For almost two decades, Lenora Lee Dance has been delving deep into issues of human rights, history, and culture, particularly Asian culture. Now, Lee wants to invest in the future through the company’s first New Works Festival. She has chosen seven artists to create choreography for the event, coming Fri/10-Sun/12 to Dance Mission Theater.
LLD’s more recent work includes the unparalleled site-specific Within These Walls/Dreams of Flight, set in the barracks of Angel Island where Chinese immigrants were held held before they could enter the United States, often after months, and even years, of captivity. A Bridge to Now, a multi-media piece with live dancers and portions of film by Lee and Moyra Cecilia Silva Rodríguez, revealed the horrific treatment of Chinese enslaved workers in Peru and how they persevered to build better lives for themselves and their families.
“I had been thinking about a festival for the last year or so,” Lee said, “and the choreographers I chose, I’ve been following over several years and really admiring their work. I’m interested in providing opportunities to develop further pieces and projects that they are interested in, allowing them some space to do research if the project calls for it. I want create an environment where a diverse group of artists can come together and share a program.”
Not surprisingly, the group is composed of artists with Chinese, African, Korean, Peruvian, Vietnamese, and Mexican ancestries. This offers the opportunity for deep interracial and intercultural exchanges which could act as catalysts for discovering even deeper meaning in the works.
“In the last three or four years, we’ve done a lot of new projects in different cities,” Lee explained. “We had the opportunity through the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project to perform work in Boston, New York, and here in San Francisco. We also mounted an international project that was performed in Lima, Peru, then also here. After that settled, it gave way for this opportunity to feature other artists.
“Whenever you see a live performance, no matter the genre, there can be a vast difference between what you honestly believe is being shown on stage and what the performers actually experience in creating that image. This is all the more intense when the creators are also part of the cast.”
It seems appropriate here to introduce the choreographers. Although these are just quick snapshots to give you a glimpse into their minds and methods, the amount of thought and imagination that goes into producing a piece of choreography is far greater.
Amber Julian is of Nigerian, Blackfoot, and Creole heritage. She wants to challenge how the empowerment of strong black women can be labelled as “just powering through,” instead revealing a more nuanced picture of resilience, one that acknowledges that those women go through layers of grief as well.
Culturally, Chinese girls and women are expected to be passive. SanSan Kwan is looking for ways to reframe the discussion and turn what looks like passivity on the surface to include quiet observation or other ways of engaging without appearing aggressive.
Lynn Huang grew up in New York City and began taking both ballet and classical Chinese dance from a young age. Later she added contemporary dance to the mix. For this occasion she is taking the framework of Chinese Water Sleeve dance and finding a way to express her own emotions while still using the precise finger, hand and arm techniques of the original form.
When dazaun soleyn graduated with a degree in architecture he began looking for an active tool in dance for healing communities that hadmultiple levels of generational trauma. Using ritual, text, movement, and music, he created an immersive healing environment.
For Catalina O’Connor, an unexpected family health scare led to a total restructuring of family dynamics that kept changing even as she began working on her choreography, which in turn became part of her own healing.
Before she even started working on her choreography, Flora Hyoin Kim had to completely reimagine her piece due to a health crisis. Lee suggested that she could make a film instead. In the end, she found that just working on the film, that was shot in Hawaii, acted as a healing force and her resulting work incorporates both the film and her dancing in person.
Johnny Huy Nguyễn, and Danny Nguyễn (no relation) are developing their own movement vocabulary. Although both are offspring of Vietnamese immigrants and share that experience, Johnny grew up in Canada breaking, voguing, and house dancing while Danny studied contemporary dance at UC Berkeley and also worked with the aerial troupe Bandaloop. They just needed to invent the unique shape of the movements necessary to tell their story since their divergent backgrounds had little in common.
Now you, as the audience, should come watch the results.
LENORA LEE DANCE: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL Fri/10-Sun/12, Dance Mission Theater, SF. More info here.
