Zhenhao Wen

About

Zhenhao Wen is a performer, researcher, photographer, and educator.

He is a Ph.D. student in Performance Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His research examines how bodies produce knowledge through movement, improvisation, image-making, and teaching.

His creative work focuses on bodies that are ordinary, unfinished, or overlooked, and on how performance and images can keep their experience visible.

Dance Films

Dance films, 2022–present. Watch completed films and previews of new work.

Facing the Mirror

Dance film, 9:30

Starring: Qi Zhang
Sound Composition: Yunxin An
Stage & Lighting: Evan M. Ge
Director: Zhenhao Wen

Entry processed; judging pending — Accolade Global Film Competition, United States (FilmFreeway status: Selected, 2026)

Official Selection — RTV International Film Festival 2026, Canada

Best Psychological Film & Best Musical/Dance Film — Hollywood Stage Script Film Competition, United States, October 2026

Selected — MORPHÉ Film Festival 2027, Ukraine · Experimental/New Media

Award announcements

Hollywood International Indie Film and Screenplay Awards winner announcement for Facing the Mirror by Zhenhao Wen, Best Musical/Dance Film — Winner · Best Musical/Dance Film

Hollywood International Indie Film and Screenplay Awards winner announcement for Facing the Mirror by Zhenhao Wen, Best Psychological Film — Winner · Best Psychological Film

Until I Say Stop

Dance film · In progress

Director, Editor & Producer: Zhenhao Wen
Composer: Yunxin An
Starring: Maelynn Ferrell, Eleanor Liʻulā Svaton, Emily Johnston

To Leave a Trace

Practice-as-research dance film, 2025, 5:01

Final film from the Bodies Left Out research project.Official Selection — IMARP 2026, Brazil.Screened in the relay dance film programme, Seoul International Dance Festival in Tank, 23 September 2026.Screened at The Place, London, UHM–Intercultural Roots exchange, 20 March 2026.Screened at Barebones, Earle Ernst Lab Theatre, UH Mānoa, 7–8 February 2026.

Makeup

Dance film, 2025, 10:57

Metamorphosis

Dance film, 2025, 10:15

Who Is Watching Who

Dance film, 2025, 9:47

Nightmare

Dance film, 2022, 4:17

2022

Dance film, 2022, 3:28

Performance

Stage work as a dancer, with video, credits, and press.

Promotional artwork: UH Mānoa Department of Theatre and Dance / Kennedy Theatre, 2026.

EPIC

Kennedy Theatre, Honolulu · 30 September–4 October 2026

Performer in Pei-Ling Kao’s dance-theatre production, created in collaboration with Sunny Nai-Hsuan Yang and the cast.

Featured in UH News’ Image of the Week, 30 September 2026.

Open work page

Poster artwork: ARTSinTANK, 2026. View the Seoul Metropolitan Government event record.

ARTSinTANK Dance Festival in Korea

Oil Tank Culture Park, Seoul · 28 June to 3 July 2026

Performed in the international MDD collaboration showcase on 3 July, listed in the official programme among thirteen artists from six countries and regions.

Named in the official festival programme and the public performance listing.ARTSinTANK and Playticket, 2026

Open work page

The touring company looking up at the moon at night

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Dance Program, international tour, 2026.

Festival à Corps

Université de Poitiers, France, 2026

Selected as a student artist for UH Mānoa’s international tour across London, Paris and Poitiers. Performed in Tides of the Moon and KOMMOS.

UH News named Zhenhao Wen among the student artists on the tour.University of Hawaiʻi System News, 2026

Open work page

Two performers in a dance sequence beneath purple and gold projections

INS 新乐园

Brand promotional film · Shanghai · Filmed in late 2024

Appeared as an actor and dancer in a brand promotional film and choreographed a dance sequence for the film.

Open work page

Elegies rehearsals. Photo © Jayden Xie.

Elegies

Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, 2023 and 2024

A dance adaptation of Hamish Henderson's Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica, premiered at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and revised for the Pomegranates Festival.

“Their dance interpretation is beautifully led by dancers and choreographers, Helen Gould and George Adams, who generously give solo opportunities to the excellent community cast dancers, Nicola Thomson and the particularly sinuous Edwin Wen.”★★★★☆ Allan Wilson, All Edinburgh Theatre

Open work page

The Yellow River, Shanghai International Dance Center Grand Theatre, 2021.

The Yellow River

Principal Role: Dahe (大河) · Shanghai International Dance Center Grand Theatre · 1–6 July 2021

One of three rotating principals cast as Dahe, the production’s sole male lead, for its six-day run at Shanghai International Dance Center Grand Theatre. Related credits in The Yellow River and Defend the Yellow River include Shanghai Grand Theatre, Shanghai Oriental Sports Center and Taicang Grand Theatre.

A major arts commission of the Shanghai Culture Development Foundation, led by choreographer Chen Jianian.Shanghai Theatre Academy, 2021

Open work page

Performance history

29 August 2021: Defend the Yellow River. Performer at Shanghai Grand Theatre, Shanghai.
1 to 6 July 2021: The Yellow River. Principal role of Dahe (大河), one of three rotating principals. Shanghai International Dance Center Grand Theatre.
28 May 2021: Defend the Yellow River. Performer in the Shanghai Youth Song Gala, Shanghai Oriental Sports Center.
16 April 2021: Defend the Yellow River. Performer in Tribute to Wu Xiaobang, China Taicang Dance Night, Taicang Grand Theatre, Jiangsu.
18 December 2019: The Yellow River. Performer at Shanghai International Dance Center, Shanghai.

The Beijing Baihui formation team with their trophy at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool

Winter Gardens, Blackpool, 2017.

Zootopia

Blackpool Junior Dance Festival · Winter Gardens · 2017

Member of the eight-couple formation team that took first place among fourteen teams at the 2017 Blackpool Junior Dance Festival.

Beijing Baihui Dance’s post-competition report lists Zhenhao Wen among the members of the winning formation team.Beijing Baihui Dance, 2017

Open work page

Research

Completed projects, weekly research journals, documentary work, and projects in development.

Bodies Left Out

Practice as research, Fall 2025

A seven-week project using solo improvisation, video, and reflection to study how fatigue, hesitation, and emotional experience can be documented.

Open research journal

Returned on Loan

Documentary video essay, Spring 2026, 16:11

A reflexive video essay with a comparative ethnographic structure, examining how Bishop Museum, the British Museum, and the Louvre present Hawaiian ancestral objects.

Open research journal

Chinese Jingju

In development

Research and film project on how Jingju movement and performance knowledge can be translated for contemporary audiences.

Body Colonization

In development

Research project on how colonial training systems shape movement, posture, and embodied memory.

Conferences

Selected conference papers and research presentations.

What If the Archive Already Failed? The Emotional Body as Speculative Knowledge System

Presented · Dance Studies Association Annual Conference · Long Beach, CA

October 2026

When the Body Becomes an Archive Across the Trans-Pacific

Presented · Association for Asian American Studies Annual Conference · Honolulu, HI

3 April 2026

Legacies of Trauma, Dances of Transformation

Presented · 25th International Graduate Student Conference, East-West Center · Honolulu, HI

12–15 February 2026

Open conference record

Photography

Commissioned production photography from two theatre productions. Open each gallery to see the complete series.

Friends

November 2025, 15 photographs

Kobo Abe's tragicomic drama in thirteen scenes, about a family who enters a man's apartment and refuses to leave.

Great Glass Elevator

April 2026, 16 photographs

Production photography from Mark Branner's adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

CV

Education. The full CV includes publications, conference presentations, funding, performances, and teaching.

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

2025 to present, Honolulu

Ph.D. in Performance Studies

The University of Edinburgh

2023 to 2024, Edinburgh

M.Sc. Dance Science and Education

Shanghai Theatre Academy

2019 to 2023, Shanghai

B.A. Dance Performance

Open full CV

Teaching

Courses, workshops, teaching assistantships, guest instruction, and classroom documentation.

Kennedy Theatre · Late Night Stage

Movement Improvisation for Actors

Listening and Responding Through the Body

Workshop instructor · Upcoming

Thursday, 12 November 2026 · 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. HST
Studio S, Kennedy Theatre, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

This workshop invites actors to explore physical listening through guided improvisation. Partner exercises use changes of spacing, tempo and movement quality to develop brief exchanges and practical approaches for rehearsal.

No previous dance training is required.