The fast-growing number of politicians of Asian/Asian
Pacific American descent are being elected to properly represent
and understand the needs of their respective communities. Click
on the below-listed "links" to discover more information
on these talented trailblazers.
SAE LA CHIN - born in Seoul, South Korea, she has been a Radio City Rockette, toured nationally with Fosse and The King and I. She's performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Ensemble and in Donald Byrd's Harlem Nutcracker.
MOONEA CHOI - Performer with the Livingston Dance Co.
FANG YI SHEU - Featured dancer with the Martha Graham
Dance Company
ALBERT GUERZON - dancer has been in the productions of Momma Mia and The Wiz
TATSUMI HIJIKATA & SANKAI JUKU -
"I was born from the mud and sod," Hijikata once declared. But like many other butoh dancers, the members of Sankai Juku look born from clouds or mist: nearly naked, hairless, painted white from head to toe — as disembodied as living humans could possibly become. And they have influenced contemporary dancers everywhere by showing how receptive audiences can be to a slowly evolving, essentially meditative experience in which the choreography doesn't so much directly express anything as represent a search for meaning within a central metaphor.
BUTOH was born in the decade after World War II as the ultimate underground dance idiom. From the first, it embraced the irrational, the violent, the morbid, the sexual and the sense of decay pervading Japanese life, rejecting "the calm beauty of Japan" and other clichés through which a conquered, deeply divided nation tried to reimagine and merchandise itself.
AKRAM
KHAN - Latest star in the international dance scene.
DARREN
LEE - dancer last scene in the movie "Chicago"
SI-HWA NOH - Youngest member of the Romulo Larrea Tango
Ensemble.
RITA OKAMOTO - born in Japan, was in the original cast of Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel's Movin' Out on Broadway. She has worked with Martha Graham Dance Company, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Robert Wilson, Buglisi/Foreman, Pearl Lang, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Yuriko, Lois Greenfield. Also, Julie Taymor's new film Across the Universe. And the best of all, Wayan's mom. Her participation in "Memoirs of a Geisha" - Several years ago, Steven Spielberg found a Japanese Sayuri. He acquired the rights to "Memoirs" in 1997 (back then, Akira Kurosawa, the legendary Japanese film director who was a friend and hero to the American director, was pressing him to shoot the movie in Japanese with English subtitles) and within a year, he cast Rika Okamoto, a Tokyo-born, New York-based dancer, in the lead. "I was very lucky at that time," Okamoto said in a phone interview from New York, where she now dances in the Tony Award-winning "Movin' Out." But filming kept getting postponed and, "as things dragged on, I had to move on with my life," she says.
MAILE OKAMURA - San Diego native was a member of Boston
Ballet II, Ballet Arizona, Neta Pulvermcher, Zvi Gotheiner,
Gerald Casel, and others before joining Mark Morris Dance Group
in 1998.
YUKI TAKARA -
This native from Okinawa, Japan has credits that includes Regional
Theater (The Fantasticks/Luisa at Sacramento Music Circus and
A Chorus Line/Connie) at Geva Theatre) TV ("Law & Order: SVU)
National Tours (Flower Drum Song - Mei-Li), on Broadway (Pacific
Overtures/2004 revival, Flower Drum Song/2002 revival and Mamma
Mia!), appearing on Radio City Musical Hall's Christmas Spectacular;
City Center Encores!, Hair and Bye Bye Birdie (Sad Girl).
JASON TAM -
Hawaiian native and NYU grad has credits on Broadway (Les Miserables.
regional (She Loves Me at The Guthrie Theatre, West Side Story,
King and I, Oklahoma! And Footlose at Sacramento Music Circus,
King and I at Casa Manana) and TV ("Beyond the Break")
JOHNNY TU - danced with Los Angeles Mexican Dance
Theatre, Bridge Dance Theatre, Trip Dance Theatre and has appeared
works by Stella Gardiner (Aida) and Dulce Capedocia (Ma'I Lost).
PEARL UBUNGEN - A fourth generation Filipina American
creates work that reflects an authentic urban landscape through
an innovative use of post-modern dance with elements of theatre,
text, popular culture and original live music.
YUAN YUAN TAN - a celebrated ballet dancer whose graceful
form has attracted the attention of magazines like W and VOGUE
ZHANG WEI QIANG - Starred in Royal Winnipeg Ballet's
movie "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary,"
CHOREGRAPHERS
LOUISE
MITA JUNG - Acclaimed dancer/choreographer whose dancing
has been seen in countless videos, movies, shows and performances
for Great Leap
BAAYORK
LEE - At the age of 5, she was chosen to be in the original
production of Rogers & Hammerstein's "The King and I." Years
later, she appeared in "Flower Drum Song." On Broadway she created
the role of Connie in A Chorus Line, serving as Assistant Choreographer
to Michael Bennett. The King & I (2004-5 tour), R&H's Cinderella
at NY City Opera, Barnum for Cy Coleman in Sydney, Australia,
Porgy and Bess and Jesus Christ Superstar's European Tours.
The Kennedy Center's Carmen Jones (Vanessa Williams) conducted
by Placido Domingo, Gypsy (Signature Theater-Arlington, Virginia)
and William Finn's A New Brain, touring productions of "A
Chorus Line" and others - often with her daughter Susan
Kikuchi. She was Associate
Director for Barbara Cook: A Broadway Evening. Credits as
resident choreographer for the Washington Opera at the Kennedy
Center include the World Premiere of Goya (Placido Domingo)
and Sly (Jose Carreras), as well as The Merry Widow, Eugene
Onegin, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Pearl Fishers, La
Rondine, Christopher Columbus, and The Ballad of Baby Doe. Opera
credits include: Aida (Michigan Opera), La Gioconda (Baltimore
Opera), Spring Parade (Trieste Festival, Italy) The Nose and
The Cunning Little Vixen (Spoleto Festival, Italy). For the
Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Baayork has choreographed Damn
Yankees, Camelot, Coconuts, Animal Crackers (Helen Hayes Nomination)
and South Pacific (Helen Hayes Nomination). In Italy, she choreographed
La Cage Aux Folles, Cabaret, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way
to the Forum and Singin' in the Rain. An original cast member
in a dozen Broadway shows, Baayork created the role of Connie
in A Chorus Line. She was Associate Choreographer for Tommy
Tune's My One and Only and Assistant Choreographer for Michael
Bennett and has directed over 35 companies of A Chorus Line.
Ms. Lee is the co-author of On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus
Line published by William Morrow. She is proud to be the recipient
of the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Asian Woman Warrior Award from
Columbia College in Chicago.
WILLY TSAO - BEIJING LDTX - Willy Tsao is the Johnny
Appleseed of Chinese modern dance, creating or upgrading companies
in city after city. His latest, Beijing LDTX Modern Dance Company,
is a spinoff of the ensemble with a nearly identical name and
roster that Tsao brought to the Watercourt in California Plaza.
Willy Tsao established CCDC in 1979 and has become its Artistic
Director since 1989. His important choreographed works include
Requiem, Hell Screen, Wanderings in the Cosmos, Three Romantic
Chinese, A Letter to Aung San Suu Kyi, Tales from the Middle
Kingdom, China Wind¡EChina Fire,Sexing Three Millennia, 365
Ways of Doing and Undoing Orientalism and One Table N Chairs.
His works have been presented in arts festivals in Canada, Korea,
Israel, Germany, Singapore as well as Beijing, Shanghai and
Taipei in China.
JUNE
WATANABE - Highly acclaimed dancer/choreographer whose
themes are often drawn from Asian Pacific American history.
SHEN WEI - NYC-based choreographer, dancer, painter
and designer. In 2004, Monaco's Princess Caroline — honorary
president of the five-day Monaco Dance Forum, which culminated
with the Nijinskys
— chose to present the award for emerging choreographer to Chinese-born
dancer, choreographer and multimedia artist Shen Wei, (Artistic
director of the New York-based Shen Wei Dance Arts)
