Biography

Chung Nguyen (he/they) is a Vietnamese dance artist, somatic movement facilitator and registered Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist based in Naarm/Melbourne, with 15 years of international performing experience. His work is situated at the intersection of choreography, live art, and healing through interdisciplinary, embodied, contemplative and participatory approaches. His current interests draw on the relationship between personal political history, cultural context, lived environment, and Queer identity in relation to Vietnamese culture and heritage. This explores the dialogue between embodied cultural knowledge and new experiences within the context of his Australian migrant journey.

Chung’s work explores the liminal relationship between stillness and intensity — where subtle internal shifts generate profound external expression. By blurring boundaries between dance and visual art, Chung cultivates artistic expressions that resist conventional categorisation. This approach emerged in response to limitations within Vietnam’s contemporary dance landscape, where cultural censorship shapes definitions of what contemporary dance and the moving body can be.

His works are adaptable to both traditional theatre contexts and unconventional environments such as galleries and public spaces.

Chung is a graduate of the Vietnam Academy of Dance in Hanoi (Vietnam) and holds a diploma in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy from Body Intelligence Training, and certificate IV in Allied Health Assistance, and is pursuing an additional qualification in Somatic Movement Education (Body Mind Centering).

From 2009-2016, he worked as a full-time dancer at Arabesque Dance Company (Vietnam), T.H.E Dance Company (Singapore), and Cinevox Junior Company (Switzerland), and in 2013 was awarded the Korea Modern Dance Association Award at the Korea International Modern Dance Competition. In 2021, he completed the Certificate Programme for Critical Practice in Contemporary Performance organised by Dance Nucleus (Singapore).

His performances and cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaborations have been presented at international venues and platforms across Southeast Asia, Australia, the United States and South Korea, including Temperance Hall and Dancehouse (Melbourne), Cont-act Contemporary Dance Festival (Singapore), No Cai Bum Art Week and Performance Plus (Vietnam), American Dance Festival; The International Choreographers Residency (USA), to name just a few.

Chung has participated in artist-in-residencies and programs, including the 2025 Front Studio Residency, Temperance Hall (Melbourne), the Independent Choreographers Program, Dancehouse (Melbourne), Deep in the Mountains (South Korea), Southeast Asia Choreolab (Malaysia), to name just a few.

He has also received grants and fundings supported by the City of Melbourne (Annual Arts Grants), the Asian Cultural Council, and travel grants supported by the Prince Claus Fund and Goethe-Institut in Ho Chi Minh City.