biography.

Dancer, musician, and writer, Cynthia Ling Lee instigates thoughtful, friction-filled choreographic dialogues between experimental American postmodern dance and classical North Indian kathak, creating intercultural, interdisciplinary choreography performed at theatrical venues and alternative sites throughout the United States and Asia.

Based in Los Angeles, Cynthia collaborates with composers, choreographers, and visual artists of diverse backgrounds, including tabla player Lenny Seidman of Spoken Hand, new music/jazz composer David Cutler, Taiwanese visual artist YaYa Chou, Bharatanatyam dancer Anusha Kedhar of ANGIKA, and West Sumatran choreographer Ery Mefri of Nan Jombang.  In addition, she is a member of the Post Natyam Collective, devoted to critical and creative approaches to South Asian dance.  Cynthia was invited to participate in the 2006 Asia Pacific Performing Arts Exchange, the 2007 Asian Young Choreographers Project in Taiwan, the 2008 Swarthmore Project Residency, the 2008 IDF International Performing Arts Festival in Indonesia, and the 2009 World Dance Alliance Choreolab in India.   Her choreography has been presented throughout India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the United States at venues including Dance Theater Workshop (New York), Asia Society (New York), Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (Los Angeles), Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles), Painted Bride Arts Center (Philadelphia), Swarthmore College (Philadelphia), Colorado College (Colorado Springs), Taman Ismail Marzuki (Jakarta), Taman Budaya Cultural Center (Padang), Tsoying Dance Theater (Kaohsiung), India International Centre (New Delhi), Natya/STEM (Bangalore), and Chandra-Mandapa: Spaces (Chennai).

Lee’s approach to western contemporary performance has been deeply influenced by extensive studies with avant-garde masters Simone Forti and Eiko & Koma and by twelve years as a practitioner of contact improvisation.  Her style of kathak reflects her studies with renowned gurus Bandana Sen and Kumudini Lakhia in India and with Anjani Ambegaokar in Los Angeles.  She holds an MFA in choreography from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures and a BA in English Literature from Swarthmore College.  In addition, she was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study religious dance in Thailand (Thai classical dance), Brazil (Candomblé), and India (kathak) from 2002-3.

Lee has taught choreography, dance theory, and technique courses in kathak, improvisation, and contemporary dance throughout the United States and Asia.  In addition to giving workshops through Dance Advance, the dance program of the Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia, she has taught at the Community Education Center (Philadelphia), DANCEbank (Los Angeles), Colorado College (Colorado Springs), Swarthmore College (Philadelphia), Kadamb Centre for Dance and Music (Ahmedabad), Natya Institute for Kathak and Choreography (Bangalore), Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts (Kolkata), Sanved (Kolkata), Taipei National University of the Arts (Taipei), ISI Surakarta (Surakarta), National Arts Academy/Akademi Seni Kebangsaan (Kuala Lumpur), and Temple of Fine Arts (Kuala Lumpur).  Her academic writing has been presented at conferences in the US and India, and she assisted with the editing of Dance Matters, an anthology of writings on Indian dance published by Routledge in 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.