UCLA Center for the Study of Women

The final performance of theGlobal Flashpoints: Transnational Performance and Politics, an international conference held from October 6th to 12th, 2011, and organized by the UCLA Center for Performance Studies and Center for the Study of Women, featured the work of Cheng-Chieh Yu, dancer, choreographer, and Associate Professor of the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. The two pieces she presented were the video work The Good Person and the live dance piece Dancing Mother Courage with an accompanying video projection. Both pieces, as is clear from their titles, engage with Bertolt Brecht’s work. The Good Person questions the orientalism in Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan; Dancing Mother Courage seeks to meld the iconic title character of Mother Courage and Her Children with dance.