Bay Area Independent Chinese Dancers

06/23/2026

Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information announced today that they will take a more flexible approach in considering applications for screening dialect films, and remain open to further Teochew screenings of Dear You if the distrbutor applies. Per CNA, “It comes amid public debate over the place of Chinese dialects in Singapore as the release of Dear You has drawn attention not only for its box-office success but also for its use of Teochew.”

“Dear You follows two timelines: a grandson who embarks on a present-day search for his long-lost grandfather in Thailand, and a newlywed man who leaves his hometown in China during wartime in the 1940s, travelling to Southeast Asia in search of jobs to support his family.” Today, we’re looking back on the intro to our first show, (in English and Hokkien) “Min Bridges: stories from the Malay World, Taiwan, and mainland China”, and the bridges of love and understanding we try to build at BAICD, across the seas and across generations.

For our Singaporean fans, we encourage you to check out 's new Hainanese play 《阿奶》(with surtitles in English and Mandarin) going up this coming weekend and Monday https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdE-NHx-OqYrRzQWP49wBrez-g6c9a5QEr0uI8viWSimIsW7A/viewform

#潮州 #潮汕 #给阿嬷的情书 #閩橋

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/dear-you-teochew-movie-screening-cinema-mandarin-6200506

https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/singapore/story20260622-9246557

06/21/2026

Check out 48hills amazing interview with BAICD Director Sean Li and JanpiStar We're putting on "Wandering Bodhisattva 輪迴觀音 ᥔᥘᥛᥰᥔᥣᥘᥣᥝᥣᥔᥤᥓᥩᥓᥤᥔᥖᥲ" tonight and tomorrow afternoon at Fresh Meat Productions at Z Space in SF! Make sure to see it!

https://48hills.org/2026/06/fresh-meat-fest-serves-q***r-chinese-dance-puerto-rican-disability-drag-flair/

🎟https://ci.ovationtix.com/34231/production/

📍 Z Space
450 Florida Street, SF

📅
June 20 @ 8pm (ASL)
June 21 @ 3pm (ASL)

📸 Baia🪷🐉

06/21/2026

Have a safe and healthy belated Dragon Boat Festival, wherever you may be! Unlike the other major Chinese festivals that come from the Yellow River plain, the Dragon Boat Festival, even in its pre-mythological agricultural form, is inherently subtropical, tied to the glutinous rice harvest. Post-Confucian readactors set the festival in moral grounds the face of unjust rulers. In Japan, while originally solely a festival of the Imperial Court to ward off evil spirits, it came to be associated with the protection of young Samurai. With the suppression of that class in the Meiji Revolution, it was applied to boys of all classes. In 1948 (昭和 23) the American Occupation , as part of their demilitarization of Japanese society, changed it to Children's Day, from which it inspired Taiwanese and Chinese celebrations today.

06/16/2026

Check out 48 Hills interview with BAICD Artistic Director Sean Li and janpistar as part of Fresh Meat Productions Fresh Meat Festival this weekend!

🎟https://ci.ovationtix.com/34231/production/

📍 Z Space
450 Florida Street, SF

📅
June 19 @ 8pm (ASL)
June 20 @ 8pm (ASL)
June 21 @ 3pm (ASL)

25th anniversary of q***r arts showcase features sterling lineup of talent from all corners of the LGBTQ universe.

06/16/2026

As we prepare for our upcoming choreography “Wandering Boddhisatva” June 19-21st at Fresh Works Festival at Z Space, let’s take a moment to look at the sources of the tradition of Buddhist gender nonattachment. Instructions of the Taintless Flame were translated into Classical Chinese by Xuanzang (of Journey to the West fame) In Tang China, stories from Sutras were explained in a short, Classical Chinese five part explanations called 五重玄義 Fivefold Profound Meanings. We’ve created a modern, bilingual exegesis in that tradition, maintaining the Tang era Classical Chinese prose they would have been written in. For the full original story, in Classical Chinese, English, and (thanks to some Japanese scholars from Taisho University in the Potala Palace, Lhasa) the original Sanskrit on the following slides.

釋名：依舍利弗問天女現女相義。

辨體：天曰：得悟之人，易男女身，如易衣服。以天女像而答之言 ：又如佛言 ：「一切諸法非男非女。」

明宗：宗在破著。輪迴不損女而益男，男女皆吾執幻現，了無實體。故雖受身有殊，而法性未嘗改易也。

論用：用者，警悟學著之心也。眾生受身，男女隨業而轉；菩薩利物，形相隨機而現。

判教：其教義則兼攝上座、大乘二門。傣上座中，觀世音菩薩常現男身；夏大乘所行，則見大士示現女相。

📍Z Space
🗓 June 19-21st
💃 Mindy Sean Li
🎼 Roziht Eve 🦄
🎟 https://ci.ovationtix.com/34231/production/1271571

#五重玄義 #說無垢稱經 #觀音 #輪迴 #敦煌舞

06/14/2026

This Pride Month, were excited to be performing a new choreography 『輪迴觀音』or "The Wandering Bodhisattva" on gendered non attachment in Dai and Chinese Buddhism at the 25th Anniversary FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL of trans, q***r, and community performance ✨

Join Sean Li, and Mindy June 19–21 at Z Space in San Francisco for an iconic weekend of dance, drag, music, theater, and interdisciplinary performance featuring an incredible group of trans and q***r artists.

We'll be sharing work alongside a powerhouse lineup including Filipinx, Sean Dorsey Dance, Shawna Virago, New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus, Zuzu Beloved, JanpiStar, Pangaea, and B. DeVeaux.

FiliPINXarea.tgi_choir
✨Zubriri✨

Sean Dorsey Dance
B. DeVeaux
Pangaea Colter


📍 Z Space
450 Florida Street, SF

📅
June 19 @ 8pm (ASL)
June 20 @ 8pm (ASL)
June 21 @ 3pm (ASL)

🎟 Sliding scale tickets available now:
www.freshmeatproductions.org

😷 KN95 masks required and provided at the door.

06/02/2026

Yesterday, in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Mongolia, was Vesak Day, was the birthday of the Gautama Buddha. In this sacred season, we’re announcing our commissioned work at Fresh Meat Productions’ 2026 Fresh Works Festival: “The Wondering Bodhisattva 輪回觀音” debuting June 19-21st at Z Space in SF!

Buddhism has always taught of gender as an attachment which must be let go on the path to enlightenment. In the orthodox tradition, the closer we get to Enlightenment, the more likely we are to be reincarnated across genders, and the less likely we are to be attached to any one gender or gender identity within a lifetime. Bodhisattva Kuan Yin, the Iron Goddess of Mercy, is the clearest example of this trend: while she was an historical person, he was the Indian Prince Avalokiteśvara, who came up to the edge of Enlightenment before turning back out of compassion for the suffering of humankind, and in gratitude Chinese Mahayana Buddhism worships her as a goddess of mercy. This new Chinese, Dai, and Dunhuang choreography "The Wondering Bodhisattva" meditates on the story of Kuan Yin, from his own perspective and those of her worshippers, building a peaceful, prayerful, and detached relationship with gender, distinct from both the secularist q***r confrontation with religion, and other religious traditions' own confrontational complex relationship with gender identity.

💃 .lee
🎶
📍Z Space
🎟 freshmeatproductions.org Sliding Scale!

🗓 June 19 @ 8pm
🗓 June 20 @ 8pm
🗓 June 21 @ 3pm

#外賽節

05/22/2026

BAICD Assistant Director will be performing her solo《且看行云》with choreo by 赵小刚next Sunday May 31st at the inaugural hosted by the San Jose Vallet Association! We can't wait to see her perform this solo, first performed with BAICD at 's first showcase in 2024

#古典舞

04/24/2026

Check out our Winter Showcase host Prof. Sukanya Chakrabarti's new adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore, FRAS's Kingdom of Cards April 24th-May 3rd at Hammer Theatre Center
https://hammertheatre.com/events-list/?fbclid=IwVERDUARYcyRleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR44X7qOsxpehxcBHlM9M1rYNOTsnLUoOuVsE7IKJDI88sGd7pbGfOcOyXwGPg_aem_ZJKROYYnMvjWn8B6z3RVrA

04/11/2026

At our third show What Makes Us Great Again? The Hajj of Syed Muhammad Shamsuddin Al-Bukhari 復興 on the second night of Shawwal, we were so blessed to showcase Cal Celerity's "Echoes of the Champa Kingdom", complete with deng minyak, the Cham Vietnamese Muslim version of the Malay pelita panjut: oil lamps to welcome Laylat al-Qadr and Eid, symbolizing the persistance of hope over darkness wherever we may be

Echoes of the Champa Kingdom ✨👑

A dance that carries whispers of ancient royalty, where Champa grace meets the legacy of the Trần dynasty. Every movement tells a story of connection, conflict, and cultural exchange that shaped our history. Though time has passed, the spirit of Champa still lives on, woven into Vietnamese identity, art, and tradition.

Honoring the past, feeling it in every step. 💫

Thank you to for the amazing photos!