Peiling Kao
Peiling Kao is a Taiwanese choreographer, dance educator and performer. Since moving to the U.S. in 2007, she has been working with choreographers of different aesthetic frameworks, collaborating with interdisciplinary artists, performing and teaching nationally and internationally, as well as presenting original work via her company PEILING KAO DANCES. In May 2010, she finished her MFA in Dance at Mills College and received an E.L Wiegand Foundation Award for excellence in performance and choreography. In 2016, Peiling became Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Peiling’s research and creative interests have been focusing on movement improvisation, choreography, bicultural and hybrid movement, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She has received Endowment for the Humanities Award (in 2018), Junior Faculty Research Award (in 2018), Office of Chancellor for Research Award (2017 & 2018), Dean’s Travel Fund (in 2016, 2017 & 2018) from University of Hawaii. Peiling has been awarded one San Francisco Bay Area’s Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (in 2012) and nominated for another (in 2013). She is also a recipient of Lo Man-Fei Dance Fund from Cloud Gate Foundation in Taiwan (in 2016).
Peiling has danced in the company of Gerald Casel, Molissa Fenley, Christy Funsch, Nina Haft, Shinichi Iova-Koga, Katie Faulkner, Hope Mohr, Randee Paufve, and Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts in the U.S. She has taught Modern/contemporary dance technique, movement improvisation, choreography, and Taiwanese/Chinese folk dance as a visiting faculty and guest artist at Mills College, Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program and BFA program at Dominican University of California, Hollins University, UC Santa Cruz, Western Washington University, Austin Peay State University, California State University East Bay, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, and Chinese American International School in San Francisco.