Shan Chuah

Shan Chuah is a dance anthropologist whose research examines ancient movement practices in diasporic contexts, with a particular focus on Taijiquan and 'cham, the sacred masked dance ritual of Vajrayana Buddhism. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork and ethnochoreology, her methodologies integrate embodied inquiry and intercultural analysis to explore how movement transmits knowledge across generations and geographies, as seen in the practice of Taijiquan in Canada and 'cham in India and Nepal. Shan’s work investigates the role of movement in sustaining memory, fostering community well-being, and preserving intangible cultural heritage. She is committed to building accessible digital archives that safeguard embodied traditions, while bridging dance research with interdisciplinary fields such as health sciences, immersive media, and artificial intelligence. She is currently based at Arizona State University, where she stewards the Cross-Cultural Dance Resources Collections, a rare and expansive archive dedicated to global dance traditions. Beyond academia, Shan is passionate about embodied knowledge translation. She is the editor of Dance Central, a quarterly publication on dance in Vancouver, Canada, and the founder of the Choreo Dance Film Festival, launched as a Choreomundus alumna. A gold-medalist Taijiquan instructor and Director of the International Tristar Taiji Association, Shan has competed and performed in Canada, Malaysia, China, Japan, Hungary and Norway. In keeping with the spirit of dance anthropology, she continues to challenge and redefine what dance can mean across cultures.