Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month starts in May but but the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company is kicking off the festivities a bit earlier with dance repertoires from their 33 year history and the world premiere of a new work. Two program offerings will be presented from April 24th- May 6th, 2006 at Woolly Mammoth in Washington D.C.’s Penn Quarter neighborhood.
The new work is “Drawings in Space”, an ode to the life and art of Japanese American Ruth Asawa (1926-2013). Born in California to Japanese immigrant farmers, Asawa grew up on a truck farm. Her family was separated when they were sent to different Japanese internment camps as a result of isolation policies for Japanese-Americans mandated by the U.S. government during World War II. Asawa learned drawing from illustrators interned at her camp. In 1943, she was able to leave to attend Milwaukee State Teachers College, where she hoped to become a teacher but was unable to complete her studies because her Japanese ancestry prevented her from obtaining a teaching position in Wisconsin. She then went on to join the avant-garde community at Black Mountain College where she had the opportunity to take classes from Merce Cunningham and began experimenting with what would become her signature sculptures.
“We are honored to dedicate these performances to the Asian American experience—a tapestry of resilience and beauty,” says Artistic Director and choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess. “These performances are more than dance; they are a needed, visceral voice for our community in the nation’s capital, turning memory into kinetic art.”
Other dance pieces in the two programs include:
Meditations (2008) – Originally choreographed by Burgess for Ballet Memphis, Meditations is a full-company work that celebrates the Asian American community through sublime phrasing and breathtaking elegance of movement set to music by Lou Harrison.
Caverns (2012) – A pensive piece for a trio of dancers, Caverns is set to Für Alina by Arvo Pärt. It follows the cyclic emotions of a protagonist caught within a web of remembrance and her inability to escape the haunting of an unrequited love.
Charlie Chan and the Mystery of Love (2010) – This full-company dance was inspired by Burgess’s own coming of age story as a young gay Korean American in Santa Fe, NM in the early 1980’s. The work explores themes of belonging, love and identity in modern day, multi-faceted America. The musical score includes: Dream a Little Dream of Me, Let’s Face the Music and Dance, and Turandot: Nessun dorma!
Khaybet-The Shadow (1999) – It was the people like shadows darting from doorway to doorway that intrigued Burgess when he visited the tribal borderlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan on a cultural US State Department tour. Now a signature work of the Company with music by Philip Glass, this solo focuses on a woman approaching death; she revisits images from her life and ultimately comes to terms with her mortality.
The Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company creates and performs modern dances that explore diverse perspectives, histories, and traditions. The result is a shared audience understanding and empathy that attest to the transformative power of dance. It’s why the Company has been hailed by The Washington Post as “Not only a Washington prize, but a national dance treasure” and has been voted “Best Dance Company in DC” by Washington City Paper readers in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Tickets for these performances ($30-$55) as well as program schedules, are available online by visiting Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company online here .
For more events celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the Washington D.C. area, visit the Smithsonian’s page here.