YOUR EX meets contemporary dancer Xin Ji as he prepares to bring Body Story to the Nelson Arts Festival — a work that asks what our bodies might remember, even when our minds have moved on.
Contemporary dance can sometimes feel like a world you need to decipher — but Xin Ji isn’t interested in being understood through explanation. He’s more interested in feeling. As Body Story arrives at the Nelson Arts Festival, Xin invites audiences into something deeper than a performance. He invites them into a listening of breath, of rhythm, of muscle memory.
“I started noticing how the body holds things long after the mind forgets,” he says. “Small memories, habits, even traces of places I’ve been. Body Story really began when I realised those invisible layers were shaping how I move, how I rest, and how I react.”
Born in Lanzhou, China, and later trained at both the Beijing Dance Academy and Unitec in Tāmaki Makaurau, Xin has become a quietly transformative force in Aotearoa’s dance landscape. His career has spanned major companies including Footnote, Okāreka, Muscle Mouth, Borderline Arts Ensemble, Movement of the Human, and the New Zealand Dance Company — but Body Story marks a turning point. A first major solo. A shift inward.
Bringing the work to Nelson feels personal to him. “Nelson has always had a special place for me. Every time I’ve performed at the Theatre Royal, it has felt like such a well-built community that truly values and supports the arts.” He talks about wandering through the Suter Gallery, lingering at weekend markets, watching potters and craftspeople at work. “Sharing Body Story there feels like offering something personal in a place that already knows how to hold it gently.”
Performing outside the big city arts circuits brings a different energy. “People come in with fewer preconceived ideas about me or what I do. The audience responds more instinctively and honestly, and that’s really refreshing. You get to step outside your usual bubble and see how the work lands.”
A key presence in the piece is musician Alistair Deverick, who performs live onstage throughout. His drumming isn’t background sound — it functions like a second body, pulsing beside Xin in real time. “It’s about letting the audience see how movement, sound and rhythm come together right there,” Xin says. “That layered energy can open the door for people who might not usually come to a contemporary dance show.”
Frequently described as a defining queer voice in New Zealand dance, Xin resists being framed as anything other than himself. “I don’t feel the need to explain queerness — it’s already in the way I create, the way I connect with people, and the way I see things. It’s just me being me, and that feels enough.”
He speaks as thoughtfully about the wider arts ecosystem as he does about choreography. “Support exists, but it’s pretty fragile. Many artists are just surviving between projects, and that instability really shapes the kind of risks we can take.” Recently awarded the Creative Fellowship from the Asian Artist Fund, he says the experience reminded him of what genuine backing feels like. “Real support means long-term trust, space to grow, fail, and evolve over time. More of that kind of backing would make a huge difference.”
For someone whose work draws directly from his own internal archive, his self-care remains remarkably gentle. “I’ll burn some incense at home while I stretch, or stop by my favourite café for something sweet. Little things like that — things that have nothing to do with dancing — remind me I’ve got a life outside of performing.”
Body Story arrives not as a proclamation, but as an invitation — a reminder that not everything needs explaining. Some stories live in the body, and that is more than enough.
Body Story will be performed at Nelson Theatre Royal as part of the Nelson Arts Festival on Saturday 25 October. Tickets from nelsonartsfestival.nz
Follow Xin Ji on Instagram @xin_with_ji
Photo | Jinki Cambronero
