Yung Yung Tsuai has been on the faculty at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance since 1983.
She came to the United States in 1970 on a scholarship directly granted to her from Martha Graham after meeting her in Taipei. Since then, Ms Tsuai has been performing and teaching professionally in the United States.
She has danced with Martha Graham, Pearl Lang, Daniel Nagrin's Workgroup, The Vanaver Caravans, and Susan Stroman. She has choreographed for the Asian American Dance Theater, Pan Asian Repertory Theater, Yangtze Repertory Theater, LaMama Theater, Bank Street Theater, The Naked Feet Dance Company, NTDTV Chinese New Year Gala, and TysanDance. She was on the faculty at the Ailey School from 1992 to 1996, and at Long Island University from 2004 to 2005. She has also taught at SUNY Purchase, New York University, George Washington University, Brigham Young University, Johnson State College, Taiwan National Arts Academy, and the Isothermal Community College, NC. From 1991 to 1992, she was the rehearsal director for the Cloud Gate Dance Company in Taiwan.
Ms. Tsuai attended the Home Economic College (Shihchien University) in Taipei, Taiwan in 1969, and received a BA with a major in dance from the Empire State College in New York City in 1994. She founded the Yung Yung Tsuai Dance Company and the Byrdcliffe Performing Arts in 1979, touring internationally including tours in Italy, Canada, Taiwan and Japan.
Critics have described her dance work as:
"As rich in pain as in sweetness..." - Burt Supree, The Village Voice;
"Blending the atmosphere of ancient China with a modern dance vocabulary...powerful and poignant..." - Doris Diether, Villager Downtown;
"Fine gradations of delicate and forceful movement...fascinating..." - Jack Anderson, The New York Times.
In 2007, Miss Tsuai published her Memoir: the Difference in Butterflies, with co-author, Marilyn Meeske Sorel.
For Dance Education in Schools and Guest Artist in Residence, she has worked for the Ailey School and The Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, New Rochelle Arts Council, ARTS, and City Lore.
For her earlier career in Taipei, Taiwan, Miss Tsuai started her dance training with Ms Lee Shufang at the age 5. She received the first price in a National Chinese Folk Dance Competition in Taiwan at the age 7. She performed as a guest artist for the following year's National Chinese Folk Dance Competition in Taiwan. Ms. Tsuai was invited to perform weekly at the Taiwanese Television Music and Dance Show in 1961. She continued to perform for the same show till 1970. In 1967, Ms. Tsuai founded Yung Yung Tsuai Dance School and Dance Company in Taipei, Taiwan, where she began actively teaching, performing and choreographing for schools, performing troupes, television shows and movies.


photo credit: Sandy Geis