About the company
TAO Dance Theater is a full-time contemporary dance company founded by Tao Ye, Duan Ni and Wang Hao in 2008. It is the first contemporary dance company in China to be invited to perform at the Lincoln Center Art Festival in the United States, Edinburgh International Art Festival in the United Kingdom, Sydney Opera House in Australia and Theatre de la Villie in France. It has also been invited to perform at the American Dance Festival (ADF) and served as resident artists. Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, UK, commissioned the company’s five works and invited the company to perform in London for six times.
The works of "Numerical Series" created by the company with simple creative concept and simple body aesthetics have toured all over the world on five continents, in more than 40 countries and over 100 different art festivals. The company has attracted extensive attention from people from all walks of life, and has become one of the most eye-catching and modern Chinese dance companies on the international stage.
In terms of diversified cross-border and exploration of performing arts, the "Numerical Series" and "Non-numerical Series" works of the company have been invited to perform cross-border in different spaces, such as the ruins of the ancient Roman arena, the Paris Fashion Week Show, the Singapore Museum of Art and Science, the Aranya Seaside Stage, the Concert Hall of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and the Beijing International Design Week. At the 2015 Paris fashion week, the company was invited to conduct on-site cooperation with the Y-3 Brand of Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto. In 2019, the company and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre set jointly produced "Exchange" and toured more than ten cities in China. In 2021, the self-made "Infinite Walking" was listed on the Tiktok hot search list for several weeks in a row.Tens of thousands of netizens imitated the body-free-walking style, and the relevant videos were played nearly 500 million times.
Alastair Macaulay, the chief art critic of the New York Times, described the works of the dance troupe as “theatrical force and authority. (The dancers’) athletic control is remarkable. Powerful drive… physicality and momentum… extraordinary and appealing”. Time Out New York named the company’s performances one of the “10 Best Dance Shows of 2014,” the only company on the list from Asia.
In 2021, TAO Dance Theater established DNTY art extension brand and TAO Studio. The former released the inspiration of artists with the design concept of "clothes should follow the body", combined with the creativity of diversified performing arts such as clothing, music, dance and image, derived and shared the dancers' dressing aesthetics and lifestyle. The latter "pays attention to more people's bodies" and launches the course of “Circular Movement System”, so that more people can find that "the body can still move like this", feel, experience and explore the infinite possibility that the body is like a kaleidoscope.
