STA hosts international forum for young dancers

The Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) hosted the 2026 International Young Scholars Dance Forum at its Hongqiao Road Campus on Oct 30, bringing together emerging researchers and artists from home and abroad to explore new approaches to Chinese dance studies. The forum leverages the growing academic influence of Contemporary Dance Research, a bilingual journal indexed in the CSSCI Extended Edition and AMI Comprehensive Evaluation, to integrate journal development with young talent cultivation.

The event featured keynote speeches, four parallel sessions, eight academic discussion groups, and discussant review segments. At the opening ceremony, Zhang Suqin, vice-dean and professor at STA's College of Dance and editor-in-chief of Contemporary Dance Research, noted that academic journals should serve as a platform for the growth of young scholars. Hu Min, deputy Party secretary of the STA, called the forum a vital platform for supporting young talent. Wang Yan, general director of the Shanghai International Dance Center Development Foundation and director of the Shanghai Dance Theatre, stressed that the global outreach of Chinese dance requires cultural self-awareness and aesthetic independence. In his keynote speech, Xu Rui, president and professor of the Beijing Dance Academy, focused on building an autonomous knowledge system for Chinese dance, emphasizing grounding research in Chinese cultural subjectivity while valuing how dance generates knowledge through bodily experience.

During the parallel sessions, scholars presented case studies spanning historical inquiry, choreography, pedagogy and interdisciplinary science—from dance translation in Peking Opera artist Mei Lanfang's US tour publicity and dance choreographer Shen Wei's early transnational dances to Benesh Movement Notation, brain-computer interfaces and hyperscanning, and dance fandom culture. Each session paired presentations with expert commentary to foster dialogue among scholars at different career stages.

The closing ceremony was moderated by Zhang Lin, dean and professor of the College of Dance at the STA. Xu Yong, vice-president of the STA, stated that the academy will continue building high-level international platforms and promoting the integration of dance and technology. Australian dancer and choreographer Meryl Tankard delivered a keynote speech titled "Dance: Research Through the Body", discussing bodily experience and movement memory in repertoire transmission. The forum was closely linked with the 25th China Shanghai International Arts Festival, with participants scheduled to observe productions including Yoann Bourgeois Art Company's He Who Falls and TAO Dance Theater's Numerical Series 15 and 18.