Zhongmei Li was born in China in 1966. When she was 11 years old, she was one of 12 girls to be selected to go to the Beijing Dance Academy, China’s premier dance school, where she studied ballet and Chinese classical dance. She performed in China for several years and then came to the United States, where she had scholarships to study at the Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey schools. In 1995, she formed the Zhongmei Dance Company, which brought Chinese dance to The Joyce Theater and numerous other venues across the country. The New York Times said the performance at the Joyce was “commanding and majestic.” She performed on Broadway in The King and I at the Neil Simon Theater. She is a regular guest performer with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and is currently choreographing the dance portion of a new production of the opera Dream of the Red Chamber, to be performed in Minneapolis in November 2024. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.