Featuring Interdisciplinary Works by
Melody Takata and Lee & Wang Dance
 
 
Dance:  Lenora Lee, Mina Nishimura, Melody Takata,
Elaine Wang
Music:  Tatsu Aoki, Hideko Nakajima, Kaoru Watanabe, Francis Wong
Poetry:  Genny Lim
 

September 6, 8pm
September 7, 1pm
 
CounterPULSE
1310 Mission St (at 9th St) San Francisco, CA  94103

 
Admission: $15 general, $10 for CounterPULSE members
For tickets, visit www.brownpapertickets.com or call (800) 838-3006
For theater information, visit www.counterpulse.org
 
 
With support from Creative Work Fund, James Irvine Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, Grants for the Arts/SF Hotel Tax Fund, San Francisco Arts Commission, Mulberry Street Theater with funding in part from the Jerome Foundation
 

]]> http://unboundspirit.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/lee-and-wang-dance-september-6th-and-7th/feed/ 0 unboundspirit http://unboundspirit.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/odc-theaters-house-special/ http://unboundspirit.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/odc-theaters-house-special/#comments Sat, 09 Aug 2008 06:45:41 +0000 unboundspirit http://unboundspirit.wordpress.com/?p=34 Continue reading →]]> Asian American Dance Performances’ Collaborative Project

“Of Spirits Intertwined”

is featured in ODC’s Annual “House Special”

ODC Theater Presents

“House Special”

August 20^th, 2008

For one night only, beautiful, ancient Asian forms will co-mingle with cutting edge European multi-media work and the wild antics of our own resident drag queen including:

AADP’s “Of Spirits Intertwined” A Work-In-Progress:

Classical practitioner, Charya Burt, with dancers Vishnu Tattva Das and Melody Takata present their cross cultural work-in-progress “Of Spirits Intertwined” dynamically exploring the rituals that underlie each unique ancestral offering at play. Bridging the exclusive experience between the Cambodian, Indian and Japanese traditions, “Of Spirits Intertwined” opens a discourse examining the depths of living heritages redefining the context of contemporary dance. With,

Monique Jenkinson, a multifaceted artist working in the realms of dance, theatre, drag and performance art and

Rabbit Research, an emerging dance theater duo creating new work from France.

The three works presented will culminate in an audience/artist discussion.

August 20^th, 2008, 8pm.

At Project Artaud Theater
450 Florida StreetSan Francisco, CA, 94110

Admission:  $15 General

ODC Box Office: 415.863.9834
(2-5 pm Wed-Sat)

http://www.odctheater.org/v5/pages/dance/HSpecial.html

Asian American Dance Performances “Of Spirits Intertwined” is funded by the Creative Work Fund a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund and the the San Francisco Grants for the Arts.

Read the article below, or visit AsianWeek.com for the original source.

Danny and Peter Luong received the 22nd annual Isadora Duncan Dance Awards April 28 in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum at the 2007 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. The pair were chosen for their ensemble performance “Lion Leaping Through the Plum Blossom Mountain to Reach the High Green” with Leung’s White Crane Lion and Dragon Dance Association.

The teenage Luong brothers performed their daring Chinese Lion Dance, leaping atop eight poles in a style similar to Cantonese opera groups from the late-18th century. The daring, and sometimes humorous, feats of the lion speak to the goals people try to attain during their lifetimes, and the eight posts represent the obstacles and challenges encountered while reaching for those goals.

“Kathak at the Crossroads International Festival & Symposium,” directed by Pandit Chitresh Das, received a special award. The largest Indian classical dance festival presented outside of India, this event gathered Kathak’s greatest masters and emerging artists and showcased the traditional Kathak solo.

Other Asian nominees included: Sabrina Hou, Xioamou Hou, and Ping Zhao for Peony Performing Arts’ “Dynasties” (Visual Design); Hearan Chung for “Shin Kal Deh Shin Mu” (Individual Performance); Tara Catherine Pandeya for “Shodiana” (Individual Performance); and LIKHA-Pilipino Folk Ensemble for “Kadayawan” (Company Performance).

The Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (Izzies) Committee consists of 20 Bay Area experts from various areas of dance, who review performances throughout the viewing cycle September 1 through August 31. Their annual awards honor local and guest artists in nine categories for outstanding achievement by dancers, choreographers, their collaborators and composers.

Asian American Dance Performances

Funkanometry SF Dance Company

Co-Present

“Planet B-Boy”

 on May 15th

4:45 Sundance Kabuki Cinema

AADP Performances at the SFIAAFF’s

Toyota Festival Forum

Japantown Peace Plaza

Julia Graham & Blaire Bodie (2:00 pm)

Joti Singh’s Dunniya Dance (2:15 pm)

and Extra Credit and Rockforce (4:50 pm)

    Other Programs will include:

*Cherry Blossom Festival Press Preview, including performances by the San Francisco Taiko Dojo, Shimaoka Koto Group and Nishikawa Dance Group, plus an appearance by the 2008 Cherry Blossom Queen Candidates.

*Live Music Performances by: Bento N.Y.A.S. Odessa Chen Seriously The Autonomous Region

*Other Dance Performances from Decadance.

*Challenge C-Dub to a Ping Pong Showdown.

*Free Outdoor Screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s classic 1979 anime The Castle of Cagliostro, at 8pm.

For more information, visit:

http://festival.asianamericanmedia.org/2008/post/210/

or

http://www.asianamericanmedia.org

Though Illusion would surely have fit quite beautifully in APICC’s annual festival programming, it stood alone as an auspicious production for the organization and its presented dancers Takami, and involved artists, namely Kana Tanaka and her gorgeous glass sculptures.

Image from kanatanaka.com

The majority of the audience arrived with time to meander throughout the gallery, comfortably observing approximately 20 works by various artists ranging in materials from collage and photograph to mixed-media creations that played with well-focused lights, casting artistic shadow play on the gallery’s white walls. Entering the space, I was welcomed by a photography/photoshop project by Robert Jarrell, whose diagonally sorted images of MoBu’s dancers immediately introduced the notion of artistic integration between the art works of the gallery, and the performance I was about to see on stage.

The dark curtains opened and ushers helped us to our seats — an assortment of six symmetrical groups of chairs which formed an “in the round” arrangement. Takami’s intention was to allow for a unique perspective for everyone. I quickly found a center seat on a riser set literally upstage of the traditionally positioned theater stage. Between upstage and downstage rested a partition of elevated stage and the gorgeous bulb-like glass sculptures that I recognized from a previous work SHIMIZU/drop, which had inspired a nomination for an “Izzie” for visual design two years prior. On opposing corners, a tall white scrim promised more visual splendor, and hanging over head, two mirrored cones slowly spiraled in the darkness.

This in-the-round seating, and integration of stage design with gallery work is the best use of SomArts I had witnessed in a very long time. The closer seats provided an intimacy usually not granted with performers of this caliber. My eyes adjusted to the darkness as the work began; dancers in white dresses created by Akiyo Mineo approached their opening positions, and performed a solid introduction with vocal and audible percussion from their bodies.

What followed was a whirl of beautifully executed phrases, of a dance style not completely defined by a single genre. The performers of Mobu Dance Group are strong movers with clear lines and ambitious initiations of motion. Perhaps a mixture of Limon, though also reminiscent of Taylor and Ailey, the phrases were formal and the choreographic intention was quite present. Theatrical expressions from the performers kept with butoh engagement of a true emotion. This original combination of forms was most certainly Modern (mo) butoh (bu), and each performer did a splendid job performing this style with precision and accuracy. Roberta Marguerite Chávez has a generous stage presence and a supple spine; Mai Shimizu has executive control of theatrical dance ability – her sobs were almost heartbreaking; Monique Tajiri Goldwater has the energy and charisma of rockstar proportions; and Takami is a strong dancer with exquisite articulation and an excellent grasp of timing. For a director to perform this well in her own work is a rarity; others would have remained outside the piece to keep an outside eye for design and production. It was a pleasure to see her perform with her company and I’m grateful to witness her beautiful dance style as she dances solo, duet, and in unison along side her talented group.

Performance happened on both sides (and frequently through) the partitioned glass sculpture. Sometimes the separate areas acted as a boundary of emotional realms, where intense sorrow/anger or contagious bursts of laughter would ensue. A mover crossing the threshold where the two levels met would grow to an emotionally altered state; sometimes switching roles with another performer on stage. At other times, events happened separately on either side. Glimpses of performers on the far corner of the room caught my attention and I took them as being a memory of the part I had previously observed, or a foreshadowing of things to come. Occasionally, the mood struck just right and a narrative appeared of the characters’ inner turmoil. Was the figure in the background the physical appearance of our downstage dancers’ mental discovery? What powers did the glass bulbs hold that caused these beings such joy and such rage? Lighting designed by Stephen Siegel, and executed perfectly, framed enough of my view to reveal wonderful dancing and facial expressions; in the background, I saw enough of the slightly obscured performer to see and recognize her movements exactly.

At times, Tanaka’s artwork came into the forefront; a large slate adorned with glass decorations was rolled to lit areas of the stage and resulted in visual displays of color and light that literally had the audience gasping in awe. Another time, side lights struck the suspended cones, and waves of curved reflection swept like a slowed underwater siren in 360 degrees producing another audible reaction from the admiring audience.

With different perspectives of the work happening simultaneously, I found myself seeing mathematical equations just as often as dramatic narrative or fantastical surrealism. Old geometry terminology of transfers, rotations, slides, and more came to mind as I watched the opposing sides of the stage shift. When one’s focus is so keenly aware of being aware, everything became a part of the work. On my left, a photographer quietly clicked a shot of a pose. In time with the music, the dancer switch positions and the photographer caught the reversal of the position at the exact downbeat of the music. The first click was only slightly distracting; the second click was entirely satisfying. Even the light drumming of rain on the old roof of SomArts added to the work. The sound design, by Jorge Bachmann, fit each moment excellently, lending an ambience that gave motivation and reference to the visual design and timing of the movement.

Image from kanatanaka.com

Set in a trance where every sound and occurrence became an artful extension of the performance, I was not the least surprised when a cell phone ring sounded behind me in the back row. The owner proceeded to answer the phone, with nearby audience responding in gasping whispers, “You’re kidding me!” In my want of natural accidents, I was almost disappointed when the man circled the audience, stood on stage in the midst of the performers to finish his conversation, and exit the theater. However possible is it to predict such occurrence, this staged interruption provided yet another perspective and another bridge between life and art.

After the exit of Keith Caramez (the man), the dancers again gained our focus and in the calming, surreal light of the bulbs, found their way within the stems of glass, which now seemed eerily like a Tim Burton version of the BBC’s Planet Earth. The performers took solstice among the art, listening to bulbs and slowing in their movement as if to become a picture of a memory of the night’s performance, with the vision of the audience on the other side of the mirror, a distant reflection, and a reminder of, ourselves.

About the Contributor → Jez Lee is a performance artist and from 2003-2007 was the Director of Asian American Dance Performances. Look forward to commentaries and announcements from Jez in AADP’s blog, part of Unboundspirit.org.

The year was 2004. I was just out of college and hungry for dance. My BA from Mills College was complete with a 25 page thesis on the absense of masculine and lesbian signifiers in contemporary American modern dance. I had just taken on the job as Executive Director of Asian American Dance Performances and damnit, I was hell-bent on starting a performance festival for dance makers like me.

That following year, “Translations” was born. I almost titled it “persuasians”… so glad my good friend Jen advised against that! Translations: dancing the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality” is an annual queer Asian American festival with artists from across the nation. It provides a stage for artists taking risks by examining gender and sexuality, and inadvertantly or not, how those topics intersect with thier cultural heritage. It’s a broad assortment of American dance makers and performance artists from pan-asian backgrounds, and even broader sexual orientations and gender identifications, and even broader ideas about how their identity performs through thier art.

This year, as I am no longer Directing the organization, curator and new Executive Director Kara Yoon Frame has compiled a stunning group of performers. I am so proud of her work and her enthusiasm for continuing this performance series!

I asked a couple of the artists about their prior experiences… to give you all a sneak peak at what’s in store this weekend. Here’s a compilation of their responses.

[Please note that Word Press is giving me issues with their photo tool at the moment; please come back soon for *beautiful* images and their photographer credits!]

Julia Graham – Japanese Contemporary Hybrid
Julia, who identifies as a half Japanese-American woman researches and choreographs themes in her performance that are influenced by Japanese culture in an effort to develop her own understanding of her Japanese side.When asked what performance experiences she’s had that have celebrated or challenged her as a marginalized artist, she responds that she feels dance itself is a marginalized art form because it is not exposed to broad audiences. Dancing in Kuala Lumpur, she recounts the very positive reactions from the audience who were new to watching live dance. “I was amazed by how touched and excited some of the audience members were,” she said. By presenting works that are influenced by traditional forms, she stirs up curiosity in mainstream audiences, offering the viewer “a chance to ponder the nature of the movement and my relationship to it as well as what their own understanding of the
piece is.”John Medina, Eric Lorico of DanceParadigm – Movement Communication and Air Traffic Control  (http://www.danceparadigm.com)
John Medina and Eric Lorico of DanceParadigm were both born in the Philippines, and moved to the United States when they were youths. Having grown up until the age of ten in the Phillippines, they were very rooted in Filipino culture, and still are. They welcome and appreciate integrating with the greater cultural experiences in the US, particularly in their identities as gay men.

John says, “it is this integration that has made us who were are today, appreciating one and the other, seeing the limitations and possibilities of one and the other, using the privileges afforded by one and the other, but more importantly embracing all of our identities.”

When asked about their performance experiences, he says “all of our performance experiences has celebrated and challenged our unique experience as marginalized artists at some level. By merely showing
our work celebrates our unique experiences as marginalized artists, to those who are similarly
situated and do not see such representation in the media in general, and in dance specifically.” Dance presenters, like Fresh Meat Productions, are becoming forced to expand their own definitions and open their doors to marginalized artists as John’s work “challenges the dance communities/presenters to become aware of artists that are on the fringe of mainstream, who are working in new ways, cutting new edges, pushing the envelope, creating new language, creating new vocabulary, and creating new paradigms. “

What I particularly admire about John and Eric’s work, is their consciousness about their male bodies on  tage. Their choreography is such that “the display of sexuality is not an overt act, but only comes as a result of the choreographic intent, structure or form, which is first and foremost in our choreographic construction and development.”

Ishika Seth & Co. – South Asian Contemporary.
Having a very strong sense as of being an Indian woman is what has given Ishika her sense of identity about her gender. She speaks of her dance education as an enlightening time where she became aware of how racial differences can be viewed in choreographic studies. Ishika says:

“I believe that people have been genuinely interested in my background and how it feeds into my movement and choreography. My teachers here have encouraged me to find my own voice rather than merely fit ito a western mold. 

However, being here has also made me conscious of my identity as a colored person. Once in a choreography class at a summer festival a teacher commented how my piece was too literal as it was about race. He saw me and my friend (two women of color) and one white man and that was the strongest image for him. Since then I have been very aware of it.

In fact, I spoke in jest about how I have never been conscious of race as its not an issue in India. He spoke about my friend as being a woman of color making it sound as if we were friends merely because we are both brown. It was a humiliating experience and I will never forget it.”

Despite this experience, she continues to make work for herself to be shared with others. She acknowledges that what they draw from the work will depend on their backgrounds, experiences, and expectations.

Janessa Clark/KILTERBOX – Intermedia Dialogue about Gender.
KILTERBOX (www.kilterbox.org) is run by Janessa Clark, who identifies as Latino and English. This multicultural (and mulit-national) assortment of artists take mixed media as a message for queer voice and enthic diversity and use their dance troupe as a vessel for change. Janessa acknowledges that being mixed has afforded her the ability to exist on many planes and seeing through each the need for tolerance and acceptance has fostered the focus of her work. She says, “As a queer woman of color I feel that I have the ability to fuse many facets of existence into a vessel for change.”

This intellegent choreographer is one of the many artists in this program making work that is invocative, concious, and heartfelt. (Other performers include Black Cactus Choir, Iu-Hui Chua, and Laurie Buenafe Krsmanovic).  I’m truly excited to see all the performers on this bill (particularly as I didn’t have to stress about the planning this year – Ha!) Joking aside, though, please join me at this event. I’ll be in attendance on Friday, June 29th at 8pm. There’s a post-performance reception I hear, where you’ll be able to meet the artists and continue the conversations they began on stage.

Translations is Friday June 29th and Saturday June 30th at 8pm
CounterPULSE Theater (where AADP has its office) is on Mission at 9th Street.
(1310 Mission Street, SF 94103)
You can RSVP (and you should!) by calling 415-435-7552 or emailing info@counterpulse.org.
The price of this show is a cheap $10-20 sliding scale, with no one turned away for lack of funds. And no one turned away for an excess of funds either. ; )

About the Contributor → Jez Lee is a performance artist and from 2003-2007 was the Director of Asian American Dance Performances. Look forward to commentaries and announcements from Jez in AADP’s blog, part of Unboundspirit.org.

Happy Pride Month! Every June, San Francisco celebrates it’s pride month with a slew of Queer Events and Festivals. On the top of the list is Fresh Meat Productions’ 2007 Fresh Meat Festival and Asian American Dance Performances’ Translations: dancing the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. Let’s take a look at Fresh Meat Productions, happening Thursday June 14th through Sunday June 16th.

To begin, I asked performers of Fresh Meat Productions to elaborate a little about what it means to be an Asian American artist taking part in these queer events. Of the API performers of Sean Dorsey’s Fresh Meat Productions, only one lone soloist Ryka Aoki de la Cruz stepped to the plate. A vocal and strong individual (both on stage and off), Ryka shared a little about her experiences as an artist.

Ryka identifies as an Asian-American, Japanese-American — who, like this author, has with roots in Hawaii. She acknowledges her culture as being truly blended with her life in Los Angeles (East Side). Ryka identifies as female, and more specifically “Asian American female” and “transgender female”. She says, “sometimes the extra ID is useful, and sometimes it’s just not important.” In terms of sexual identity, she feels most at home in dykespace. (Speaking of “spaces”, you can visit Ryka’s MySpace account at myspace.com/rykaryka or her website: www.rykaryka.com)

Has being a marginalized performer been a challenge for Ryka? The answer is yes and no; on the one hand, it’s gotten her a lot of great gigs. However on the other hand, it makes it harder for her to “get into the deeper truth.” I asked Ryka if she’s had any experiences where her unique perspective has been celebrated, to which she said, ” It’s not so much a celebration—it’s that because I speak as a transwoman, and/or WOC and/or dyke and/or abuse survivor, when I perform, I have felt so much gratitude and love from people, some of whom want to share their stories with me afterward. They have seen me as speaking for their experiences, as well, and that’s really humbling.”

Like most performers, it’s easy for the audience to place a label or an expectation, and the stereotypes become much more apparent in marginalized artists. Comments from audience members who sometimes miss the point can be frustrating, to say the least.

“Where I get challenged is probably when people aren’t seeing me, but rather one of the labels they put on me. At a performance last year, someone actually thought he was complimenting my performance when he said (after I had done an emotional piece about child abuse) that ‘he really couldn’t tell I used to be a guy.’ You just want to bang someone’s head with a cabbage when you hear comments like that. :p “

My thoughts exactly.

Asian American performers have long posed the issue of trying to navigate the ways their ethnic identity is read by the audience. If an audience member holds fast to Asian stereotypes, that viewer will have a skewd perpective of the performers’ intentions. This similar situation happens for many trans-identified performers. Questions arise about were the performer’s story ends and the audience’s begins. To this, Ryka says:

“Trans is especially problematic. I mean, I really really don’t want people guessing—or even worse, if they know I’m trans, to be projecting their prejudices about transpeople on to the performance. If someone is transphobic then my trans identity will outweigh whatever I say. It can be difficult. If I show strength, will the transphobic feminist see it as male privilege? Is there any way I can prevent that? And how can I worry about that and still address the theme of my performance piece, which may have absolutely nothing to do with being trans? Ugh! Never mind! Why worry—just go do it, right?”

All in all, though, most work is intended to reach audiences on a universal level with main concepts such as survival, love, happiness, and the struggle and perseverance that puts us all on the same boat.

Fresh Meat Productions

Thurs June 14: 8pm
Friday June 15: 8pm
Sat June 16: 7pm AND 10pm

PERFORMANCES BY: Artistic Director Sean Dorsey, Colombian Soul, Taiko Ren, Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu, Freeplay Dance Crew, Imani Henry, Shawna Virago, Miguel Chernus-Goldstein, Julia Serano, Ryka Aoki de la Cruz and Triple Threat Taiko.

For more information: Fresh Meat Productions

Stay tuned for more, as next week I cover the artists of Translations: dancing the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality (June 29th and 30th at CounterPULSE, SF).

About the Contributor → Jez Lee is a performance artist and from 2003-2007 was the Director of Asian American Dance Performances. Look forward to commentaries and announcements from Jez in AADP’s blog, part of Unboundspirit.org.

One of Asian American Dance Performances’ Fiscally Sponsored Artists is a very talented performer named Charya Burt. Director of the Charya Burt Cambodian Dance Company, she’ll be performing in the second weekend of the Ethnic Dance Festival. 

Check out a great article about Charya written by the SF Chronicle’s Dance Correspodent Rachel Howard. : Cambodian Dancer turns to Tennessee Williams

Visit the World Arts West’s beautiful website to find out more about the performers and the show dates and ticket info (speaking of which, you’d better get your tickets right this second!)

Sitting in the small SomArts theater on a cold opening night, I eagerly awaited the show to start. Looking forward to bubbles, twigs, and feathers, as well as an interesting concept noted in the program of three acts; the works (many favorites in the companies’ repertoire) had been reset by way of chance.

Even die hard fans of danceNAGANUMA (a combination of musicians, dancers, family members, and assorted intellectuals) would get a fresh perspective on the work. I once performed with the company, and was now sparked by the thought of seeing familiar combinations put to the unpredictable. danceNAGANUMA is a small multi-generational troupe of dedicated performers who rehearse and train with Director Claudine Naganuma in a small residential ballet studio in Rockridge called Danspace. Having worked with the company from 2003 till 2005, I had grown very fond of the director’s rehearsal style and her passion for individualism, professionalism, creativity, and experimentation. Eventually, my desire to express my own voice outgrew the troupe, so I moved on to other performance outlets.

I think back with fondness. Performing with this very diverse crew of talented dancers, ranging from 7 years old, to middle-aged professionals, was fun. Claudine led exercises that challenged our own choreographic options; we drew movement material from childrens’ stories, from dreams, from images of animals and elements. Her own movement material comes from a blend of Classical Chinese dance, Training and workshops from the modern dance masters like Mark Morris, butoh inspiration from the Tamanos, Eri Najima, and Ballet. With this Eastern/Western blend, she adds ghost stories, myths and fables from Japan and Eastern Europe, costume creations from collaborators and her own handiwork, and musical environments from the Piedmont Childrens’ Choir, experimental vocal goddess Amy X. Neuburg, Award-winning Post-Mexican sound architect Guillermo Galindo, and surreal lighting scapes from Dale MacDonald. For a full bio about Claudine Nagauma, check out her biography.

Taking in the experience: THIS IS CHANCE

Part ritual, part recital, the work is at once: beautiful, strange, quirky, innocent, silly, powerful, fleeting, young, magical, provocative, and… friendly. Featured performers were Claudine Naganuma, Amanda Crawford, Sierra Joe Lash, Anna Dal Piño, Gretchen Garnett, Catalina Jackson Urueña, Lucie Jerome, Mana Hayakawa, Aurianne Vacher, Kristin Suko, Erin Landers, Catherine Collison, Auriane Vacher, and Julia Yoshino. It should be noted that even though half of these performers aren’t old enough to drive, they can sure dance up a storm.

Lit very dimly with an infestation of colorful gels and projections of bubbles and zigzags, the company took to the stage, co-existing with the musical and visual elements with movements that were sometimes very dancerly — attitude turns and these dancers have extensions like you wouldn’t believe! Training with Ms. Naganuma has blessed even the youngest dancers’ feet with articulate toes and impressive turnout. At other times, the movement was more pedestrian, bringing the narrative qualities of the choreography to play — a beautiful duet by Anna Dal Piño and Erin Landers was brought to context by moving gestures

and loving glances. Combining costume elements between the two dancers brought images of mother/child, human/spirit, and stages of grief which gave way to acceptance of loss. Other costume effects called to the stage a mystical swamp; creative hats made marsh goblins of the seated, scooting performers.

Over all, the dancers’ ability to be “in” the mode brought the element of chance it’s greatest effect. Within the nonsensical structure of the phrases, performers projected brilliant expressions; a quirky smile here, a faked choking there, a loving blown kiss, an enchanted spell. The ability to stop on a dime, change expressions (and costumes!) from one element to the next, and be actively on stage for almost the entire show makes the cast a rarity in the dance world. The aesthetic of this company is unique and original. Claudine has developed a movement style and signature language that is spoken fluently by this gem of a company.

Hana Hou.

About the Contributor → Jez Lee is a performance artist and from 2003-2007 was the Director of Asian American Dance Performances. Look forward to commentaries and announcements from Jez in AADP’s blog, part of Unboundspirit.org.

 The first of May symbolizes the entrance of spring and in celebration, on behalf of AADP, Duet Iu-Hui Chua and Benjamin Jarrett perform their site specific work “May Day” for the APISA (South Asian Middle Eastern Asian Pacific Islander) and the SAMEAPI Awareness Now! Month! at Mills College.