Early Career & Foundation
1990-1993
"Kun-Yang Lin's brilliant work fertilizes the Taiwan's modern dance, which has been waiting for an evolution for a long time. The Yin and Yang balanced perfectly in Lin's work that brings a whole new vision to us." - Taiwan Ming -Shen Daily News
"Inventive and incisive choreography." - Taiwan Ming -Shen Daily News
"Lin's dance is unique... in every way unforgettable." - World Journal
This evocative work reframes the Genesis myth through the lens of modern queer identity. The "forbidden fruit" is not a sin, but a radical act of self-discovery. Biting the apple becomes the liberating moment he chooses his true sexuality over a prescribed life, leaving behind the garden of family expectations to claim his unapologetic place in the world.
La Folia
Premiere: 1991. Time: 17 min. Dancers: 9
Music: Gregorio Paniagua
Costume Design: Kun-Yang Lin
Lighting Design:
Sweet, Racked, Meat
Premiere: 1993. Time: 18 min. Dancers: 6
Music: Tomaso Albinoni, Carter USM, Diamanda Galas, Michael Nyman
Costume Design: Kun-Yang Lin
Lighting Design:
Set to Gregorio Paniagua’s avant-garde, chaotic reimagining of the Baroque masterpiece La Folia (meaning "madness"), this work explores a choreographer's obsessive journey toward artistic breakthrough. Moving through historical structure into uninhibited sonic chaos, the dance becomes a vital medium for communication. It documents a young artist’s liberating realization of his queer identity—using the unpredictable, accelerating rhythm of the music to shatter cultural silence and speak boldly through movement.
Rose Garden
Premiere: 1991. Time: 8 min. Dancers: 1
Music: Pauline Oliveros
Costume Design: Kun-Yang Lin
Lighting Design:
“Rose Garden - "Lin possesses a dazzling combination of strengths, a gut sense of how to convert steps into emotion without forsaking technique that's mesmerizing to watch." - Nicole Peradotto, The Buffalo News
Songs My Mother Taught Me
Premiere: 1990. Time: 5 min. Dancers: 1
Music: Dvorak/Kreisler Opus # 4
Costume Design: Kun-Yang Lin
The work explores the profound architecture of our upbringing and the quiet breakthroughs that reshape us. The piece traces a critical spiritual evolution: the awakening of a "spiritual mother" within the choreographer. As childhood memory gives way to artistic maturity, a new relationship with dance is born. The performance serves as a moving testament to creative lineage—a dance not just of looking back at who raised us, but of stepping forward into who we are meant to become.
"Kun-Yang Lin's choreography is a true expression of his personality, full of rich, delicate feeling and unique vision." -- Times Weekly
"Inventive and incisive choreography." - Taiwan Ming -Shen Daily News
Male & Female - "Powerful, daring, a smash hit... it breaks the cultural and gender barriers." - Performing Arts Review
Jazz Music of Mondrian
Premiere: 1989. Time: 5 min. Dancers: 1
Music: Silence
Costume Design: Kun-Yang Lin
What does rhythm look like without sound? The Jazz Music of Mondrian is a striking contemporary dance piece that translates the iconic canvas of Piet Mondrian into physical architecture. Performed in absolute silence, the work strips away audible melody to expose the internal, syncopated soul of jazz through pure line, space, and movement texture. Dancer navigate the stage like living brushstrokes, slicing through the void with geometric precision and sudden, staccato freezes.
Male & Female
Premiere: 1990. Time: 12 min. Dancer: 2
Music: Meredith Monk/Ralph Gilbert Friedrich Costume Design: Kun-Yang Lin
Lighting Design: