Shang-Chi Sun (Taiwanese, born 1977) is a Taiwanese choreographer. Since 2001 he lives in Berlin, Germany.

He was educated at the National Academy of Arts in Taiwan. There he studied contemporary dance, traditional chinese dance and classical ballet. In 2001 he left Taiwan and went to Germany for his artistic development. He started to collaborate with choreographers such as Lin Hwai-Min, Sasha Waltz, Daniela Kurz, Russel Mapliphant and others.

In 2007, he established the Shang Chi Sun Company in Taiwan.

In 2008 he earned the first award at the 12th International Solo Tanz Theatre Festival Stuttgart with his choreography „Dialog II“. The same year he performed that piece at Maison de la danse in Lyon, France.

In 2010, he graduated from the „Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch“, University of Arts Berlin with a Master of Arts in Choreography. 

He has created several works which have been presented in Europe and Asia e.g. at the Philharmonie Köln, Tanz im August Berlin, Festival d’Avignon France, International Taipei Arts Festival, Shizuoka Arts Festival Japan, Cité de la Musique (Paris), Taiwan International Fesitval of Arts, International Dance Festival Tel Aviv, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Neues Museum Nürnberg, and Leverkusen Bayer Kultur. 

He cooperated with other companies for commissioned works, among others with Sasha Waltz & Guests, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre 2 (Taiwan), with the Transitions Company London as well as the Dance Company of the City Theatre Osnabrück. 

In 2017 he created for the Taipei Fine Arts Museum a live exhibition piece „Perspicuum“. It questions how transparency can be interpreted by symbols which exist in our society.  

In 2018, he was invited as a guest professor at the National Arts University of Taiwan. The same year, he received The Distinguished Alumnus Awards from the National Arts University of Taiwan.

Awards

2005: Received "Bavarian Theatre and Literature Prize" from the IHK-Kulturstifung.
2008: Won "First Choreography Prize" at the 12th International Solo Tanz Festival Stuttgart.

Supports

2012: Traverse has been selected for the priority list of the European network Aerowaves 

Shang-Chi Sun collaborated with Senat Berlin, Goethe Institut, Cloud Gate Dance Foundation and the Culture Center of Taiwan in Paris.

This one-hour "track" does not end before the turbulences are evaporated and all movement turns back to peace. Morendo, danced abandonment of single tones builds up the final metaphor. Silence like at the beginning. But the outcome of this highly successful, the senses captivating evening is tragic.

Stefan Amzoll, Neues Deutschland, 11.07.2016 

Surface and space of movements / Improvisation

Starting from the inner space of the body, Shang Chi Sun extends the frame of movement in three dimensionality. Simple Tai Chi practices help to find the inner balance and to improve the consciousness for the body. Further exercises enable to explore the environment, the surfaces, and the forces and to use them for different kind and qualities of movements: levels, balance, intensity and extension. Shang Chi Sun combines ballet and contemporary dance technics as well as Tai chi to vary and to use consciously the “resonance” of movements. Finally improvisation based on everyday life experience gives the opportunity to play with these qualities and to use them in dance phrases.  

Energy, mind and body in movement

Energy and presence in movements are both a mirror of the mind. Dancing is an expression of the inner attitude that finds a translation through body and nerves. Shang Chi Sun uses this experience and proposes a dance technic combining body and mind as well as occidental and oriental body practices. First the consciousness and the inner balance are improved through simple Tai chi exercises. Then the action field of the body is widened to the surrounding space. Point after point lines and directions are being built and used to work on variable extension and energy of movement. The body is used as a whole to experience a better movement dynamic.