Ziying Cui is a dancer, choreographer, and scholar, who currently completed her PhD in Dance at Temple University. Her research focuses on the development of ballet in China and diasporic Chinese ballet dancers, as well as cross-cultural interactions between East Asian and West dance practices. She earned her BA in Dance Theory and History at Beijing Dance Academy and MFA in Contemporary Dance at Case Western Reserve University in 2016. She has presented her research at several dance conferences, including the Association for Asian Performance and the Conference of Dance Studies Association, and choreographed dances for dance concerts in Philadelphia.