Ching-I Chang and I originally met at the American Dance Festival in the early 2000s when Ching-I was an undergrad at Shenandoah University. After completing her BA at the University of Utah, she lived for a time in New York, later returning to Salt Lake City to receive an MFA, also from University of Utah. Recently she choreographed and performed How Forests Dream, an immersive dance at Fou Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, August 2021. We got together one recent afternoon to chat at The Chai Spot, a quiet, peaceful café in that blurry border between Manhattan’s Chinatown and Little Italy.
— Ishmael Houston Jones
I, probably tactlessly, opened by asking her “what did you think of my improv class at ADF?”
Ching-I Chang: [after a pause] I’m not sure. I think it was an opening...
Ishmael Houston-Jones: What were you studying before that?
Ching-I: Dance. Dance all the way. All kinds, because in Taiwanese training you have to do everything – Chinese Dance, Ballet, Modern, Improv. Jazz and Hip Hop classes on the weekend on my own time.
IHJ: When did you come to New York the first time?
Ching-I: 2009.
IHJ: And what were you doing here?
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Ching-I: Trying to find dance work like everyone else. [She laughs.]
IHJ: Did you? Who did you work with?
Ching-I: I was actually lucky because Gesel Mason was our choreographer for our senior piece at the U, so I just contacted her and said, “I’m here and I want to work with you.” And I had a great time working with her. I can relate to her process because she emphasizes a lot of improvisation and social justice work. At that time, she was working on a piece called Women, Sex and Desire: Sometimes You Feel Like a Ho; Sometimes You Don’t — that’s the whole title. So she was like, “Why don’t you come to DC and travel with the rest of the cast.” Most of the cast was living in NYC and we’d go down to Washington on the weekends to have long rehearsals. Gesel’s piece was my first professional job.
IHJ: I love Gesel. How did you make the decision to go back to Utah to get your MFA?
Ching-I: I was dancing very intensely in NYC, because, you know as an immigrant you have to work continuously to receive your Artist Visa (O-1), to build up your resume. So I was constantly dancing with anyone, sometimes dancing for free. So after five years, I was basically burned out, and intellectually I felt that I needed something more. I also wanted to start to teach and also my mom kept saying, “Why don’t you get your MFA?” –– you know Asian mothers, they’re always thinking about your future. [She laughs.] So I said, yeah, why not?
IHJ: Let me back up a bit, how did you choose University of Utah to do you bachelor’s?
Ching-I: I was there for my undergraduate for two years and I felt I wasn’t getting anything from that time because I had finished most of my physical training at my previous school, Shenandoah University. So at the U I was doing most of the academic requirements like math, English, etcetera, just trying to finish my undergraduate education, so I didn’t feel like I was having that much physical learning there, but I appreciated what they were teaching. So after five years here, I thought maybe I should go back there and actually find out what that place and the people there can teach me.
IHJ: And were you happy with what happened?
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