to disappoint a god.
by Carmen Yih
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'to disappoint a god.' (2024), by Carmen Yih. Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti.
— Disappointing the divine
to disappoint a god. is a hybrid Asian-futurist dance-theatre work starring Nuwa (女媧) – a Chinese mythological creation deity. Nuwa embodies the dichotomy of our existence; our grief, agony, guilt and anger encased in the gentle, desperate fight to hold onto hope.
to disappoint a god. uses Nuwa as a vessel to call for personal reflection and accountability amid the global breakdown of climate, culture and communication.
Drawing from a smorgasbord of training across Chinese folk dance, Contemporary dance-theatre, Krump, and W_acking, to disappoint a god. physically and conceptually contorts the archetypal ‘asian diasporic femme body’; blending human and non-human, comfort and discomfort, strength and vulnerability.
—
A lone figure sits at the plinth, hands busily moulding and carving each curve, angle, limb of the human figure – their creation. Their hands soiled with layers of yellow clay, toiling above the pristine folds of their silk qīng Ruqun.
qīng – the blue-green of the mended heavens, celadon, deep as wet soil, blue as a clear sky.
In the dim blue light, their arms blur into tendrils, Mamianqun into layers of molting skin – for a brief moment they find your eyes. Enigmatic, poised, questioning.
You wonder if they are proud of you.
Choreographer / Performer: Carmen Yih
LX Design: Giovanna Yate Gonzalez
Sound Design: Amelia Jean O’Leary, Damon Shearer
Producer: Insite Arts
to disappoint a god. is supported by Dancehouse, The Patagorang Foundation, founded by Roger Allen AM and Maggie Gray, and Abbotsford Convent and the Fringe Fund.
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Carmen Yih (she/her) is an emerging Chinese diasporic artist graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts’ Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance). Carmen’s practice skates along the boundaries of hybrid dance-theatre, telling urgent stories that draw on forgotten histories and marginalised voices. In her theatrical work, Carmen uses movement scores and structures influenced by non-Western narrative world-building, immersive theatre, and street and club dance forms.
Carmen’s major works include: M_N (2024) at Bowery Theatre, tackling toxic masculinity’s impact on youth mental health through street dance-theatre, Texture of Absence (2025) at Platform Arts Geelong – a quiet ode to the complex experience of ageing and loss, and ‘to disappoint a god.’ (2025) at Melbourne Fringe (in-development).
She has been selected for Stephanie Lake’s ESCALATOR, as one of five up-and-coming choreographic voices and will develop I.E.T (Idol for the End of Times) for the program. Carmen is the recipient of the Abbotsford Convent Maggie Maguire Residency 2025-26. Beyond her major projects, she has created and presented various site-specific, video and community-based works including ‘REGENESIS’ (Club Alt, Bluestone Church Arts Space), ‘Home’ (Union House Theatre), ‘SWARM’ (Science Gallery Melbourne), ‘Empty Your Plate’ (Bunjil Place, Sharp Short Dance, Blackbird Protostars), and Holding Absence (Geelong Arts Centre – in-development).
Carmen is the founder of Space Generate – an interdisciplinary freestyle jam session facilitating storytelling through art, bringing together musicians, dancers, and writers in a mixed-medium conversation. Interested in street and club dance forms, she also practices the 1970s LA gay club dance form of Punking/W_acking and the 2000s South Central street dance form of Krump.
Giovanna Yate Gonzalez is a Colombian professional dancer who has expanded her skill set in Australia through the production bachelor at VCA in Lighting Design. Giovanna has participated in various performances in Australia, for example, as the lighting designer for the “The Book of Everything”, at Geelong Repertory Theatre Company in 2019, the interdisciplinary dance project “Ten Degrees” and the musical “Sweet Charity” in 2021 at VCA. Furthermore, “Trash Pop Butterflies, Dance Dance Dance Paradise” January 2022 at MKA – Midsumma Festival and “Nora: A Doll’s House” at the Union House Theatre in April 2022. Giovanna also had a collaborative lighting installation, “Talk to Me”, with musician Monica Lim at the Bundoora Homestead Art Centre.
Amelia Jean O’Leary (she/they/yinarr) is a proud Queer First Nations Gamilaroi Yinarr from Northen New South Wales who is currently living in Naarm (Melbourne). Her dance & sound practice is about human and spiritual experiencing, through complexity and adversity she finds ways to tell coded and poetically rich stories. Her scores are personal and personified from her multidisciplinary skills in dance, theatre, film and sound design. Through her practice she is trying to understand this world and herself deeper. Her practice and works have relevant questioning and provocations that are resilient and inquisitive.
Australian based singer-songwriter and producer Damon Shearer (YONDA) displays genre fused music entailing immersive vocals. His background delves deeply within the Australian underground music scene working with creatives, artists and composers. An artist known for having no limitations when it comes to sound.
Special thanks to Jiawen (Wendy) Feng for costuming assistance, Jahra Wasasala for initial development mentorship.
