'YIBU DANCE' is a production entity founded in 2019 by the Kurt Jooss prize winning choreographer couple Chun Zhang and Kai Strathmann, to present their artistic creations and research, share their choreography based, cross-disciplinary 'moving' life style. 'Yibu, Yibu', means step by step in Chinese.  Instead of making dance steps to interpret themes or stories, they start from the fundamental elements in movement composition, so that it became an independent art form, or, some new forms come out. Their works are neither dance theater or contemporary ballet; concepts and art craft are here both and one: personality, liveliness and spirituality through original, minimalist, concentrated choreographic handwriting.

Since 2015, the first day of their master study in choreography in the Folkwang University of Arts, Chun and Kai started to work and create together as a team. Their graduate productions with the Folkwang Tanzstudio are both nominated by the renowned Kurt Jooss Preis in 2019, Chun won the final prize with her piece 'Being Far Away From'. In the same year, they founded YIBU DANCE, bases in NRW, Germany. YIBU DANCE not only presents their individual works, but also their collaborative works.

 © Niklas Hlawatsch