As we prepare to enter the next millennium, the need to further develop global communication in the arts becomes more urgent. In a general sense, globalism refers to our contemporary world, a world dominated by the capitalist market and the multinational companies, a world in which the national boundaries are increasingly blurred by commodity flows and movements of people, such as migrations and tourism. But at the same time, our world is still marked by differences in culture, belief systems, lifestyles, and political ideologies. The arts not only describe differences but articulate identities.
Dance is an agent for global communication and understanding.
It is the expression and embodiment of the total human being, and an art form that crosses all boundaries. Lan-Lan Wang is the chair of the dance department at Connecticut College. Born in Taiwan, she came to the United States at the age of fourteen. She was one of the first American modern dancers to teach and perform in China after the Cultural Revolution in 1978. In 1980 she founded the United States - China Dance Exchange Program at the University of Iowa, which she directed for many years.