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Talented person is talented everywhere. We can say the same about Yang Wang, a gifted dancer and photographer from Kunming, China.
His long journey as a successful professional dancer, from lead dancer at No. 2 Artillery Art Troupe of China People’s Liberation Army to France’s world renowned Ballet Preljocaj, led him to photography.
Yang embarked on his career as a photographer from 2006. He realised “Living Dance”, a series of his early works, and later an album under the same title was published by, the French publisher Seguier.
In 2011, Yang started fashion photography and has since collaborated with major magazines such as GQ, Vogue and ElleMen in China.
YOU HAVE A HUGE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AS A DANCER. CAN YOU SHARE A BIT ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND? HOW DID YOU GET INTO PHOTOGRAPHY?
THERE IS A CONNECTION TO DANCE IN YOUR WORKS. IS IT TRUE THAT BEING A DANCER IS LIKE A STATE OF MIND?
I have been trained and worked as a dancer for almost 30 years since I was 12 years old, so movement is in my blood. I am better at expressing through my body language than words. Dance is part of me.
IN YOUR WORK, THROUGH MOVEMENT, YOU PRAISE THE BEAUTY OF THE BODY. WHAT ATTRACTS YOU TO IT?
You work on your body from the day you started to dance until the day you die. We have to learn how our muscles control our bodies to move, to speak. This body, when we let it speak, is full of a profound energy, beyond races or physical borders. For me, the human body is the most beautiful thing on earth and each body is unique. Each muscle just like each movement performed is unique. That’s the reason why my work is all nude, because I want to show the beauty of each muscle and each person. I don’t want to cover it !
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BODY POSITIVITY?
I believe in body positivity. I do work out everyday, whether I accept myself or not, is to stay healthy! After what we have been in 2020, we all understand how a healthy life, body is important to us. Sitting at home, eating , watching TV is not healthy, is not about accepting yourself, I believe a lot of people are not about accepting themselves. Doing sports, moving my body become drugs for me, if I don’t sweat, if I don’t go to gym, I will feel my body like the kneaded paper, only after I finish exercising, I feel like a flat paper, very light, and ready to start painting on it!
HOW DOES YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A DANCER HELP YOU IN THE PROCESS OF WORKING WITH YOUR MODELS?
As a dancer, I know exactly what I want. I give the dancers the directions of what I want easily. We can understand each other much better than with other photographers, I guess. And I am looking for something different from other photographer’s works also. I am more looking for energy. Sometimes, I don’t want a perfect jump, or positions. I am interested to see what the dancer can create through different movements from point A to point B. When we are working, I always ask the dancer to improvise from the directions I gave them. I will see what they can give me, then I will ask them to redo the movement I liked by photographing them from the right angles.
AMONG YOUR PHOTO SERIES, WHICH ONE IS THE MOST SPECIAL TO YOU AND WHY?
WHICH FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH?
IN ADDITION TO YOUR ART PROJECTS YOU ALSO DO FASHION SHOOTS. YOU PHOTOGRAPHED THE DESIGNER ALBERT ELBAZ FOR CHINESE VOGUE. TELL US ABOUT THIS EXPERIENCE.
YOUR SERIES OF PHOTOS IN SPAIN, AT MURALLA ROJA, IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. COULD YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THIS PHOTO SHOOT?
I have always loved Architecture, I think they have given me a lot of inspiration , the forms. When I saw the images of Muralla Roja for the first time, I was amazed immediately by the colors, and the way how Ricardo Bofill created and separated the space. And it has become the destination of my project since . After Covid blocked the world for two years, I finally got the chance to go there with one dancer to make my dream come true . But it was like everything else, meaning nothing came easily. We have been talking and imagined what and where we can shoot, and how the movement should be like. But nothing is like what we thought once we got there. First , there is not enough space for the dancer to move around or dance like I always ask them to. The corridor is too narrow, the stairs are intricately intertwined, which is something I have never seen before. I start asking the dancer to dance, move as much as he can to be closer to what I was asked him to do. And at the same time, I am trying to imagine and to play with space , to make gravitational illusions. Here we are, my new work “Inception“.
I rented an apartment in the Muralla Roja for a week. The first 2,3 days we will study the location, space, and sunlight of course. And we were also doing some fashion shoots there for Arabian Mode fashion magazine, which allow us to take time to be at the place at the right time, to make it fast because after all, there are still people living inside, we don’t wanna become the center of attention.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT ANY EXCITING UPCOMING PROJECTS?
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