Born in Chongqing, Tao Ye is a graduate of the Chongqing Dance School in China. After dancing with the Shanghai Army Song & Dance Ensemble, he joined Shanghai Jin Xing Dance Theater, and later moved to Beijing to join the Beijing Modern Dance Company (BMDC). In 2008, at the age of 23, Tao Ye founded TAO Dance Theater. His main works include: “Numerical Series” – Weight x 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14; “Non-numerical Series” – Contrast; “Arts Live” Series – 12 Hours and Infinite Walking.
Inspired by Oriental thought, Tao Ye developed Circular Movement System in combination with his own style of dance. This system enjoys a high reputation internationally. At the age of 27, he was invited to perform at Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. He was named Sadler’s Wells 2011-2013 “New Wave Associates”. Tao Ye was also invited to collaborate on-site with the Y-3 Brand by Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, create production with Cloud Gate Theatre and star in the film Blue Sky Bones directed by Cui Jian. He has been invited to cross-disciplinary collaborations such as film, theatre, fashion design, video, photography and etc.
Tao Ye consistently signifies his choreography with minimalistic style, repetition and restriction. His creative concepts include: focusing on the grooves of the spine while removing the movements of dancers’ limbs, replacing the accompanying soundtrack with live vocals from the dancers seeking to make the dancers become a “mobile sound system”, restricting dancers’ bodies on the dance floor seeking to limit the vision in two dimensions, naming his works simply with numbers, and etc. His concepts were acclaimed“definitely on the cutting edge” and are very challenging for dancers and spectators.