biography.
Cynthia Ling Lee instigates thoughtful, friction-filled dialogues between American postmodern dance and North Indian classical kathak, creating intercultural, interdisciplinary choreography performed at theatrical venues and alternative sites throughout the United States and Asia.
Based in Los Angeles, Cynthia engages in intimate collaborations with choreographers, composers, and visual artists of diverse backgrounds, rigorously integrating live music, text, and multimedia into her work. She is a member of the Post Natyam Collective, a web-based coalition of woman artists dedicated to critical and creative approaches to South Asian dance; her other artistic collaborators include choreographers Sheetal Gandhi (dance-theater), Anusha Kedhar (Bharatanatyam), Ery Mefri (West Sumatran); musicians David Cutler (jazz/new music), Paul Livingstone (Ragajazz), Lenny Seidman (world music), Loren Nerell (electronic/Indonesian); and visual artists YaYa Chou (sculptural installation) and Carole Kim (multimedia performance).
Shown in nationally recognized theaters, universities, and alternative spaces, Cynthia's work has been presented at venues such as Dance Theater Workshop (New York), Asia Society (New York), Painted Bride Arts Center (Philadelphia), Asian Arts Initiative (Philadelphia), Swarthmore College (Philadelphia), REDCAT (Los Angeles), Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles), Colorado College (Colorado Springs), University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), University of Wisconsin (Madison), Taman Ismail Marzuki (Jakarta), Taman Budaya Cultural Center (Padang), ISI Surakarta (Surakarta), Taipei National University of the Arts (Taipei), Tsoying Dance Theater (Kaohsiung), Chhaya Nat (Dhaka), India International Centre (New Delhi), Natya/STEM (Bangalore), ICCR (Kolkata), and Chandra-Mandapa: Spaces (Chennai). Cynthia was recipient of a 2002-3 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a 2006 Asia Pacific Performing Arts Exchange Fellowship, a 2008 Swarthmore Project Residency, a 2010 Taipei Artist Village Residency, and a 2010 Durfee ARC grant. She was also invited to participate in the 2007 Asian Young Choreographers Project in Taiwan, the 2008 Indonesian Dance Festival in Jakarta, the 2010 Kuandu Arts Festival in Taipei, and the 2011 National Asian American Theater Festival in Los Angeles.
Cynthia teaches choreography, improvisation, technique, and dance theory to professional dancers, university students, and as community engagement. She has taught at Colorado College (Colorado Springs), Swarthmore College (Philadelphia), Dance Advance (Philadelphia), TeAda Productions (Los Angeles), Natya Institute for Kathak and Choreography (Bangalore), Sanved (Kolkata), Taipei National University of the Arts (Taipei), and National Arts Academy/Akademi Seni Kebangsaan (Kuala Lumpur), among others. Her academic writing has been presented at conferences in the US and India, and she assisted with the editing of Dance Matters: Performing India (Routledge 2009). In the realm of production, Lee was a key staff member for the 2005 World Festival of Sacred Music, Los Angeles’ largest arts festival, which is dedicated to building interfaith understanding through music.
Cynthia’s most influential teachers and mentors include western avant-garde masters Simone Forti and Eiko & Koma; renowned kathak gurus Bandana Sen, Kumudini Lakhia, and Anjani Ambegaokar; the contact improvisation community; anthropologist Pallabi Chakravorty; and director of the Center for Intercultural Performance, Judy Mitoma. She holds a BA in English literature from Swarthmore College and an MFA in choreography from UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures.