About Grace

Grace Yi-Li Tong (she/her) is a playful Chinese-American artist committed to reimagining reality through dance and performance. Inspired by her 2-D collage practice, she creates movement collages that decontextualize scraps of everyday life, chunks of hegemonic histories, and samples of codified “dance” training. Influenced by elements of clowning, pantomime, puppetry, and contemporary dance theater, Grace aims to invite audiences into experimental, physical theater worlds that re-define oppressive phenomenons often accepted as “regular".

Grace attended New York University, graduating summa cum laude in May 2021 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies. In 2024, Grace presented her work ZOO! at Flushing Town Hall with the Emerging Choreographer Series and was selected as an inaugural NYU Production Lab Artist Development Fellow. Her work has been presented at Flushing Town Hall (2024), Triskelion Arts (2023), Arts on Site (2023), Art Cake Dance Series II (2022), Emerging Choreographer Series (2022), and more. Collaboratively, Additionally, Grace has choreographed for commercial brands Tod’s Shoes and Yayi Chen, as well as with musicians Kevin Sun, bluetrails, and Colby LG.

As a performer, Grace has been in process with choreographers such as Beth Gill, Luis A. Lara Malvacias, Patricia Hoffbauer and more. Though currently based in New York City, Grace has also performed recently in Amsterdam, Munich, Berlin, Athens, and Seattle.

Additionally, Grace works as an educator and administrator in programs such as NYU Tisch Summer High School, Steps Youth on Broadway, and more.