pairs over the past 6 years), this was one pair kept in the spotlight. As a young dancer, standing under one of the spotlights in the classroom during group lessons at my dance studio has always held a special value for me. I hope this painting will keep these shoes in the spotlight forever and honor my role dancing with peers in the dance studio.

Centered Dreams

50cm*70cm ｜ Oil

This piece is painted with oil paint, and shows the “uniform” that all dancers at my studio wore to one of our annual recitals. As a dancer in the group of 30, wearing the identical uniform helped me realize that I actually wanted to stand in the center.

Now, I have realized that not having a definite center position or main character was the most beneficial to everyone’s learning to become a better dancer. However, this dress still reminds me of my small wishes as a background dancer to take on a bigger role.

Harmony in Contrast

80cm*60cm*20cm ｜ Sculpture

This is my first attempt at making a sculpture. I chose to work the form of a dance couple. The two dancers are conveyed in very different ways, with the woman’s form being smooth and natural while the man’s is rigid and abstract. This contrast is created using clay applied in different ways. The color of the sculpture was painted with brown acrylic paint and then spray painted on the surface with black paint. The structure of the sculpture shows the two dancers working together, straining every muscle, to create a beautiful formation that is appealing to the eyes of the audience.