Culture & Choreography: A conversation with Yue Yin & Dominic Moore-Dunson at CATAC

Join us for a free conversation and informal movement showing as artists, Dominic Moore Dunson and Yue Yin discuss how their culture influences their choreography and creative process. This free event will give audience members the chance to listen to a moderated conversation and ask questions to gain more insight into the cultures of each artist and how they communicate about their cultures through their stories, movement styes and dance. Each artist will also show movement sections from upcoming dance works that are in progress and creation.

Registration in advanced is encouraged but not required.

About the Artists:

Dominic Moore-Dunson — 2025 Lloyd Richards New Futures Fellow (SDC Foundation) and Dance Magazine 25 to Watch — is an award-winning choreographer, director, and educator based in Akron, Ohio.

Dominic’s work spans regional and commercial theater, dance, and immersive performance, creating emotionally resonant, culturally rooted experiences that explore memory, identity, safety and belonging. Through Urban Midwest Storytelling, he also designs university residencies and workshops that empower the next generation of artists to combine creativity, and entrepreneurship.

His work has been presented nationally and featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Akron Beacon Journal. He is a 2024 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award recipient, 2024 Headlands Center for the Arts fellow and a former Associate Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

Dominic is the creator of signature works including the inCOPnegro Trilogy, The Remember Balloons National Tour, and The Block, a digital essay series blending storytelling, satire, and cultural reflection.

Yue Yin:

Artistic Director Yue Yin is a choreographer, founder and artistic director of YY Dance Company and the creator of FoCo Technique™. She began her training in Chinese classical and folk dance in Shanghai, China at the prestigious Shanghai Dance Academy, continued contemporary dance study at Shanghai Normal University and completed her MFA in dance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2008. In 2018, Yin founded YYDC, a non-profit contemporary dance company dedicated to the teaching, production and performance of her original choreographic work. Under her direction, the company has recently been presented by Women Move The World season at 92NY, the company also performed at New York Live Arts, Chelsea Factory, BAM Fisher. The company toured to international venues and was invited four times to perform at Schrittmacher Festival in Germany, Belgrade Dance Festival in Serbia. The company has visited Italy many times such as Oriente Occidente in Rovereto, Orsolina28 Creative residency in Moncalvo, Florence Dance Festival, theaters in Modena, Verona and Padova. In 2026, YYDC will engage the first domestic tour to Ohio with Mutual Dance and Dancecleveland.

Yin is the creator of her signature FoCo Technique™ which is a unique contemporary form of dance movement rooted in Chinese classical and folk dance melded with the complex and diverse influences of the immigrant experience. The form grows from Yin’s own blended international background and a deep appreciation for precision, contrast, fluidity and musicality.

Yue Yin was the recipient of the 2025 NYSCA/NAFA Artist Fellow in Choreography. 2021 Harkness Promise Award to recognize her innovation in choreography and education. In 2015, she was the winner of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago International Commissioning Project, winner of the BalletX Choreographic Fellowship, and an emerging choreographer in Springboard Danse Montreal. She was winner of Northwest Dance Project’s 5th Annual Pretty Creatives International Choreographic Competition in 2013. Yin’s work has been commissioned from acclaimed organizations such as Gibney Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, Oregon Ballet Theater, NW Dance Project, BalletMet, Boston Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Limon Dance Company, Alberta Ballet, Balletto Teatro di Torino, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Juilliard School for Dance, USC Kaufman School of Dance, Tisch School of The Arts, Princeton and more.

Grace Whitworth- YY Dance Rehearsal Director

Grace Whitworth was born in Eastlake, Ohio. She grew up dancing at The Fine Arts Association and by senior year of high school received the Outstanding Senior Award with a scholarship to attend the conservatory of her choice. Grace attended Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA and earned a BA in Ballet and Jazz studies. She was a proud recipient of the Nicole Marie Falbo Memorial Scholarship. After graduating, Grace moved to Chicago, IL and danced on scholarship at Lou Conte Dance Studio, (home of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago). Grace moved to NYC in 2011 and began dancing for 3 companies, YYDC, LaneCoArts and ABARUKAS. During her 14 years with YYDC, Grace has performed in the US and toured internationally to China, Germany, Italy, Brazil and Serbia. Grace is currently serving as Rehearsal Director and Stager of Yue Yin’s repertoire. She has restaged on Rutgers University, Joffrey school, George Mason University, Oregon Ballet Theater, San Francisco Dance Works and Houston Contemporary Dance Company to name a few. Grace is also one of two master teachers certified to teach FoCo Technique™ created by Yue Yin. In the past, Grace has assisted Yue Yin in commissions for Bruce Wood Dance, Alberta Ballet, Boston Dance Theater, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Dance Aspen, PA Ballet, Peridance, and BalletMet to name a few. At the collegiate level, Grace assisted Yue Yin during creation periods for Tisch NYU, Rutgers University, Barnard College, George Mason University, Western Michigan University, Arizona State University, Point Park University and most recently, Juilliard.

Across all platforms, his work sparks dialogue on culture while building a creative ecosystem where movement, storytelling, and leadership intersect.

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April 25, 2026, 10:00am

FREE: Contemporary with Yue Yin Dance Company

Idea Center

Enjoy a free contemporary dance class with NYC-based Yue Yin Dance Company in the Gund Dance Studio at the Idea Center! The class will take place Saturday, April 25 from 10 - 11:30 am and will start with a warmup, progress to moving across the floor, and end with students...

Free - RSVP