About Our Artistic Director
Our
artistic director, Jun
Lu, is an award-winning choreographer, performing artist and
dance instructor. In 1988, Ms. Lu won a silver medal in
the premier national "TaoLi" Cup professional dance competition
in China and was featured in the CCTV's "The Rising Star"
program. Since then, Ms. Lu has won many national and
international gold and silver awards in choreography,
performance, teaching, and public service. And as an outstanding
Chinese folk dance artist, Ms. Lu has been invited to tour and
perform in more than 15 Europe and Asia countries representing
China. Ms. Lu was also a principle dancer of the famous Chinese
Youth Dance Troupe and the Singapore People's Association Dance
Company. Detailed information can be found in her curriculum
vitae.
Ms Lu has a rich teaching experience. She has taught dance
and choreography in the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy, the
Singapore Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, the LaSalle-Sia College
of Arts, the Hongkong Dance Company, the J&L Dance School in the
past 15 years. Some of her students have also won awards
in national and
international dance competitions. Ms. Lu's unique,
creative, caring, and effective teaching style was also
manifested by the "Outstanding Teacher" award she received from
the Singapore Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Ms.Lu's teaching and choreography covers Chinese dance, Ballet,
Jazz, and Flamenco. In her class, Ms. Lu not only
emphasizes basic techniques, but also encourages passion and
creative thinking.
As an outstanding choreographer, Ms. Lu has choreographed
more than 20 solo and group dances, among which "The Fan"
received the "Best Choreography" award at the 1999 Asia-Pacific
International Dance Competition held in Singapore, "The
Yellow River" and "The Dance of Singapore" were awarded the gold
and the silver medals in the "Best Choreography" category at the
2000 Singapore Youth Festival Dance Contest. Her choreograph
work has been staged in many countries. For instance, "The
Fan" has been staged many times in Singapore and Japan; "Melody
of Western China" has been staged in China, Singapore, and the
United States.
Here are some commendations in the national media about Ms.
Lu work:
"...Ms. Lu's solo Poetic
Perfection portrays a woman's highly suppressed inner
feeling in such a humble and helpless way it captured
everyone's heart... She communicated with the audience
through dancing and made this highly difficult solo look
so elegantly effortless ..."
---
United Morning News (1/4/1997), Singapore |
"... while scattering flower pedals, she contemplates the
brevity of life and becomes slightly disturbed when she
realizes that all things comes to an end eventually... The
dancer believes that her art cannot be expressed in any
other way than dancing... her simple dignity of movement
can fulfill the function of volume of words..."
--- The
Straits Times (6/13/1997) about her performance of The
Falling Flowers |
Ms.
Lu also has held numerous workshops and talks at many arts
schools, dance companies, and public art promotion events
in various countries. For instance, in 1998, Ms. Lu held a very
successful "Dance: from Classical to Modern" workshop in
Singapore to showcase her choreography with the Singapore
Hokien Arts & Cultural Troupe; in 2000, she organized a workshop
"Dance in Society" with the St. Paulo Dance Company in
Indonesia; in 2002, she was invited by the Young Audience of
Houston to help develop an education program "Dance and Music of
China" to cultivate an appreciation of cultural diversity in the
community.
Ms. Lu holds dance performance and dance education degrees
from the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy and the Queensland
University of Science and Technology.
Major Awards:
Silver Medal in Performance [Teens group], the second National TaoLi Cup
Professional Dance Competition(1988)
Silver Medal [First place in the women's group] in folk dance performance,
the third National TaoLi Cup Professional Dance Competition
(1991)
The "Mountain Everest" Award from the Chinese Ministry of
Culture (1991)
Silver Medal [First place in the women's group] in the 3rd
Chinese National Dance Competition (1995)
Best Performance Award in the Beijing Dance Competition (1995)
"Best Choreography" Award in the Asia-Pacific International
Dance Competition (1999)
"Best Performance" Award in the Asia-Pacific International Dance
Competition (1999)
Gold Award in Best Choreography in the Singapore Youth Festival
Dance Contest (2000)
Silver Award in Best Choreography in the Singapore Youth
Festival Dance Contest (2000)
Outstanding teacher award from the Singapore Nanyang Academy of
Fine Arts (2000)
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