Dance Theatre Group's Blog

A native of Taiwan, Chien-Hwe was introduced to movement as a small child when her parents put her in tai-chi classes at the very young age of 3.  She began ballet training under the direction of Irene Merrill and continued to fuel her love of dance in the Mid-Cape Ballet’s Nutcracker for 6 years and also won the title of Miss Dance of Cape Cod 1996.  Upon taking a master class with a member of the Ailey Repertory Ensemble, she fell in love with modern dance.  Chien-Hwe continued to pursue modern dance at The Ailey School Summer Intensive for 2 summers where she met and trained under Denise Vale, a former principal dancer of the Martha Graham Dance Company.  It only made sense that she would attend and graduate from The Ailey School/Fordham Bachelor in Fine Arts Degree Program.  While in New York, she performed as a guest student dancer at City Center for 3 years with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and was a soloist in the Ailey/Fordham Student Dancers where she performed works by Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, Francesca Harper, Kevin Wynn, Ronald K. Brown, Steve Rooks, Milton Myers, Celia Marino, Avila/Weeks, Nathan Trice/Rituals among others.  Other studies during and after college included attending Bates Dance Festival, Merce Cunningham School on summer scholarship and Alonzo King/LINES Ballet’s Professional Workshop.

Chien-Hwe has taught in Boston, Cape Cod and Hong Kong, performed in New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong and has had her work shown in Cape Cod, Boston, Los Angeles, New York and Hong Kong.  Along with founding 1,000 Virtues Dance, she co-founded and choreographs for c3~cambridge choreographers’ collective, received the Green Street Studios Emerging Artist Award 2012, made top 100 of So You Think You Can Dance 2009 of Boston and teaches at Green Street Studios.  Recent performance and choreography credits include ‘Experiment America’ at the Institute of Contemporary Art, guest performances with Philip Hamilton, showcase at RAW: Natural Born Artists Boston MIXOLOGY and Third Life Studios and new work premiering in this year’s first annual CHOREOFEST at The Dance Complex.  Also a certified yoga teacher, she incorporates a holistic approach to movement arts in her contemporary dance classes.