Koala Yip is the first media artist presented interactive performance broadcasted live in China’s national television channel during the 4th China International New Media Short Film Festival “KingBonn Award” Ceremony in 2013. She graduated from California Institute of the Arts with an MFA and BFA from Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Recently, Koala completed an MA in fine arts from University of Wisconsin-Madison and working towards a PhD program. A former member of Trip Dance Theatre and Bridge Dance Company, Koala choreographed and performed in conventional theatres, site-specific venues, conferences, museums and art galleries.
Her artworks were presented in major events include Digital Cultural Lab (England), Subtle Technologies Conference (Toronto), Interactive Laboratory at Göttelborn in Germany, International Dance and Technology Conference, MIT/CalArts Collaboration of Wearable Technology, Performance Studies International (PSI), KUMA Art Museum Estonia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Institute of Discovery, LACE Los Angeles, LA Woman’s Theatre Festival, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Macao Science Center, K11 Hong Kong, Beijing International New Media Arts Exhibition and among others.
Koala was the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including Hong Kong Art Development Council Overseas Scholarship, David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Graduate Fellowship for Woman in the Arts (UW-Madison), Emerging Interface Award (UW-Madison), Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund Fellowship, Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, Jacky Chan Charitable Foundation Scholarship, American Dance Festival Video Documentation, California Arts Council, APA Director’s Prize, and had won the Best Performance Award from the Bauhinia Cup Hong Kong Dance Championship. She also received Certificate of Commendation from Mayor of City of Los Angeles.
Koala is recently teaching at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. She also guest lectured at Beijing Dance Academy, EMBA program (CityU), “Jumping Frame” Lecture Series, CalArts, Baltimore School of the Arts and HKAPA. She served as board member of Y-Space Dance Company since 2014 and the Session Chair (Dance) of ISEA 2016. She is committee of Art Gallery Panel in SIGGRAPH Asia 2016 and is recently preparing her TED Talk HK and i-Dance International Festival both happening in November 2016.