Personal statement

Chén is pursuing a PhD in Dance and is a choreographer and researcher based in the UK. As a choreographer and dancer, she has created and collaborated on over 15 works presented in various countries, including China, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Chén is particularly interested in the intersection of dance with cultural heritage, feminism, and haptic technology.

As a choreographer, she created the participatory performance How Do We Understand Each Other for The Holburne Museum (Bath) in 2022, the duet piece Re-Cognizing for All Things Dance 2023 (Bristol), and the solo performance Soliloquy of a Fly for the art platform Inklingroom at The Yard Theatre (London) in 2023, supported by a grant from Gather Up (Bristol).

In collaboration projects, Chén has explored interdisciplinary work, partnering with visual artist Pàn QI in 2023 for a performance at The Stedelijk Museum (Netherlands), and co-creating the piece Drifting for the Resolution Festival 2023 (London) with theatre designer Phoebe Shu-Ching Chan.

Academic qualifications

  • BA, Wuhan Conservatory of Music
  • MA, Bath Spa University. 

Thesis title

Reverberating Nüshu with Dance Movements and Haptic Technology

Research supervisors

Dr Zhi Xu

Research interests

  • Dance
  • Sound
  • Nüshu
  • Feminism
  • Asian Culture
  • Technology.