Join us Sunday, March 30, at 2 pm, for Borderland, a 30-minute event that showcases dance and music spanning traditions, cultures, and spaces through an exploration of borders and borderlands. Inspired by the space and broken lines of Landon Metz’s Untitled (2014), which is part of the Tang collection, Skidmore Visiting Artist-in-Residence Chia-Ying Kao and dance collaborator Pamela Pietro elaborate on the intersections of and spaces between cultural, religious, and gender boundaries.

New choreography featuring Skidmore dance students Avery Mathis ’26 and Matia Reimnitz ’27 similarly wrestles with transitions across physical and symbolic boundaries of past and present, male and female, China and the West.

Members of the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York weave graceful and eclectic melodies into this event with talents provided by Beitong Liu (huqin), Katelyn Weng (dizi/xiao), Cheng Jin Koh (yangqin), and Xiaoyan Luo (pipa). These performances, organized by Kao and Assistant Professor of Music Charlotte D'Evelyn, integrate visual, sonic, and participatory elements in an examination of borders, real and imagined.

This event is free and open to the public.

About the Performers

Chia-Ying Kao is a Taiwanese dance artist who explores cross-cultural and interdisciplinary art- making to bridge autobiographical storytelling with larger cultural issues. She received her MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College in 2012. As a movement researcher, her work aims to break down and rebuild the relationships between human bodies on a political, cultural and social level. In her practice, she strives to create refined movements that are both organic and conceptual; she likes to deconstruct movements both mechanically and viscerally, discovering their infinite signifiers. Chia-Ying is currently the Artist-In-Residence in the Dance Department at Skidmore.

Singaporean composer and yangqin performer Cheng Jin Koh strives to transcend cultural boundaries with imaginative storytelling and music making. She was most significantly a grant winner of the New York State Council on the Arts and commissioned composer for the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art centennial celebrations and Singapore International Violin Competition. As a yangqin musician, she was one of the youngest grand prize winners of the Singapore Chinese Music Competition and has performed with ensembles such as the Bard Chinese Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Dongfeng Liu Jazz Band, among others. A member of the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, she also regularly premieres her own music, which often involve multicultural and interdisciplinary explorations.

Beitong Liu is an accomplished erhu musician celebrated for her versatility and artistry of erhu playing across a wide range of musical genres, including traditional Chinese music, jazz, contemporary works, improvisation, musical theater, and opera. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Fisher Center, and the Chinese Embassy in NYC and Washington, D.C. A Bespoken Fellow for 2023–24, she won First Prize in the 2024 Singapore Star Erhu Competition and was the featured erhu performer in Shanghai Sonata at Vassar College. She is co-founder of Bright Moon and Echoes of China and teaches in the “Learn to Teach, Culture Connect” program, fostering cultural exchange through music.

Zoey Xiaoyan Luo is a highly acclaimed young pipa musician actively engaged in the New York music scene. She began learning pipa in young age in China, and during her studies in the United States, She participated in numerous performances at prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Hudson Hall, the Consulate General of China in New York and Washington, D.C., University of Maryland, and Vassar College. Her expressive and delicate performance style has earned widespread acclaim. She is also the co-founder of the Echoes of China Ensemble and an active member of the Bard East-West Ensemble.

Independent Artist and Educator Pamela Pietro earned her BFA in dance from Florida State University and her MFA in dance with a minor in Biomedical Ethics from the University of Washington. She serves as Chair and Full-Time Professor at NYU Tisch’s Department of Dance, where she received the prestigious David Payne-Carter Award for Teaching Excellence. As a dancer and performer, she has gained national and international recognition for her teaching and solo performances (in China, Malaysia, Berlin, and Japan). Her research focuses on the intersection of female embodiment and trauma.

Katelyn Weng began her musical journey learning piano at the age of six and Chinese flute at the age of eight, studying under Mr. Yuyuan Xu. She became a member of CMENY in 2010. After winning first place in the Eastern Music category in the SINO-US International Campus Cultural Arts Festival in Beijing in 2011, she returned to attend the CCTV Colorful Gala in 2013. She is a graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia Arts High School in Manhattan and has a doctorate in pharmacy from St. John’s University.