Moving Dragon is a Vancouver-based contemporary dance company that emphasizes cross-cultural exploration. Founded in 2004 by Chengxin Wei and Jessica Jone, the company seeks to journey through dance, stemming from traditional Asian roots and blooming towards contemporary thought. Along this journey, the body itself becomes a bridge between East and West. Moving Dragon has been featured at a variety of dance events, including the Dancing on the Edge Festival, the Dance Centre, Dances for a Small Stage, Dance Allsorts, the InFrinGinG Dance Festival in Nanaimo, and CorresponDANSE in Quebec City. Its repertoire of original contemporary cross-cultural work includes Yuan, Interplay, Triaspora and LuminUS.
Jessica was born in Vancouver, and received her early Chinese dance training from her mother, Lorita Leung. She later went on to train professionally in Chinese classical and folk dance at the Beijing Dance Academy, and the Guangdong Dance School in China. She is also a graduate of the contemporary dance program at Simon Fraser University. Jessica is an accomplished dancer who has won numerous awards for performance and choreography including the Chairman’s Award at the Fourth Peach and Plum Dance Competition in Beijing, and two Best Choreography Awards at the North American Chinese Dance Competition. She is the vice-principal of the Lorita Leung Dance Academy, and a much sought-after guest teacher throughout British Columbia who has taught master classes at Simon Fraser University, the Dancers Transition Resource Centre, the Canadian Dance Teachers Association, Goh Ballet Academy, and the Dance Centre. She was a guest choreographer for Runaway Moon Theatre Company’s production of By the River, and has collaborated with Silk Road Music Ensemble and Mandala Arts and Culture Society.
A native of Dalian, China, Chengxin graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy in 1997, where he studied classical Chinese dance for eleven years. He subsequently worked for three years as principal dancer of the Guangdong Provincial Dance Theatre. Since moving to Vancouver in 2000, Chengxin has appeared with numerous dance companies including Anatomica, Company Erasga, EDAM, Joe Ink, Judith Marcuse Projects, the Lorita Leung Dance Company, Mandala Arts and Culture, MovEnt, and Wen Wei Dance. Hailed as a “powerhouse performer”(Georgia Straight), Chengxin also danced with Ballet British Columbia for six seasons, where he appeared in works by John Alleyne, Agnes De Mille, Dominique Dumais, Nicolo Fonte, Mark Godden, James Kudelka, Jiri Kylian, Crystal Pite, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, and Peter Wyss, among others. In 2007, Chengxin was the recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award. He is also the 2009 recipient of the David Leighton Arts Fellowship Award, administered by the National Arts Centre.