Mui Cheuk-yin – choreographer, dancer, artistic director - has been at the forefront of dance in Hong Kong for over thirty years. After early training in Chinese classical and ethnic dance, she joined the Hong Kong Dance Company in 1981, where she was a principal dancer until 1990, excelling in lead roles in productions such as The Yellow Earth, Jade Love, and Rouge. Her choreographic journey began in 1985 when she won the Hong Kong Young Choreographer Competition which took her to New York to study modern dance. On her return to Hong Kong she created Awakenings in a Dream, Cursive Script, and the Diary Series, the most recent of which was created (and performed by her in 2010).

Ms Mui became an independent artist in the 1990s. Sponsored by the Asian Cultural Council, she participated in the International Choreographers’ Programme at the American Dance Festival, and performed at the East-West Center, University of Hawaii. She was regularly commissioned to create work for City Contemporary Dance Company (where she is currently Associate Choreographer), and the Hong Kong Dance Company. Her major works include Fragrant Garden, Water Music, E-motion, Quick as Silver, and Desperately Seeking Miss Blossom for which she received a Hong Kong Dance Award in 2009.

Ms Mui’s involvement with the Academy has been longstanding. She graduated from the Academy in 1999 with a BFA (Honours) in Dance, majoring in Modern Dance, and was commissioned to create her first work for the School of Dance in 2002 (Circle Songs). Then followed Celebrate (2004), Ambuscade (2005, in collaboration with Head of Chinese Dance Sheng Peiqi); reworked for the School’s 25th Anniversary season in May 2010), and Pulse (2005). In addition, Mui has involved the School in two successful collaborative performance projects with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (Bolero 2006), and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (The Mystic Realm 2010).

Ms Mui is also an internationally renowned solo artist. She has been invited to many international festivals, among them the Hong Kong Arts Festival (1994, 2001), the Belgium International Arts Festival (1994), Venice Biennale Dance Festival (1999), the Lyon Biennale de la Danse (2000), Dance Biennale Tokyo (2002), the 25th and 35th Anniversary of the Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal (1998, 2008), and the Images of Asia Festival in Copenhagen (2003). In 2000, she was invited by Bausch and the Folkwang Tanzstudio to choreograph Whispering Colour, and to perform as guest artist with Tanztheater Wuppertal in Bausch’s seminal Rite of Spring.

Ms Mui has won a number of significant awards in recognition of her achievements: she was named ‘Dance Ambassador’ in 2000, and received Hong Kong Dance Awards in 2001 and 2009 respectively. She was also named ‘Outstanding Woman’ by the Wai Yin Association (2001); and elected one of the Most Successful Women 2005 by the magazine Jessica. Most notably, she received the Chief Executive’s Commendation for Community Service in 2007. In 2012 Mui was awarded the Hong Kong Dance Alliance highest honour – the Distinguished Achievement Award for “her dedication and longstanding commitment to developing dance in Hong Kong”.