Biography
Dong Jilan is a female dancer from the Bai ethnic group, one of China's minority nationalities. At the age of eleven, she was discovered by renowned Chinese dancer Yang Liping for her outstanding dance and singing talents. She joined Yang Liping's dance company and gradually became one of the most senior and accomplished performers in the company, frequently taking on lead roles in Yang's works, including Dynamic Yunnan, Peacock, Under Siege, Peacock in Winter, and The Rite of Spring.
Over more than two decades on stage, the dance productions in which she has performed or starred have accumulated over 2,000 performances, with her starring works alone touring more than 200 shows worldwide. She has never received a formal academic dance education, yet had the privilege of systematic dance training and study under Yang Liping's personal mentorship.
Her collaborations include stage and moving-image work with Tim Yip, Chen Shizheng, Tan Dun, James Lavelle, Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones. Her own works connect contemporary dance with Bai cultural memory, field research, sound, land, and the body.
In 2018, her solo work The Bawang Whip, under the artistic direction of Akram Khan, received a commission from the Shanghai International Arts Festival. In 2019, she was nominated for the Emerging Artist Award at the UK National Dance Awards. In 2024, A Yang Bai received a commission from the China Dancers Association's Young Artists Cultivation Program.