Duke Dance and AADS Host Screening of Jingqiu Guan’s Award-Winning “Mama Dancers"

On September 18th, Duke’s Asian American & Diaspora Studies (AADS) Program and Dance Program co-sponsored the screening of the documentary film "Mama Dancers" at the Rubenstein Arts Center Film Theater. 

Mama Dancers, co-directed by Assistant Professor of the Practice of Dance Jingqiu Guan and Yang Tao, received the “Outstanding Documentary Film Award” in July at the Beijing Dance Festival and “Asian Premiere & Recipient of Outstanding Documentary Award” in August at the Manifest Dance-Film Festival, the biggest film festival in Asia. The documentary features a diverse group of six professional dancers and their children as they navigate the challenges of motherhood alongside their demanding dance careers. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with co-director Jingqiu Guan, hosted by Professor Susan Thananopavarn, the director of the AADS Program.

As a dancer and a mother herself, Guan has observed that dance is an integral part of life, as children often move their bodies naturally to the rhythm. In creating this film, Guan wanted to observe how other mother dancers experience motherhood and explore this “hybrid identity” that may foster new forms of creativity. 

Oftentimes, especially in Asian countries like China and South Korea, professional female dancers feel compelled to abandon their dance careers after getting married. Guan believes that the film adds an urgent voice to this pressing issue. Through Mama Dancers, she hopes to inspire dialogues to advocate for motherhood in dance, unite mothers in professional dance careers, challenge the stereotype that pregnancy leads to retirement from the industry, and call for changes. 

At the Beijing Dance Festival, many in the audience were touched and brought to tears by the film. Guan said, “If [the film] touches one person, it’s enough.”