A dance film exploring the imagination of a contemporary viewer standing before the Dunhuang murals, where painted figures of ancient caves appear to breathe, dance, and move across time. A collaboration between composer Monstar Cao, filmmaker Cong Le, the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and dancer Huang Lufei. Combines Chinese traditional instruments with Western avant-garde techniques and electronic textures; moments of close synchronization between choreography and music evoke cinematic Mickey Mousing. Program note and cultural research developed in collaboration with ChatGPT.
Monstar (Wanying) Cao is a Los Angeles-based composer, pianist, and multimedia artist pursuing a PhD in Digital Composition at UCR. She received her MM in Composition from the New England Conservatory and BM in Media Scoring and Production from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. She is founder and curator of Visual Symphony, an ongoing interdisciplinary audiovisual project. She received a Silver Award in the UK in 2026.