Taiwan’s most prominent and virtuosic dance export, Fang Yi Sheu, has in the last decade focused her efforts on developing modern dance culture in her home country, forming Fang Yi Sheu & Artists as a platform for collaboration between international and local artists, as well as a place to feature her own choreography.

After 15 years with the Martha Graham Dance Company—11 of which were spent as its principal dancer—she returned to Taiwan in late 2006 to form LAFA & Artists, the same year she became the first Asian artist-in-residence at the Barishnikov Dance Center in New York.

Disbanding LAFA in 2010, Sheu was at a crossroads in her life when director Ang Lee encouraged her to take a chance on something new. She established Fang Yi Sheu & Artists in 2011 and Body Art, a dance studio that advocates embracing and understanding one’s physical form, in 2012. Sheu has also appeared in films, including Touch of the Light (2012) and The Assassin (2015).

Fang-Yi Sheu’s masterful and iconic 2010 performance of “Oneness” was featured in Salute, a documentary dedicated to her illustrious career. The film had a theatrical release in Taiwan in November 2022, and has been selected at the Taipei Golden Horse Festival. The star of the film received an award for Best Action Choreography.