Site-specific improvisatory dance performance: Deconstruction and Reconstruction of the Path of Life

It is a site-specific improvisatory dance performance in Lhasa’ s sacred space dominated by a huge Buddha statue. It aims to explore how site-specific context and altitude sickness shape performance, and how freedom and meaning are created within limitations. In March 2025, I was invited by Weland Art Centre, in Lhasa, Tibet, China, to create a site-specific performance that resonates with the theme of cultural commonalities between Tibetan and Han cultures (the dominant cultural tradition of China’s Han ethnic majority). Weland Art Centre is the first private art gallery founded by Xu Yinglong in Lhasa, built over a period of nine years and opened in 2019. As I found that both Han and Tibetan cultures share the common theme of “life path and self-transcendence”, I created a 25 min site-specific improvisatory dance performance Deconstruction and Reconstruction of the Path of Life. I premiered the performance on 27 March 2025 in Weland Art Centre, where there were twelve spectators at the scene, and livestreamed it simultaneously on Xiaohongshu and Douyin channels.