Photo: Pari Naderi

Dance United is delighted to announce its new association with contemporary dance artist Dam Van Huynh

After a two-year residency at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Dam Van Huynh returns to the UK for a new period of intense research and development alongside Dance United. This association will allow invaluable exchanges of ideas and creative expertise driven by the shared vision of reaching new audiences through the arts. Alongside Dance United, Dam Van Huynh will strive to use contemporary dance as a medium to create and impact aspiring individuals through his innovative methodology of accessing dance, giving audiences memorable experiences and investing in research on the body and its capability.

Originally from Southern Vietnam, Dam Van Huynh was raised and educated in the United States. He received his BA in dance at the Boston Conservatory of Music and Dance. In his professional dance career, Dam has worked with various companies and choreographers including The Nevada Ballet, Merce Cunningham Dance Company – RUG, Portugal’s Companhia de Dança Contemporânea – CeDeCe, Richard Alston Dance Company and Phoenix Dance Theatre.

Dam founded his own company – Van Huynh Company – in 2008, the same year his entry Collision for The Place Prize received the audience choice every night for ten days, a record for The Place Prize. Soon afterwards he created his first full-length work Sudden Change of Event along with Mural Studies, touring it nationally and internationally. Dam was appointed Artist-in-Residence at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2010 and premiered some major works such as [Black Square] and Unexpectedly Here. 2010 also marked Dam’s first collaboration with Dance United alongside the Gemini Foundation, creating a new work for Adugna Dance Company in Ethiopia. A restaging of Unexpectedly Here with Dance United’s London Performance Company followed at the Lilian Baylis Studio.

Dam’s latest creations are ma ma ma… Mambo! and Now Illuminated. Amongst other commissions he also worked on a video project in collaboration with Nitin Sawhney, Es Devlin and onedotzero for a production supported by the British Film Institute. His choreographic works have been performed in the UK and internationally, and include commissions by Unlock Dancing Plaza (Hong Kong), the British Museum (UK), Fóramen M. Ballet (Mexico) and the Nouveau Chamber Ballet of Fullerton (USA).