DANA TAI SOON BURGESS DANCE COMPANY CONTINUES TO BE A
LEADER IN THE MOVEMENT TO COLLABORATE WITH AND PERFORM AT VISUAL ART INSTITUTIONS AND STAGES ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
When two arts organizations share like-minded missions to create bold artistic works which generate dialogue and explore diverse narratives that build empathy and understanding across cultures and ages – a collaboration seems fitting.
In October 2025, DTSBDC innagurates a two year Artistin-Residency program at the landmark Kreeger Museum . “I always find inspiration in The Kreeger Museum’s permanent collection. There’s always a new perspective, color, brush stroke, nuance or shade that reveals itself and draws me in closer to the work and the artist,” says Burgess.
In May 2026, Woolly Mammoth Theater Company will welcome Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company to its stage featuring a world premiere of a dance piece celebrating this new partnership and beloved classics from the Company’s repertoire from their 32-season history.
“Woolly Mammoth Theatre and Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company are natural partners with shared values,” Founder
and Artistic Director, Dana Tai Soon Burgess. “Now is a perfect time to bring diverse audiences together. Collaborations between arts institutions is the way of the future for DC and we are proud to be part of Woolly Mammoth Theatre’s 2026 season.”
Over two weeks, the Company will offer audiences works that explore the inner emotional terrain of humanity. Their signature pieces delve into the human psyche through stories of unrequited love, coming of age, of loss, and triumph.
During the 2025/26 season
DTSBDC will also be in partnership with University of Madison , Honolulu Art Museum , and Maryland Youth Ballet to name a few
Other partnerships have included:
• The Noguchi Museum
• Baltimore Museum of Art LongHouse Reserve Cranbrook Academy of Art
• The Arts Club of Washington
• Kennedy Center Social Impact
PARTNERSHIPS
AS NOTED BY THE WASHINGTON POST, “DANCEMAKER DANA TAI SOON BURGESS AND VISUAL ARTS GO HAND IN GRACEFUL HAND.”
2025-26 REPERTOIRE
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.
Meditations (2008)
Sudden Snow (2025)
This full-company work is inspired by the bold elegance of abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler and her connection to Japanese Zen Buddhist calligraphy. Sudden Snow features original costume textiles by acclaimed Taos Pueblo designer Patricia Michaels and is performed with a live piano trio.
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.
REPERTOIRE
Caverns (2012)
A pensive piece for a trio of dancers, Caverns is set to Für Alina by Arvo Part. 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 Company will also pay tribute to the artist considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood, Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961). The world premiere performances spotlight her groundbreaking career that spanned silent film, sound film, stage, while also facing stereotypical poles and anti-miscegenation laws.
PRESS HIGHLIGHTS
“The National Portrait Gallery is embracing live performance to highlight American stories missing from its halls.”
HOW A SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM STOPPED BEING ABOUT THE “WEALTHY, PALE AND MALE”
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“A dance performance, meanwhile, activates the museum space in a wildly different - and excitingway.“
NEW CREATIVES POSSIBILITIES BETWEEN MUSEUMS AND DANCE ARTISTS
DANCE
CHINO AND THE DANCE OF THE BUTTERFLY - A MEMOIR
In his memoir Chino and the Dance of the Butterfly, Dana Tai Soon Burgess shares his deeply personal hyphenated world and explores how his multifaceted background shapes his prolific art-making.
The book has received widespread acclaim:
• “A deft weaving of the author’s experience with self-discovery
as he realizes a life as a dancer and artist.” — El Palacio
• “Dana Tai Soon Burgess has written a memoir as intimate, delicate, and, ultimately, beautiful as the dances he creates. Anyone interested in how an artist develops should read this book.” — Michael M. Kaiser, President Emeritus of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
“Chino and the Dance of the Butterfly: A Memoir paints path but also reveals truths common to the path of all dance as poetic is his atmospheric choreography – lyrical, esoteric. Honest and rich, his stories can deeply engage
Burgess has shared the memoir in book talks nationwide, where he intersperses conversation about his life and the craft of dance with dance excerpts, engaging audiences of all ages in a unique conversation between the human experience and movement.
paints
a picture of Burgess’
dance artists.
unique
His prose is just yet eschewing the needlessly engage both the heart and mind.”
DANCE INFORMA
SLANT PODCAST
DTSBDC continues to use The Slant Podcast, which can be found at slantpodcast.com as well as on all major podcast platforms, to enhance its education program. Burgess hosts the podcast, during which he interviews Asian-American creatives to explore the impact of being Asian American on their work. The goal of the podcast is to help combat
Asian American racism by highlighting the diversity of our APA communities. Slantpodcast has become an important APA cultural archive. Guests include David Henry Hwang, Adi Shankar, JonJon and Isa Briones, Tim Ma, Kevin Stea, among others.
DONOR LISTING
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following corporations, foundations, goverment agencies, and individuals who supported Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company during our 24-25 season.
Major Supporters
$51,000-150,000
DC Commision on the Arts and Humanities
$20,000-50,000
The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
Patch Canada
March Forth Foundation
The National Endowment for the Arts
Philip L. Graham Fund
$5,000-19,000
Committee for the Future
Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts
Dwight Stuart Youth Fund
Mary Eccles
Eric Naison-Phillips Family Foundation
Fulbright Scholars
Cary Fuller
Elizabeth Harter
JBG Smith
Ellen Kwatnoski
Maryland Youth Ballet*
Microsoft
Morningstar Foundation
Katia Norri
The Share Fund
Jan and Seth Tievsky
Heinz and Liselotte Nehring Stiftung Foundation
Winged Keel Group
$500-4,000
Anonymous (3)
John Ashford
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Ian Burgess
Jason and Melissa Burnett
Jane Cafritz
Michael Caplin
Alan Cariaso
Kay Casstevens
Cherry Blossom Giving Circle
Claudia de Colstoun-Werebe
Joseph Sellers and Laurie Davis
Bianca DeLille
Diane Dragaud
FBB Capital Partners
David Fischer and Joy Kassett
Jameson Freeman and Dana Burgess
Mary A. Gifford
Susan Gigli
Ross Goldman
Sergio Herrera and Kelly Southall
Wayne Hickory
Celia Hoke
Nicole Hollander
Erick Hosaka
Jill and Bill Hudock
Janice Kaplan
Rozane Kaufmann and Neal Fitzpatrick
Rebecca Klemm
Bonnie Kogod
Richard Kwatnoski
Marcia Lim
Barbara and Robert Liotta
Elizabeth McCallum
Laura McDonald
Alanna McKee
Kelly and Joel Minton
Felipe Moltedo
Elvi Moore
Judith Viggers Nordin
Dr. Susan Ohnmacht
Mark Ohnmacht
Eser Ozdeger
Tom Pallas
Stacey Perelman
Young-Key Kim and Bertrand Renaud
Sheri and Robert Rosenfeld
Joan and Berry Rosenthal
Stephanie Rosenthal and Scott Meisler
Stuart Ross and Patricia Devine
Teresa Saavedra
Eric San Juan and Jack Davis
Ben Sanders
Marian and Neel Saxena
Scout Properties
Leigh Slaughter
Steve Slaughter
Arnie Stolberg
Peter and Judith Storandt
Aaron Tievsky and Frank Delaney
Maida R. Withers
Barrie Zucal
JOIN US IN OUR MISSION TO SHARE THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DANCE
Every contribution makes a significant difference. Together, we can make our 2025 season the most impactful yet. To make a contribution please scan the QR code below.
“NOT ONLY A WASHINGTON PRIZE, BUT A NATIONAL DANCE TREASURE”
