Movement has a distinctively rich tradition in China. Chinese Kinesthetic Forms considers movement as an organizing principle across myriad media and cultural forms—from dance and music, to painting and calligraphy, to theater and martial arts. The conference explores how movement, as both expression and object of perception, opens experiential dimensions, even beyond the corporeal. Coinciding with the presentation of installations from CAMLab’s Cave Dance project, the conference joins fresh conversations on dance, kinesthetics, and China’s long history of performance, and it seeks to further understanding of movement as a way of defining experience.

This conference is organized by Harvard FAS CAMLab, with support from the Department of History of Art and Architecture. 

Friday, November 11

9:30 AM  Welcome Remarks
David Roxburgh, Harvard University

9:45–10:30 AM  Opening Remarks and Keynote 
Eugene Wang, Harvard University. “When and How Did Art Become Art? Crane Dances in Chinese Imagination”

11:00–12:30 PM  The Lightness of Being: Sensorial Kinesthetics
Panel Chair: Alice Tseng, Boston University
Chenchen Lü, Harvard University. “Flame and Fragrance: The Bodiless Body of Dancing Apsaras in Medieval Buddhist Art”
Anne Feng, Boston University. “Taking Flight: The Modern Art of the Apsaras in East Asia”
Panel Discussant: Shanti Pillai, Williams College

1:00–3:00 PM  Sword Dance: Three Readings of Lady Gongsun
Panel Chair: Michael Szonyi, Harvard University
Stephen Owen, Harvard University. “Where the Feet Touch the Ground”
Xiaofei Tian, Harvard University. “The Phantom of the Dance”
Lucas Bender, Yale University. “Sharp Turns, Indirect Transmission, and the Unity of the Arts”
Panel Discussant: Wai-yee Li, Harvard University

3:30–5:00 PM  Reviving Repertoire: Dunhuang Dance, Then and Now
Panel Chair: Rowan Flad, Harvard University
Muyun Zhou, Pennsylvania State University. “How to Get From Dance Scores to Murals?: Bridging Representations of Tang Dance Events”
Emily Wilcox, College of William & Mary. “From Wall to Stage: Flowers and Rain on the Silk Road (1979) and the Making of Contemporary Dunhuang Dance” 
Panel Discussant: Thomas Kelly, Harvard University

Saturday, November 12
9:00–11:00 AM  Furor and Festivity: The Song-Yuan Turn
Panel Chair: Leonard van der Kuijp, Harvard University
Huiping Pang, Hangzhou Normal University. “No More Fear: How Did the Southern Song Nuo Exorcists Cope with Pandemics?” 
Discussant: Heping Liu, Wellesley College
Wen-chien Cheng, Royal Ontario Museum. “Tage (Stomping Songs): Images of Rural Festive Dancing in Chinese Paintings”
Discussant: Heping Liu, Wellesley College
Xiaotian Yin, Harvard University. “Demonic Divine: Reassessing ‘Dance of the Sixteen Heavenly Devils’ in the Mongol-Yuan Court”
Discussant: Jinah Kim, Harvard University

11:00 AM–12:30 PM  Calligraphic Kinesthetics
Panel Chair: Jeffrey Moser, Brown University
Kathleen Ryor, Carleton College. “Martial Heroics in the Calligraphy and Painting of Xu Wei”
Amy McNair, University of Kansas. “Like the Splash of a Great Whale Rising: Motion in the Criticism and Practice of ‘Mad Cursive’ Calligraphy”
Panel Discussant: Aida Yuen Wong, Brandeis University

1:30–3:30 PM  Kinesthetic Media
Panel Chair: Christina Yu Yu, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Jeehee Hong, McGill University. “Haptic Vision: Kinetic Architecture in Middle-Period China”
Discussant: Aurelia Campbell, Boston College
Catherine Yeh, Boston University. “Dancing Pictures: Mei Lanfang’s ‘The Goddess Spreads Flowers’ and the Inherent Ambiguity of Modernism”
Discussant: Eugene Wang, Harvard University
Hu Ying, University of California, Irvine. “Recreating the Sword-dance, Reinventing Qiu Jin (1875–1907)” 
Discussant: Weihong Bao, University of California, Berkeley

4:00–5:00 PM  From Immersion to Access: Lenora Lee Dance’s Filmic Remediation
Lenora Lee, Lenora Lee Dance
SanSan Kwan, University of California, Berkeley
Moderator: Simone Levine, Harvard FAS CAMLab