Interdisciplinary dance works giving artistic voice to Asian Americans

Education

 

Recent world premieres of works by Lenora Lee Dance can be made available as Touring Repertoire for proscenium or site-specific performances. LLD also offers film screenings, presentations, lectures, master classes and workshops.

Convergent Waves: NYC (2024) – a 60-min piece with projection (cast of 6-11)

Convergent Waves: EP (2024) – a 45-min piece with projection (cast of 7)

In Visibility (2024) – a 15-minute piece (cast of 7)

Within These Walls (2023 re-staging) – a 68-min piece with projection (cast of 6 – 12)

In the Movement (2022) – a 62-min piece with projection (cast of 7)

Convergent Waves: SF (2022) – a 51-min piece with projection (cast of 6)

Convergent Waves: Boston (2022) – a 51-min piece with projection (cast of 5)

Within These Walls & Dreams of Flight (2017 & 2019) – a 90-min piece with projection (cast of 6 – 12)

New works available by commission

 

Presentations / Lectures
Performing Art in the Digital Age – 1 to 1.5 hour sessions
The Making of… (any performance piece and/or film of choice) – 1 to 1.5 hour sessions

 

Master Classes / Workshops
Stories in Motion: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Composition – 1.5 to 3 hour sessions

 

Film Screenings
And the Community Will Rise – a 63-min documentary dance film (2023)

Within These Walls – a 71-min experimental dance film (2023)

Within These Walls documentary – a 15-min documentary (2023)

Convergent Waves: Boston – a 51-min film (2022) 

Light – a 57-min dance film (2017)
The Detached – a 13-min dance film (2014)
Reflections – a 7-min dance film (2012)

 

Museum & Gallery Installations
Passages
New works by commission

 

Repertoire Descriptions

Within These Walls (WTW) received a Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Production by the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee. Hien Huynh, who played a character inspired by the life of Wong Gong Jue, won the nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Performance by an Individual for his incredibly moving performance in the piece.

Within These Walls (2017) is a multimedia immersive dance experience celebrating the company’s 10th anniversary season. Inspired by experiences of those detained and processed on the Angel Island Immigration Station, Within These Walls will transform and animate these historic spaces into sites for remembrance, as part of a community-wide commemoration of the 135th Anniversary of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, speaking to the power of individuals and communities to transcend. Within These Walls (WTW) received a Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Production by the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee. Hien Huynh, who played a character inspired by the life of Wong Gong Jue, won the nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Performance by an Individual for his incredibly moving performance in the piece. 

Beneath The Surface (2018) is LLD’s first underwater, multimedia experience which premiered in a two-week run 10/6 – 10/14/18 at the YMCA of San Francisco. Beneath The Surface serves a meditation on forgiveness, reconciliation, and redemption, speaking to the power of individuals to transcend.

Dreams of Flight (2019) is the sequel to Within These Walls (WTW) and premiered along with the re-staging of WTW for three weekends at the U.S. Immigration Station, Angel Island State Park 5/4 – 5/19/19.

In the Skin of Her Hands (2019) is LLD’s multimedia dance production premiering 11/1 – 11/3/19 at Dance Mission Theater. It is inspired by the lives and experiences of breast cancer survivors, a journey through healing, compassion, and forgiveness in the face of the unknown. It will feature contemporary and aerial dance, multimedia film/video projection by Olivia Ting and Lenora Lee, original music by Francis Wong and Tatsu Aoki, as well as voiceover interviews from survivors and experts in the field.

Convergent Waves: Boston (2022) is a site-responsive, immersive, multimedia experience celebrating the contributions of activists and non-profit leaders, reclaiming space by eliciting stories of community agency, resilience, and transformation. Inspired by rich narrative, this work represents a powerful call for community oriented development in the face of rapid change, highlighting successes in preserving the cultural fabric and accomplishments of these communities.

Convergent Waves: SF (2022) is a site-specific, multimedia performance focusing on experiences and activism of those living and working in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, as the city and Bay Area face a growing housing crisis. The piece makes a collective statement for the preservation of community, as neighborhoods across the country face cultural erosion, loss of businesses, displacement through gentrification and the pandemic.

In the Movement (2022) highlights the stories and experiences of individuals subjected to incarceration, ICE detention and deportation. This work helps to illustrate systematic cycles of oppression, one such cycle keeping many immigrants either incarcerated, detained or cycling between the two. “In the Movement” serves as a meditation on reconciliation and restorative justice, speaking to the power of individuals and communities to transcend.

In Visibility (2024) is an immersive piece inspired by grassroots organizing in California to stop the prison to ICE detention pipeline. It opens the evening, making use of Dance Mission Theater’s common spaces: the lobby, hallways, studio and stairway. The piece serves as a meditation on reconciliation and the power of individuals and communities to transcend in the face of injustice.

Convergent Waves: EP (2024) highlights experiences of Chinese and Latin American migration into El Paso, Texas over the decades and as Title 42 came to an end in May 2023. This piece is narrated through the voices of those living in the region for generations, as well as those working on the ground providing resources and support for the individuals and families crossing the border.

Convergent Waves: NYC (2024) Come aboard the Seaport Museum’s 1885 tall ship Wavertree, where the contemporary dance performance will unfold against the backdrop of this historic vessel. This slate of dance vignettes has been inspired by and created specifically for Wavertree to artfully showcase an interactive journey through different areas of the ship, while delving into the rich history of this international cargo vessel—the last of its kind. Dance will take place in the massive cargo hold, the forecastle where the crew ate and slept, the captain’s saloon, and more. The piece will provide insight into the unseen lives of the laborers who helped to build New York City into the global hub it is today and the unexpected role of the sea as a site for freedom from the racial and gender barriers of the era. 

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Contact: LenoraLeeDance@gmail.com

c/o Asian Improv aRts, 456 Montgomery St., #1350, SF, CA 94104
www.LenoraLeeDance.com

Photo by Robbie Sweeny