LINGYUAN (MAGGIE) ZHAO 赵羚苑 received her MFA degree in choreography at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and joined Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, a professional contemporary dance company in Philadelphia, in 2015 as Assistant to the Artistic Director. She was promoted as Rehearsal Director in 2016 and has become the company’s Assistant Artistic Director starting in 2019. As a dance practitioner, Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism have been the core of her dance research and practice, theoretically, spiritually and physically. Zhao was trained rigorously in Chinese Classical and Folk dances, ballet, and contemporary/modern dance. She pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree at Beijing Capital Normal University with a focus on choreography and dance pedagogy. Zhao worked at the Asian Dance Research Center as a dance teacher and at Chinese Children's Musical Theater as Assistant to the Artistic Director. In the U.S, Zhao presented her dance pedagogical and choreographic research at the conference Speaking with Our Feet: Advocating, Analyzing, and Analyzing Dance Education by National Dance Education Organization, Interfaith Studies: Curricular Programs and Core Competencies!, etc. Zhao was invited to serve on the Advisory Group at the Crafting Community Project of Interfaith Philadelphia in 2019-2020. She has also been invited to teach masterclasses as a Guest Artist at UNC Charlotte, DeSales University, Temple University, Cabrini University, etc.

Continuing her passion for dance pedagogy and research, Zhao serves as Visiting Assistant Professor at Swarthmore College’s Dance Department. As a full-time faculty at Swarthmore College, Zhao served as Faculty Production Manager from 2023-2025, and teaches intermediate and advanced levels of contemporary/modern dance technique classes, intermediate ballet, advanced dance composition classes, contemporary/modern repertory class, a co-taught course East Asian Performing Arts on the Intercultural Stage in Theory and Practice with Prof. Ellen Gerdes, and advises students on dance majors and honors for their Senior Projects. Zhao has received grants in support of her embodied research and pedagogical enrichment, such as The William J. Cooper Foundation, Tri-Co Philadelphia Engagement Grant, Faculty Grant Award, etc.