Bradford Chin

Bradford Chin’s disability-centered dance work is unique. In fact, Chin’s new arts accessibility course launching in Spring 2027 — Dance 371, Audio Description: Accessibility for Dance, Arts, & Media — is the first of its kind in the country. Unique work requires a unique environment, and after a nationwide search, Chin found the right fit in the storied UW Dance Department in 2025.

“From the moment I set foot in my department during my campus visit, my colleagues immediately transformed ‘I actually really want this job’ into ‘I belong at Wisconsin,’” Chin says. “They are so supportive, generous, and forward-thinking. In most other institutions, my research pathway and teaching assignments would be much more prescribed. But here I feel so supported to pursue new forms of research and new courses that allow me to uniquely impact our students and our field.”

Chin spent part of summer on a research trip, but is now preparing for an exciting production this fall: a student restaging of 2022’s “Sunrise: A case study in movement scores and Disability Justice.” Chin’s UW Dance students have also been invited, pending funding, to perform the restaging at XDance Festival, a biennial international disability dance festival in Finland in May 2027.

“I hope that any student who takes my courses leaves with a better understanding of how the arts and disability teach us to better care for ourselves and our communities,” Chin says. “To hold both joy and grief in surviving the present darkness, and actively shape the current world toward the future we want.”