Shaoya Dong is a dance artist and educator. Her practice focuses on the long-term influence of movement training, pedagogy, and technical disciplines on how dancers exercise, learn, and understand themselves. Grounded in continuous technical practice, her work examines discipline, repetition, and technique as both physical training methods and cultural frameworks that shape knowledge.

Dong’s training draws from Chinese classical dance, Chinese folk dance, and ballet. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Studies from Huaqiao University in Xiamen, China, and has continued her professional development through formal ballet pedagogy training with the Beijing Dance Academy and study of the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus. Working across multiple training systems has shaped her interest in how distinct pedagogical structures produce specific bodily values, habits, and ways of understanding movement and authority within the studio.

As an educator, Dong has taught in schools and private studios in China and abroad. Her teaching emphasizes technical clarity, consistency of practice, and cultivating awareness in a structured training environment. She examines how teaching choices shape students’ long-term relationships with discipline, learning, and self-awareness in dance.

Dong is currently based in the United States, where she is completing a Master’s degree in Dance at Texas Woman’s University. Her research-informed practice focuses on identity and belonging in dance education, with particular attention to the experiences of Chinese American dance students. Through interview-based qualitative research, her work bridges pedagogy and scholarly inquiry, positioning dance training as a site where cultural identity is actively shaped and negotiated.