Dancer, Made in China

If you took a trip down to Tisch School of the Arts to watch dance classes, you might be surprised to find a red head teaching Chinese dance to a class of mostly Asians. Aly Rose is a well known dancer and choreographer based in New York who honed her skills in China. Having lived there for over 12 years, is fluent in Mandarin. She is also the first Westerner to graduate from the Beijing Dance Academy, Asia's finest dance institution. 

Her art is called "human architecture" and her most recent piece is called ONE.Thirty harnessed dancers, suspended by pencil thin, moving, computer operated cables, perform in mid-air. Together, the dancers create one immense - and constantly shifting shape in the sky. Yet, as Rose points out, "There's never one person who's moving the same as another. It's a symbol of the relationship between the individual and the collective. Just as we are on this planet, together. Not only are we interdependent, but also our actions and beliefs affect others. As a Baha'i, the concept of oneness is something I wanted to explore."

ONE is scheduled to have its premier this July, at the Shanghai Expo.