Mia J. Chong

Mia J. Chong was born and raised in San Francisco, where she began her dance training at the ODC School at age 5. She danced with Robert Moses’ Kin and Dance Theatre of San Francisco before joining ODC/Dance, where she performed for six seasons and received a Princess Grace Award and Chris Hellman Dance Honor for her work as a company dancer. She returned to the company as Staging Director in 2024, where she has collaborated with Brenda Way and KT Nelson on numerous restagings and reimaginations of ODC/Dance repertory and assisted guest choreographer Sidra Bell in creating new work.

Chong is also the founding Artistic Director of EIGHT/MOVES, a contemporary dance company dedicated to creating unity through movement and utilizing dance to generate cultural and social change. Through EIGHT/MOVES, she has collaborated with Rena Butler, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, KT Nelson, RJ Muna, and Sidney Chen. Her choreography has been presented by Post:ballet, FACT/SF, RAWdance, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, UC Berkeley, Gonzaga University, BODYSONNET, and more. Her choreography for film has been selected and screened by more than ten festivals around the world, reaching audiences in South Korea, England, Turkey, and Italy. She has also received a Jacob’s Pillow Hicks Choreography Fellowship, Aninstantia Grant, Zellerbach Community Arts Grant, Alonzo King LINES Ballet Homer Avila Award, and Metro Film and Arts Foundation Grant, among other honors. She earned a BA in Social Sciences with a concentration in Organizational Behavior and Change from New York University and an MS in Arts Administration and Cultural Entrepreneurship from Northeastern University.