We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jiali Wang a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jiali , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
There are two dance projects I’m leading, one is my own dance project, 7Midnights Physical Research (7MPR), which focuses on contemporary dance art by expressing issues related to issues of 7 social factors: Class, Gender, Sexuality, Ability, Education, Age, Race. Since 2019, 7MPR officially started the first 7 performances in partnership with the well-known NYC dance community organization, Arts On Site, in Manhattan, with the main program called, 7MPR Themed Dance Theater-Midnight Performance Series. To be the Founder and Artistic Director of this creative original dance project, I started my experience of a leadership in the dance field based on the roles of a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. It happens just with one idea of 7MPR I brought and shared with the executive director and creative director at Arts On Site. Life is a miracle!
Another dance project is called, Home Project, from my cultural organization, New York Chinese Cultural Center (NYCCC), started in 2021. This project I performed and leading strongly focuses on the expression of Anti-Asian Violence/Racism, and about the expression of “Home” to Asian American community and our immigration stories, especially Chinese immigrants’ life experiences like me, as an immigrant artist and dance artist from China.
Important Backstory about 7MPR:
Back to where the idea of 7Midnights Physical Research started. It is from my MFA thesis in 2017. My thesis includes my real dance and research experience at American Dance Festival (ADF) in 2016, then, it naturally becomes the main idea of 7MPR as the most meaningful project in my life. The backstory starts from the opportunity when I got a tuition scholarship from ADF in 2016, and I studied there for 6 weeks during the summertime and inspired by two dance artists, one was my technique class instructor, Jesse Zaritt, another one was my choreographer, Vanessa Voskuil, for ADF Footprint Performance.
I kept notes with my dance experience as my thesis research during my ADF time, as there were things happened after the news of gun shooting to a couple in the car at the beginning of July 2016. That led to many black students refused to join classes. Then, ADF hosts very serious events for social justice. My teacher, Jesse, hosted a discussion class talking about the 7 social problems: race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, education, and age. And he mentioned the relationship between dance and society. This class inspired me a lot plus other solidarity events from ADF, like solidarity walking and party in Duke University. I noticed dance should be more than just movement and the beauty standard of how it looks like on stage. Then, after these discussion and solidarity events, I had a talk with my amazing ADF choreographer, Vanessa, one day, about what is the most important thing she feels about dance. And she told me it is about “human perception.”
This is the experience in my life that leads me to rethinking about dance and inspired me to write my MFA Thesis and choreographed my thesis dance work. Finally, when I built it into a real dance project, I have to say that’s why 7MPR has been the most meaningful project I’m creating and developing.
Jiali , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
About me, a dancer from East to West, from traditional dance forms to contemporary dance field. Obviously, dance has been the partner and best friend that accompanies with me since I was 9 years old when I was accepted by Sichuan Dance School and started my 5 years professional Chinese dance training in school. After that, I became a professional Chinese dancer working for Sichuan Song and Dance Troupe until 2005. Then, I went to the top dance academy in China, Beijing Dance Academy, where I earned my bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Dance Choreography and become a contemporary dancer and choreographer, and my background of Chinese dance smoothly shifted to modern and contemporary dance field and lead me into a new dance world. In the modern/contemporary dance world, life brings me challenge and miracle, and even brings me from China to the US.
In 2014, I was accepted by SUNY The College at Brockport and came to US for my MFA in Modern dance. My American dance journey starts with modern, post-modern, contemporary dances with productive choreographing experiences in college during my MFA time. I got chances performing for American College of Dance Association Conference (ACDA) and obtained tuition scholarship from American Dance Festival (ADF) in 2016. After graduated, I start working for Chinese cultural center in Manhattan and doing contemporary dance by performing, choreographing works for diverse shows in the city. Then, I started producing shows for my own creative experimental project, when the growing idea from my MFA thesis inspires me with all my experiences at ADF and from the society, it was like an unconscious stimulation to me as a new level inspiration deepened my mind and recalled to my research. Finally, the idea from academic study to a creative physical production, just right there that I can see. And the original dance project, 7Midnights Physical Research, was born at a right time while I experience huge pressure from work, people, issues, social injustice, and speechless immigrant artists problems. I did find a perfect time to start this dance project like starting a brand-new life.
Immigrant artists are hard in this country. I identify myself as an immigrant artist, because of the sense of “homeless” and things that always make me think about my ability in this country when facing lots of limitations in my life. I’m still fighting now. I have been working for a nonprofit Chinese cultural organization for five years as a dance artist, teacher artist and choreographer. Since last year, I started to lead their cultural dance company, and also, lead one of their dance programs, Home Project, which focuses on the main expression of Anti-Asian Violence/Racism, as the Project Director, Production Manager and Company Coordinator. This year, I successfully lead three new artists groups for Home Project 2022 again. By doing all this positions, I have seen my 100% ability in dance field, when I’m in charge of all the hardest things in this company. Meanwhile, working on shows for my own dance project, 7MPR, at Arts On Site and still building our NYC artists community. I’m doing everything but still need to deal with my visa to get approved from government. Sometimes, I feel unfair for an immigrant artist like me! I always try to seek a way to find myself and my real home here, I like to work hard even sometimes overwhelmed, but I hope to get more supports. However, reality is always opposite from my thoughts and willingness while encountering issues from work, people, and the society. My work, Foggy Lens on The Ground, choreographed for the Home Project 2021, last year, is talking about my different sensations when becoming a Chinese immigrant artist in the US. There are three dance sections in this piece separately talking about different issues and perception towards the society and problems Chinese immigrants are encountering when Asians become the target of a series of violent cases.
My dance works always has meaning inside the physical movement and always have truth or information to tell. There is so much hidden truth that I have been experiencing. Anger and perception, both stimulates me as the inspiration to my voice of dance. Meaningful dance work makes me feel right and I have the right, at least the right of a dance artist who can express through their dance. So, focusing on the development of 7MPR by running and growing Themed Dance Theater-Midnight Performance Series, I hope this main program can be a platform to share more truth through artists’ voice of dance towards issues regarding to the 7: class, education, ability, sexuality, race, age, gender, which is my understanding of human problems and the sins when I first time heard my ADF instructor, Jesse Zaritt, mentioning the 7 social factors in his discussion class. And then, my ADF choreographer, Vanessa Voskuil’s conversation about human perception reminded me the way of perceiving things around us and bring information and consciousness to the level of dance creating.
My thesis dance work, Inside7, was seeking a way to reflect and express the symbol of human’s 7 problems and sins through dance movement. However, I found it is not enough to just do the research of the 7 social issues in my thesis work, because I have found that my mission as an immigrant dance artist will be more than this. Therefore, to build 7MPR and its dance community is the long-term goal in my life.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I hope society to give more attention to artists’ lives and making the visa things easier for immigrant artists.
I hope I can get my visa without paying any money to immigration lawyers, since I’m working for US legally and do tax filing yearly.
I hope the process of my visa application simple and easy, just need one employer, instead of three or more. Immigrant artists don’t have time to do every works, we are also need healthy lives and friends.
I hope government can support immigrant artists’ by exempting tax for immigrant artists, especially dance artists. Some of immigrant artists are even dancing without paying, just because of the needs of performing experiences for visa.
Immigration lawyers should charge less than $2000 of lawyer’s fee to support immigrant artists, especially dance artists, because dance artists need more money spending on body therapy, physical check, and health care.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I do have goals since I have been running my dance theater project, 7Midnights Physical Research, for more than 3 years. I’m trying to develop 7MPR to an LLC or see if it can be built into a Non-profit Organization. I’m still making the snowball.
On the other side, my thinking has been driving me to see opportunities in the academic dance field. So, I want to see if I can develop 7MPR as an academic dance research course in college regarding to the 7 themes of social factors: Class, Education, Sexuality, Ability, Race, Age, Gender, in the upcoming future. This will be an academic dance course involving both academic writing research and choreography practicing exploring and analyze human thoughts and voice towards social issues with acting in dance, movement, and creating process. This is what I’m expecting to my dance project, 7MPR, with the goal towards the unknown experimental form of physical dance theater and movement perception research.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.7mpr.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/7mpr_themeddancetheater
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/7mprthemeddancetheater/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/VcYXYg_2q1I
- Other: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/campaigns
Image Credits
Rebecca Marcela Oviatt Alice Chacon Christine Abbate Five Two Dance Company Alessia Palanti Chikyu To The Moon Jasmine Huang Finleigh Zack Dance Inc. Middle Ground|Rough but Kind Collective