Choreographing: Motion, Material, and Parallel Living — with NiNi Dongnier

This week our host Am Johal is joined by NiNi Dongnier, an interdisciplinary choreographer and dancer, and Assistant Professor in Dance at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Together they discuss NiNi’s training and artistic experiences across Inner Mongolia, Beijing, New York, and now Vancouver. Am and NiNi also talk about interdisciplinary collaboration and pedagogy. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/209-nini-dongnier.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/209-nini-dongnier.html Resources: SFU School for the Contemporary Arts: https://www.sfu.ca/sca.html SFU Dance: https://www.sfu.ca/sca/programs/dance.html NUUM Collective: https://nuum.co/ Doppelgänger: https://nuum.co/project/doppelganger Bio: NiNi Dongnier is a choreographer and artist, born in Inner Mongolia, who works in Vancouver and New York. Dongnier works through dance, performance, moving image, soft sculpture, and artistic uses of technology. Rooted in the northern trans-border nomadic philosophies and art, her art is continuous exploration of the metaphysics of body, motion, and its dynamic relation to the compound spatiotemporal, ecological, and technological contexts that shaping the moments. The process conveys her sincere perception in embodied memory, migration, ritual, landscape, and the structure and cultural entanglement behind them. She immerses herself in traditional art on one hand, and on the other hand, embraces the dissonance from various forms and philosophies, which is internalized into an independent perspective of art making. She is particularly good at finding connections and shared nature among seemingly opposite things, challenging dualistic thinking. She holds an MFA focus on Choreography and Media Art from New York University, having previously graduated Summa Cum Laude from Beijing Dance Academy with a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees in Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance & Ethnography, also studied Contemporary Dance at SUNY Purchase College. She is the founder of Field Motion, and co-founder of New York based interdisciplinary artist collective NUUM. Cite this episode: Chicago Style Johal, Am. “Choreographing: Motion, Material, and Parallel Living — with NiNi Dongnier.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 11, 2023. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/209-nini-dongnier.html.