Rehearsing "Becoming American"

Becoming American rehearsal 1 a photo by dtsbcodance on Flickr.

Don't miss the premiere of "Becoming American" October 14-16! Ticket Information

Rehearsing "Becoming American"

Becoming American rehearsal 2 a photo by dtsbcodance on Flickr.

"Becoming American" will premiere October 14-16 at Dance Place

The Washington Diplomat features DTSB&Co

DTSB&Co was featured in two articles in The Washington Diplomat:

• DTSBCo's International Travels
• Dana's new work - Becoming America

DTSB&CO In Concert Series

Check out the first video in the DTSB&Co In Concert Series - performance of Island with interviews with dancers and collaborators.

DTSB&Co In Concert Series: Island from dtsbcodance on Vimeo.

New DTSB&Co publicity photos

New DTSB&Co publicity photos by Zain Shah.

Click to view more photos

What is an Asian American?

Dana is featured in an Washington Post review of a new exhibit Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.
Collection of Cindy Hwang - WASHINGTON, DC - HANDOUT: "The Kyopo Project - 240 Portraits," by Cindy Hwang. Digital pigment print, 2004-present. Collection of the artist. Copyright CYJO.

DTSB&Co 20th Anniversary is coming!

Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co. will celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2012 and preparations for performances and events have already begun. Today videographers Damaris Hay and Kelli Cook filmed Dana and his dancers as they rehearsed Dana's new work and later interviewed Dana at his home. They will be creating a 20th anniversary promotional video for the company. Stay tuned...

Damaris Hay, DTSB&Co dancer Connie Fink, Kelli Cook and Dana
preparing for Dana's interview.

Dana visits the White House for Obama's Asian American Heritage Month Address

Dana attended President Obama's address for Asian American Heritage
Month at the White House this week:

Obama was spectacular. I had a wonderful time eating dim sum there with Julie Koo, the Director of the Asian Pacific Islander American Office of the Mayor. We hung out with actor John Cho and Senator Akaka from Hawaii, among others. Fabulous and festive event. There is something so magical about the White House; its many rooms spill over with a sense of American history. Makes me feel so proud and blessed to be an artist in America!

Dana with Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii

Dana with actor John Cho and Julie Koo, Director of the Washington DC Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs

President Obama

Asian American Youth Program Video Project

The DTSB&Co Asian American Youth Outreach Program provides young people with experiences that enrich their view of Asian American culture, of dance as a communicative and expressive art form, and of the value and importance of peer communication. This year activities included a video project that has just been released. Take a look!

Finding Self: Asian America's Youth from dtsbcodance on Vimeo.

Reception at the Mongolian Embassy

DTSB&Co's dancers and Board members attended a lovely reception at the Embassy of Mongolia hosted by Ambassador Khasbazaryn Bekhbat. Dana and the dancers talked with the ambassador and his staff about their wonderful experiences on their tour to Mongolia and the ambassador noted that the tour and reception were part of an expansion of friendship between the US and Mongolia.

Heading home after an amazing trip

Our final day in Ulaanbaatar was packed with last minute sightseeing and souvenir shopping. We started at the Gundam Monastery which is a working monastery founded in 1835. We saw the magnificent statue of Buddha in the main temple and observed the ceremonies of the resident monks. We bought prayer flags, beads, incense and other souvenirs at a shop nearby. We then headed to the Choijin Lama Temple Museum which was built as a Buddhist temple in 1908 but is now a museum. The museum has an amazing collection of sculpture and paintings, including somewhat frightening depictions of hell as a place of fire and ice. We then had our final meal at our favorite restaurant that serves Korean, Japanese and Chinese food that we had frequented a number of times that week. We were joined by Otgon, Marissa, Namuun and translators Bolormaa and Bujin and we were able to take a final group shot.

Gundam Monastery - DTSB&Co with embassy staff Oggi and Namuun

Gundam Monastery - Connie and Dana with our translator Uyanga, her sister Zaya, and Namuun

Choijin Lama Temple Museum

Choijin Lama Temple Museum

Our last meal in Mongolia

And one last visit to Happiness Land

At the airport as we waited for our flight to Beijing we glanced at a TV monitor and were surprised and thrilled to see the interview with Dana that had been filmed at the university on Thursday and video footage we had given the interviewers of DTSB&Co dance performances.

DTSB&Co on Ulaanbaatar TV

We had a 12 hour overnight layover in Beijing and we decided to make a quick visit to Tienanmen Square at 2:00 in the morning. Needless to say we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was us and the guards. We got only three hours of sleep before heading back to the airport for our flight to Tokyo and then to Washington but the impromptu sightseeing trip was definitely worth it.

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square

Chatting with a Chinese army guard

We want to sincerely thank Ambassador Addleton, Marissa Maurer, Otgon, the embassy staff and translators -Nammuun, Uyanga E., Uyanga A. Bujin, Tian, Oggi, Zaya and Bolormaa - and our drivers and the talented Tumen Ekh dancers and directors for making our trip to Mongolia a most wonderful cultural exchange and adventure. We will never forget this amazing trip.

Performance day!

Friday was performance day for DTSB&Co in Ulaanbaatar. In the morning we headed to the Puppet Theater which is part of the ▼ National Academic Drama Theatre in the center of Ulaanbaatar. The floor of the stage turned out to be a bit of a challenge. It was made of wood but the planks were uneven. Eventually a marley floor was delivered and for the performance a layer of felt and the marley floor was used. It worked just fine.

National Academic Drama Theatre

Puppet Theatre entrance

Beautiful seating

Curtain detail

Floor discussion

As the theater was being prepared for the performance the dancers had time wander around the theater and neighborhood shopping and seeing the sights.

A ger (or yurt) that serves as a souvenir shop in the warmer tourist season.

Trying on hats at a souvenir shop that was open

And back at the theater there were several fun places to hang

The Puppet Theatre box office

The evening performance was a great success with an appreciative audience that included US Ambassador Addelton and his wife Fiona along with the wife of the Mongolian prime minister. Six dances were performed including two choreographed by Dana for the Tumen Ekh dancers. After the performance Dana answered questions from the audience and then Dana and the Tumen Ekh dancers expressed their mutual appreciation for the opportunity to participate in this cultural exchange between the US and Mongolia. T. Otgonsuren, the director of Tumen Ekh, and his dancers presented Dana and his dancers with gifts that will keep Mongolia in our hearts and minds. Dialogue continued at a nice reception held in the lobby after the performance.

Dana answers questions from the audience

A Tumen Ekh dancer relates his experience working with DTSB&Co



Gifts!

Dancers with the ambassador, his wife Fiona, the Tumen Ekh choreographer and her husband.

A parting group shot!

Mongolia TV stars

Ulaanbaatar is an interesting mixture of the old and new. We see many people on the street wearing traditional Mongolian clothing but questions about Lady Gaga are common in our question and answer sessions. Old stark Soviet style buildings sit among more Asian influenced architecture and very modern glass high rises. Free internet access is available in many places. Mongolians have lots of quirky little customs including shaking hands with the person that you have just accidentally kicked under the table or brushed up against on the street. Kelly experienced this first hand on the street one day when someone accidentally kicked his foot.



Thursday morning the DTSB&Co dancers performed for approximately 100 dance students and teachers at the University of Art and Culture and then held a question and answer session. The performance was well received and there were many questions about Dana's choreography method and inspiration. It was nice to see some of the students from the School for the Hearing Impaired there.

The University of Arts and Culture

Miyako with embassy intern Namuun in the lobby of the main university building

Connie's solo Khaybet

Question and answer session

In the afternoon Dana taught a choreography class and Connie taught a warmup/technique class in the afternoon. Before the choreography class a Mongolian television crew interviewed Dana and then took some footage of Connie's class. When we were leaving Ulaanbaatar we actually saw the interview, class video footage and performance video we had given them on TV at the airport.




Meanwhile Laura and Sarah gave a talk about American modern dance at the American Corner, a small American style library operated jointly by the U.S. Embassy and the Ulaanbaatar Public Library that helps students, researchers, teachers and the general public learns more about the US. Laura and Sarah played a video of DTSB&Co performances and talked about his dance style and inspiration. The audience of 30, most of whom were not involved in dance, were very interested in what Laura and Sarah thought of Mongolian dance styles, what it was like to train to be a dancer and of course what they thought of Lady Gaga.

Sarah at the American Corner