Selected Q & A with audience
Q: What is your favorite dance?
A: My dances are like my children, every dance I have worked on for over a thousand times. I love them all, and everyone is different. I wonder what is your favorite dance?
Q: What is in your mind when you are dancing?
A: On stage I become two different selves. One is the character I am dancing who is listening to the music that drives me further into the mood of the dance. The other self is a director who controls and justifies each moment of my dance including stage positioning and musical timing and adjustment to the lighting.
Q: Do you want to learn some other folk dances of America and perform them?
A: I love to know and learn the wonderful folk dances in the United State by seeing their performances, but I am not going to create an American folk dance to perform, because I am not compatible with them in the performing world. I was born and grew up and studied dance in China. I am dancing the dance style I am familiar with, that is what I am here for. China has so many beautiful dance styles that I could never have enough time to dance them. You would not to be here to see Yu Wei dance America Jazz.
Q: Would do you like to dance with other dancers, or to form a dance company?
A: I wish I could to dance with other dancers for some dance, but it would have a lot of paper work to keep a group of dances. And solo dance is an art form, which is the most beautiful and deepest art from to me. After years I’ve been search for the solo dance art, my life and my dance are become in one and I am very enjoy the feeling alone on stage. Dance companies are many many in this world, but solo dance collection are very few.
Q: What the dance companies are you like the most in the United States?
A: I love the Bill T. Jones Dance Company, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and the North River Chicago Dance Company; in Philadelphia I love Philadanco Dance Company, The Eleanor Dance Theater, The Koresh Dance Company. I also love America ballet and African American folk dance very much.
Q: Are you teaching?
A: I teach when I am touring. My presenters arrange dance classes for all level students. I don’t have my own teaching class in Philadelphia because I do not have the ability to schedule regular times as I am traveling a lot. Performing is a hard and complicated job, a lot of time is spent on preparation, development of new material, and promotion. This would interfere with a regular teaching schedule.
Q: How many performances in a year?
A: I have about 40-50 performances yearly including concert and school performances.
Q: Where have you performed in the United States?
A: I have visited more than half the United States. I have been to New England, and the North East coastal states, of course Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, then South & North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Washington, Indiana, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Louisiana, Montana, New York and Washington DC, and especially Ohio. I have performed a lot in Ohio.
Q: Have you been returned to China?
A: Yes, I have visited China in 2006, 2009, and 2010 since I came to America in 2000. In 2009 I was invited to perform for the Chinese New Year in Jia yuguan, Gansu province.
Q: Do you miss your family in China?
A: I miss my mother and call her often, if I have a big free space of time I fly to China to stay with her and cook good meals for her. But my career is in America.
Q: Why did you want to come to America?
A: I had a big dream when I was a dance student I wanted to be one of the most beautiful dancers in the world. I wanted to dance exactly what my heart wanted to dance. I admire America’s freedom and the opportunity it provides for people like myself to set high goals and meet new challenges. My dream now is near to becoming real.
