Shang-Jen Yuan is a Taiwanese-born, Austria-based choreographer and dance pedagogue, recognised for integrating dance and multimedia art into distinctive performance languages. His professional profile includes international fellowships such as the Citi–Asian Cultural Council Fellowship (New York and Hong Kong) and the Bolshoi Theatre Fellowship (Moscow). In 2021, he collaborated with Boris Eifman and the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, serving as stage director and choreographer.

Yuan began his dance training at an early age with a strong foundation in classical ballet, particularly the Vaganova method. He received a full scholarship to the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, and later secured three consecutive full scholarships to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he graduated with first-class honours in ballet and choreography. In parallel, he studied Radio and Television at the National Taiwan University of Arts, and later completed both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Dance Pedagogy at Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria.

He launched his professional stage career with the Hong Kong Dance Company, and has since collaborated with a range of international companies, including the National Ballet of Portugal, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Bremerhaven Ballet (Germany), TANZLIN.Z (Austria), and the Salzburg Ballet. Along the way, he worked alongside notable choreographers and artists such as Peter Breuer, Boris Eifman, Mei Hong Lin, Marco Goecke, Ed Wubbe, Olga Roriz, William Forsythe, Christopher Hampson, Hwai Min Lin, and Maurice Béjart.

Since 2004, Yuan’s choreographic works have been presented internationally in cities including Hong Kong, Lisbon, Seoul, Busan, Budapest, Taipei, Bremen, Beijing, Mexico City, Saint Petersburg, Sevastopol, Ulm, Salzburg, Florence, The Hague, Oulu, and Bucharest, among others. His work has also been featured at major platforms such as the Seoul International Dance Festival, the International Contemporary Dance Festival of Mexico City, the St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, and the Florence Dance Festival.

In 2010, Yuan expanded into multimedia design, combining choreography with video art to build immersive performance environments that balance narrative clarity with abstraction. Projects such as Connected and Outleap gained international attention, while Deriva—co-created with Portuguese choreographer Clara Andermatt and composer Bernardo Sassetti—toured across Europe. Drawing on ballet technique, Taijiquan, and contemporary movement research, his work often develops as an intricate mosaic of physical language, dramaturgy, and collaborative process.

Balancing his roles as choreographer, pedagogue, and video artist, Shang-Jen Yuan continues to contribute to the evolution of contemporary dance through artistic creation and education, supporting dancers in developing technical integrity, creative agency, and professional readiness.