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September 25, 2009 CHAIR OF GW'S DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND DANCE AWARDED 9TH ANNUAL METRO D.C. DANCE AWARD FOR "OUTSTANDING NEW CHOREOGRAPHY" WASHINGTON - Dana Tai Soon Burgess, chair of GW's Department of Theatre and Dance was awarded the 9th Annual Metro D.C. Dance Awards for "Outstanding New Choreography" for his multi-media dance entitled Hyphen. This dance premiered at GW's Lisner Auditorium in October 2008 and The Washington Post claimed that, "In the 16 years since he founded his company here, Burgess has emerged as the area's leading dance artist, consistently following his own path and producing distinctive, well-considered works." This prestigious award is chosen through an adjudicated panel of dance experts and is the highest award in the Washington, D.C., region for dance. The Metro D.C. Dance Award was presented on the evening of Sept. 14, 2009 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Burgess's Hyphen is a multi-media dance work including projections by video visionary Nam June Paik. The work was toured by the U.S. Department of State to South America this past summer and also was presented in New York at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Hyphen deals with contemporary American identity and the concept of how we as hyphenated Americans (Asian-American and Latino-American), view identity in a multi-faceted cultural landscape. Hyphen will be presented again in the Washington, D.C., region Oct. 9 - 11, 2009, at Dance Place (3225 8th St. NE, The Metro D.C. Dance Awards is a spectacular event celebrating the excellence of Metropolitan D.C., Maryland and Virginia's dance community. It showcases the diversity of Washington's finest with performances ranging from tango to tap to modern dance, and gives distinction to artists in thirteen categories - including Outstanding Youth Performance, Emerging Choreographer and Outstanding New Choreography. The Metro D.C. Dance Awards is the only annual opportunity in the District for artists and audiences to recognize professionals and youth in the dance field. About the artist: Dana Tai Soon Burgess For fifteen years, the award-winning Burgess has created dances that freshly synthesize Eastern and Western aesthetics. He was raised in Santa Fe, NM, to an Irish-Scottish American father and a Korean American mother. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from The George Washington University, where he is also a professor of dance. He has taught at the Hamburg Ballet School, The University of Venezuela, The University of Panama, The National Ballet of Peru and King Sejong University, Korea, and has conducted master classes for Xiamen Dance Company and the Beijing Contemporary Dance Company, China and the Latvian State School of Dance. He has received a Senior Specialist Fulbright this year to choreograph and teach in Lima, Peru. Burgess' choreography is inspired by diverse elements including culturally specific dance forms; martial arts; the visual arts; and personal journeys to Asia, Latin America, South America, the Middle East and Europe. Burgess established his contemporary dance company in 1992, with the goal of originating works from pan-Asian American perspectives. He has served as a Cultural Envoy for the U.S. Department of State for over a decade to Egypt, India, Mexico, Peru, Israel, Venezuela and Panama, among others. For more information about Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Company, www.dtsbco.com. For more information about GW's Department of Theatre and Dance, visit www.theatredance.gwu.edu - GW - |
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