deep collaboration
mindful partnership
expansive advocacy
community bridge-building through storytelling

—

Katerina (Katie) Wong is a multidisciplinary movement artist, choreographer, and physical storyteller. Described as an “impressive feat” and “fiercely physicalized” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Katie has been moving, creating, collaborating, producing, and curating for nearly 15 years. Her body of work illustrates her commitment to creating new pathways for audiences of all kind to engage with dance. Katie’s choreography has been presented both in theatrical venues including Lincoln Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, ODC Theater, Z Space, CounterPulse, Dance Mission Theater, Joe Goode Annex, and Piano Fight, as well as nontraditional, public spaces including Salesforce Park, California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco Public Library, Exploratorium, Yerba Buena Gardens, Fort Mason, San Francisco War Memorial's Green Room, DZINE furniture store, and Code and Canvas art gallery. She has partnered with the ACLU of Northern California, Pop Up Magazine, Litquake’s Elders Project, Jewish Federation of North America, Cutting Ball Theater, Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, mobile dance game developers, and more in pursuit of this mission. Katie is also a dance filmmaker whose short films have been screened at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Boulder Ballet’s BB Dance Film Fest and the tiny dance film festival, among others.

As a freelance movement artist, Katie has toured throughout the US, China, Mexico and the Caribbean, but her primary creative home base was in San Francisco for over a decade. Katie has performed with more than 15 Bay Area dance companies including Printz Dance Project, LEVYdance, PUSH Dance Company, Concept o4, Bellwether Dance Project, Blind Tiger Society, Robert Moses' KIN, ka-nei-see | collective, and Ziru Dance, has been a guest artist with the San Francisco Symphony, and a guest choreographer for FACT/SF.

From 2019-2023, Katie served as Co-Artistic Director of RAWdance a contemporary dance company founded in 2004 by Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith. During her tenure, she spearheaded artistic productions, choreography, and programming for the organization's headquarters in San Francisco and assisted in the bicoastal expansion of the company to the Hudson Valley, NY. With RAWdance, she choreographed 9 world premiere dance works, creatively steered the company through the pandemic with innovative digital offerings, and helped forge the organization’s DEIA work, manifesting in a new paid arts fellowship program for emerging Bay Area BIPOC movement artists. She also had the privilege of participating in an artistic residency at the National Center for Choreography - Akron with her co-directors. RAWdance has been voted "Best Dance Company" in Best of the Bay from 2019-2025 by 48 Hills and San Francisco Bay Guardian.

In addition to her performance work, Katie has been a digital marketing specialist for a variety of arts organizations including Alonzo King LINES Ballet and RAWdance. She has been invited to partake in arts leadership programs by Dance/USA, Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA), Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), and The Neighborhood (formerly known as Asylum Arts). She highly values engaging with the dance field through panel discussions and round tables, having organized, moderated and/or participated in conversations for ODC Theater Arts & Ideas, Dance/USA’s Annual Conference, Chlo & Co Dance’s Tabled series, and Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts. Katie graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a BA in Anthropology and concentrations in Dance and East Asian Studies. There, she was presented with a Francis LeMoyne Page Dance Award to honor distinctive achievement in dance.

Katie's artistic practice is rooted in meaningful collaboration, community bridge building, and embodied expression — a reflection of her mixed heritage as a first generation, Chinese-American, Jewish artist, and mom of two. In 2023, Katie relocated back to New York in order to raise her children closer to her family, and begin a new chapter of her artistic career.

Artist Statement

I seek to create dance experiences that center empathy, celebrate the shared human experience, and uplift the healing power of play, generosity, and togetherness. Drawing from text, music, layered sound scores, video installations, visual art, and site-specific inspiration, my work weaves multifaceted stories that invite community dialogue, debate, and connection. At the heart of my practice is a commitment to bringing people together in creative conversation—unearthing truths that are deeply personal and broadly universal.

My artistic output repeatedly challenges where dance is shared and who it includes. Over the past 14 years, I’ve presented work in diverse spaces—from science museums and libraries to public parks, art galleries, co-working spaces, and business conferences. More recently, my exploration of dance film and digital performance during the pandemic has expanded my curiosity about how different platforms can invite broader, more diverse participation. This openness to nontraditional venues and formats deepens my commitment to accessibility—manifested through a focus on free or low-cost events, ADA-compliant venues, ASL interpretation, captioning, audio description, and more.

As a recent mother, I am newly attuned to the presence and potential of young artists, families, and multigenerational collaborators and audience members in both the creation and sharing of work. I believe the more people who feel seen, welcomed, and safe in our dance spaces, the more dance will continue to be a vital, relevant, and powerful medium for love and transformation.

Words from past collaborators…

  • "Katie crafts imaginative, powerful experiences that linger with audiences long after the curtain falls. Exploring topics ranging from social to scientific, her dynamic choreography is the product of a diligent movement research process. She often layers her works with other artistic elements like sounds and sets, producing immersive journeys that are just as entertaining as they are thought-provoking. Katie is a joy to collaborate with! She approaches projects with focused curiosity and contagious enthusiasm. She’s an empathetic, patient leader who brings a healthy balance of structure and play to the studio. Behind the scenes, Katie is also a skilled and savvy marketer who is constantly thinking of ways to help arts organizations evolve and grow."

    Katherine Disenhof, dancer/collaborator and arts leader

  • "As a peer of Katie's for nearly a decade in the Bay Area, I cannot speak highly enough of the moral and artistic depth she adds to an organization and our dance field. I have witnessed Katie take on beautiful commissions within RAWdance that have added to the dynamic conversation of dance in the Bay Area while harboring a safe and inclusive environment for artists working with her to thrive. She is among the most well-rounded and deep-thinking artists I have ever encountered. She brings the spirit of collaboration, equity, and positivity into every room. I am thrilled to see the next chapter of Katie's career unfold, as any institution that receives her administrative and artistic expertise, would be incredibly lucky to have her there."

    Natasha Adorlee, collaborator, choreographer, and Artistic Director of Concept o4

  • "Working with Katie is a deep and fulfilling journey. She is rigorous in her investigations and allows space for many different perspectives in her artistic process. Creativity and open communication flourishes and supports not only the choreography but also the dancers and their craft. As an artist, I feel both inspired and challenged by her questions and movement, and each and every process has proved both enjoyable as well as educational."

    Kelly Del Rosario, dancer/collaborator

  • "For more than a decade, Katie Wong played a lead role in the San Francisco dance scene - performing, choreographing, curating, producing, and taking dance to new and unexpected places all over town (including the Salesforce Park, Cal Academy of Sciences, Yerba Buena Gardens, and Pop-Up Magazine). Katie has a unique ability to see the whole landscape with all of its potential, and to identify opportunities to connect with audiences in non-traditional spaces. I've had the pleasure of working directly with Katie in various capacities since 2016, and continue to find inspiration in her ability to balance and accomplish the many different artistic and operational components of creating dance and sharing it with the public."

    Charles Slender, Artistic Director of FACT/SF

  • “Katie, as both dancer and choreographer, is thoughtful, passionate, detail-oriented, skilled, hard-working and most importantly a team player. Without a doubt, she is the hardest working choreographer and dancer in the Bay [Area]. She has pursued a wonderful career and started a thriving family in one of the toughest and most expensive cities to live in in the world. I am truly honored to call Katie my friend and my peer. She will truly be missed in the Bay Area."

    Michaela Cruze, dancer/collaborator

  • "Katie embodies every bit of kindness that she exudes.  It is a delight to dance with her. As a collaborator, I always appreciate Katie's clarity, efficiency, and focus on physicality.  I find that I am given space and time to be present in my body, and that is such a treat!"

    Erin Yen, dancer/collaborator

"...mesmerizing...Katerina Wong danced...in such a way that it attained breath and life; her interpretive gifts are simply splendid." 

— San Francisco Chronicle