A case study from the Asian Artists’ Fund 2025
This year’s Dance and Movement Artists in Residence — Weichu Huang, Lulu Qiu and Sasha Matsumoto — studied together at UNITEC, graduating during the lockdowns, but had never made a work together.
They had also never made a full-length work before, and the residency offered the opportunity to not only test a new collaboration, but to develop their choreographic voice. Over four weeks at Te Oro, mentored by choreographer Xin Ji, they developed Don’t Cry Baobei, a work exploring the experiences of immigrant daughterhood while growing up in a digital age. Physical closeness and care were explored as a paradoxical allegory for parasocial relationships and technologically-driven disconnection.
“I’ve been in lots of other people’s ideas, so it was exciting to ask: what do we want to explore,” says Lulu. Weichu found the experience opened their practice: “I feel like new potentials have opened in my thought pathways, in terms of where I can go creatively.”
For all three, the residency offered something early-career artists rarely get: time without pressure to produce. "It’s special to have time for curiosity and play," Lulu reflects. "That's the biggest thing I've taken away."
The Asian Artists' Fund (AAF) Residencies offer artists dedicated time and space to experiment, explore, and develop new work, with support from a mentor of their choosing.
