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| To open the evening of modern dance, we began with a short discussion with choreographer/dancer Dana Tai Soon Burgess, his mother Anna Kang Burgess and Korean American Centennial Commemoration project director Terry Hong. The Kang/Burgess family is one of the oldest Korean American families in the country, as Anna’s parents and grandparents arrived in January 1903 on the S.S. Gaelic in the first significant group of Korean immigrants to the United States. | Dana and Mommy seemed to have a good time talking about how the artistic gene in the Kang/Burgess family prevented our fabulous Dana from being an accountant (thank goodness)! | ||||
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| Dana in close-up … is there any wonder that he’s been the poster boy for our whole year? |
And proud Mommy regaling the audience with her many stories. | ||||
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| Dana’s company shared three short segments from Tracings, a Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program and Kennedy Center co-commissioned piece which captures a century of family history. The full production had its world premiere on Thursday, November 6 in Terrace Theater at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. |
Both
these photos are from “Leaving Pusan,” about the departure from one’s home country to the strangeness of a new land. |
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| The second short segment, “Quartet,” captures images of plantation life. | Another view of “Quartet,” about the life over there. | ||||
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| The third and final segment, “Sisters,” introduces the process of maturation and coming-of-age for a young woman. | And what lovely sisters they make.... | ||||
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| The dancers take to the stage for a well-deserved bow. | And finally we can see all their lovely faces: (from left to right) Tati Maria del Carmen Valle-Riestra, Jennifer Ferguson, Leonardo Giron Torres, Kristy Michiko Shimabukuro, Connie Fink, Shu-Chen Cuff and Miyako Nitadori. | ||||
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| A wonderfully full stage for a very productive Q&A with the whole crew: (from left to right) Dana’s fabulous dancers, Anna Kang Burgess, Terry Hong peeking through in the back, visual designer Ryan Lalonde, musical composer Aaron Leitko and, of course, Dana. | The dancers, aprés-program, hanging out in comfort… | ||||
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| Dancer Miyako Nitadori speaks about her own immigrant experience from Japan. | And
Shu-Chen Cuff recounts her own immigrant journey from Taiwan. |
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| Jennifer Ferguson talks about how being a part of Tracings made her more empathetic to the immigrant journeys of others. | And
Leonardo Giron Torres answers a very young audience member’s question about his favorite kind of dance – which is all kinds … Once a dancer, always a dancer … |
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| Photo credit: Hugh Talman | |||||
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