Poetic Body: A Movement Practice by Chih-Jou Cheng
Poetic Body: A Movement Practice by Chih-Jou Cheng
Poetic Body is an embodiment-based movement master class that explores how the body carries emotion, memory, and cultural inheritance. Rooted in Chih-Jou Cheng’s creative practice and inspired by her ancestral traditions, this class approaches movement as a living system—where body, breath, story, and spirit are interconnected.
This class is designed for movers who want to deepen embodied awareness, expand expressive range, and reconnect movement to inner truth rather than external form alone.
Participants will work with core movement principles:
· Breath – as the source of initiation and phrasing
· Mind-body Connection– listening inward and outward
· Tension & release – shaping emotional texture
· Timing & rhythm – internal and relational pacing
· Weight– presence and support
· Energy exchange – sensing connection with others
Class Structure
· Qigong-inspired grounding practice to quiet down, root and listening to within
· Embodiment-based exploration to generate movement from sensation and emotion
· Partner exercises to deepen awareness of connection between self and others
· Short movement phrase to integrate principles into dynamic form
· Guided improvisation to apply the practice in a personal, expressive way
Poetic Body invites you to move with presence, explore with curiosity, and embody what words alone cannot say.
Open to curious movers of all backgrounds.
This class welcomes dancers, theatre artists, and movement practitioners from diverse training paths.
Chih-Jou Cheng(程之柔) is a Taiwanese movement artist, physical theatre creator, and puppeteer based in Chicago. Her performance credits include Left Hand of Darkness(by Tom Lee & Edward Einhorn, at International Chicago puppet fest), RHINOCEROS (by KT Shivak at Here Arts Center), The Dream King (Teatro Vista), The King and I (Drury Lane), and A Chorus Line as Connie (Metropolis), as well as work with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Roughhouse Theatre, and Chicago International Puppet Fest. Her original works include Hold Your Hand, Above the Water, and Lost & Found. Her work has been supported by the Ragdale Foundation, DCASE, and the Chicago Cultural Center Dance Studio Residency. She is a recipient of the Chicago Arts & Health Pilot for Creative Workers, the Princess Grace Honoraria & Princess Grace Fellowship, and the 3 Arts Award in Dance. For more of Cheng’s work: www.chihjou-cheng.com