About
Yanyu is a dance educator, performing artist and practice‑based researcher working across Chinese dance and contemporary performing arts.
She holds a BA (Hons) in Performance Making from NAFA‑UAL and has completed her MA in Arts Pedagogy and Practice at LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore.
Her graduate research focuses on pedagogy for adult Chinese dance learners, with particular interests in embodied approaches, physically sustainable training frameworks and learner‑centred dance education within multicultural contexts. Drawing upon years of systematic technical training in Chinese dance, classical ballet and contemporary dance forms, her interdisciplinary artistic practice spans practice‑informed curriculum design for different age groups, original choreographic creation, live stage performance, on‑site production coordination, as well as technical‑theatre operation including QLab, Isadora and video post‑production.
Yanyu's artistic‑educational work is driven by a core aim: to foster meaningful, accessible encounters with traditional Chinese dance heritage through contemporary lenses, tailored to the needs and backgrounds of Singapore’s diverse learner communities. She brings substantial frontline teaching experience, having independently designed and delivered structured dance courses for young child students as well as non‑professional adult participants with varied movement foundations.
Additionally, she has built up a broad portfolio of local and international performance credits, spanning formal stage dance, experimental theatre works and interdisciplinary festival productions across Singapore and regional venues.
Root • Body • Ensemble: Nurturing bodily and cultural awareness in Singapore adult Chinese dance
This practice‑led postgraduate research responds to limitations within conventional adult Chinese dance pedagogy in Singapore’s diasporic Chinese context, where teaching often prioritises mechanical movement imitation over learners’ somatic perception and cultural understanding.
I designed and facilitated a four‑stage embodied workshop for amateur adult Chinese dance learners, deploying four pedagogical tools: Living Projector, Learning Scaffolding, Creative Kaleidoscope and Cultural Treasure Box.
Moving beyond choreography memorisation, the workshop guided participants through somatic awakening, ethnic‑cultural resonance, dynamic movement expansion and collective creative synthesis.
Drawing on andragogy, embodied cognition and somatic phenomenology, the project documents observable shifts in learners: from visual‑dependent copying to internal bodily self‑awareness, from superficial stylistic mimicry to culturally rooted embodied resonance, and from passive replication toward autonomous creative improvisation.
Workshop observations and participant reflections formed the core empirical material for my master’s dissertation, generating actionable learner‑centred curriculum insights for local adult Chinese dance education.
Professional practice
Thomas Lim
Michelle Zhang
Julian Low
Simon Pike
Gaby Rae
Chng Xin Xuan
