Artists
Bih-Tau Sung, Founder and Artistic Director
Bih Tau Sung is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Dancing Sun Foundation, and is an acclaimed interpreter and choreographer of ballet, modern, and traditional Chinese dance opera techniques.
Her professional career started in 1974 when she was recruited to join the prestigious Cloud Gate Dance Theater, Taiwan’s first professional modern dance company. In the decade that followed, she performed, instructed, choreographed and danced with recognition throughout major artistic centers in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
Bih Tau independently continued her artistic quest after she moved to Cupertino in 1986. In addition to receiving her MA in Dance Emphasis from San Jose State University, she is also a certified Pilates instructor and Laban Movement Analyst, and has taught private and college level classes. In 1999, Bih Tau founded the Dancing Sun Foundation where she is the artistic director and has performed in the San Jose Downtown Arts Series and San Jose Performing Arts Series. In support of Dancing Sun Foundation, she has received numerous awards and grants.
Awards include:
- Artist Fellowship from Jose Limon Dance Company of New York
- Artist Fellowship from Arts Council Silicon Valley of San Jose
- Outstanding Creativity Choreography Project from sjDANCEco
- Graduate Fellowship from San Jose State University
- Excellence in Dance from San Jose State University
Grants include:
- Project & Program Grant form San Jose Office of Cultural Affair
- Organization Development Grant from San Jose Office of Cultural Affair
- Community Arts Fund from Arts Council Silicon Valley
- Organizational Effectiveness Grant from Community Foundation Silicon Valley
- Project Mini-Grants from City of San Jose
She was invited to many national and international dance festivals and conferences, including
- DANCE ON’97 International Dance Festival in Hong Kong
- 2000 FEET International Dance Festival in Philadelphia
- 2004 International Dance Conference of Taipei
- Festival of Austronesian Cultures in Taitung Taiwan 2004
- WestWaveDanceFestival.2005 of San Francisco
- 2006-2007 Taiwanese American Cultural Festival, Union Square, SF.
Her dance works have twice been awarded by the
- Southwest Regional American College Dance Festival Association and earned a
- First place award by the State Dance Competition of Taiwan and
- Overall Recreation Division Championship in American’s Great Dance Competition, Showstopper in San Mateo, CA.
She has also been working as a guest instructor and a commissioned choreographer for various dance organizations including Cliff Keuter’s New Dance Company of San Jose, Asian American Dance Collective of San Francisco, Limon West Dance Project in San Jose, San Jose State University, Chinese-American Association of Minnesota (Dance Theatre) from Minnesota State Arts Board, Kaohsiung Lin-Ya Junior High of Taiwan, West Valley Community College and The Colorado College.
Currently, she teaches ballet and modern dance at San Jose City College. In addition to professional and college teaching experiences, she has taught more than a thousand children and adults since she started the Bih-Tau School of Dance in 1986.
Guest Artists
Jin-Wen Yu, Guest Artist
Jin-Wen Yu, Ed.D & MFA, Professor and chair of the Dance Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has created, performed, directed, and produced more than 100 works for the stage in Americas and Asia, including 40 commissioned works for professionals and institutes. Dr. Yu has also presented, performed, and taught at many national and international dance festivals and conferences including those in Almada/Portugal, Buenos Aires/Argentina, Taipei/Taiwan, Seoul/Korea, Guangzhou/China, Hong Kong/China, and Tokyo/Japan, Mexico City/Mexico, Toronto/Canada, Salvador/Brazil, among others.
He founded Jin-Wen Yu Dance Company at Madison in 1999. The company has performed Dr. Yu’s full evening works in major cities across the United States including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Eugene, Oregon. Dr. Yu has received numerous grants, honors, commissions, residencies, and awards such as the Outstanding Dance Artist Award from Taiwan, Wisconsin Arts Board Choreographer Award, the first Madison CitiARTS Commission Signature Grant, Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment, Chinese Information and Culture Center in New York among others. He was honorably invited to perform in United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to celebrate International Dance Day in 2005. He is chairing the Network of Creation and Presentation of World Dance Alliance-Americas and will present his work in Brisbane/Australia this coming summer.