CAAMFest 2016 presents the San Francisco premiere of
“The Detached” by Lenora Lee & Tatsu Aoki

as a part of its “Through the Looking Glass” shorts program

Filmed on Angel Island, the short experimental dance film “The Detached” is a collaboration between director Tatsu Aoki and dancer / producer Lenora Lee, in association with production partners Lenora Lee Dance, Innocent Eyes and Lenses Films, and Asian Improv aRts

Friday, March 11, 2016, 10pm
Roxie Theater
3117 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

http://caamfest.com/2016/shorts-programs/through-the-looking-glass/
General Admission: $14, Student/Seniors (65+)/Disabled: $13, CAAM Members: $12

The Detached

Conceived & Produced by Lenora Lee

Directed & Edited by Tatsu Aoki

Cinematography by Ben Estabrook, Eric Koziol, Olivia Ting, Joel Wanek

Choreography & Performance by Lenora Lee with Larissa Fong, Raymond Fong, Marina Fukushima, Chin-chin Hsu, Lynn Huang, Wei-Shan Lai, Yukihiko Noda

Music
De-Clime 2 from CD recording Jonathan Chen Orchestra Returns by Tatsu Aoki and Jonathan Chen.
DiStilled by Ari Brown, Tatsu Aoki, and Francis Wong.
Michi from CD recording Shadow to Shadow by Melody Takata and Tatsu Aoki.
Steel Toe from CD recording Actual Music by David Pavkovic and Tatsu Aoki.
Moving the Moment by Ari Brown, Tatsu Aoki, and Francis Wong.
All recordings are courtesy of Asian Improv Records.

Lighting – Harry Rubeck

Costumes – Lenora and JoAnn Lee

Painting – Corey Chan

Production Assistance – Tongjia Wang

Special thanks to Angel Island and the California State Parks

Above photo of Lenora Lee, by Robbie Sweeny

Chin-chin Hsu and Yukihiko Noda, photo courtesy of Lenora Lee Dance

Larissa Fong, Wei-Shan Lai, Chin-chin Hsu, and Lynn Huang, photo courtesy of Lenora Lee Dance

There are no words to express how our cast of collaborators have been impacted by the creation and performance of “Fire of Freedom” in 2015.

Lenora Lee Dance is deeply grateful for your involvement and invites you to join us by making a contribution today!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Audience responses to “Fire of Freedom”:

“Sometimes we discuss these issues. Occasionally we delve deep into them. Most of the time we ignore the suffering of our veterans. This piece, unlike anything I’ve experienced put the audience in the thick of it all, as much as you can without experiencing it yourselves.”

“Beautiful, intense, emotionally-charged, surreal” “Haunting, enigmatic, provocative”

“A profoundly moving work long in coming.”

“Watching this piece after the 14^th anniversary of 9/11, I was especially provoked to wonder what the true price of war is. Are we at war on terrorism or at war with ourselves? Thank you for embodying the words of our veterans. It is that much more powerful.”

Lenora Lee Dance embarked on a journey and dove deep into the construction of an immersive performance piece larger and more complex than anything we have ever created. The subject matter drove the work in a way that peeled back the superficial layer of what we each knew about war, and exposed the wounds of veterans, survivors, war, and its legacy. 

“The trauma that our war survivors must endure is almost entirely cloaked by a veil of heroism – missing the stress that must be addressed that our survivors carry always with them.”

“Then someone comes into the room. One’s touch. Let me connect with your eyes, with your heart. Let me see you.”

We have been seeking to share through these stories a sense of gratitude for life and our lived experiences, no matter how challenging or beautiful, we are here, not just surviving, but thriving. The power in sharing our truths is boundless and with your support, we can continue to envision the possibilities and bring them to life.

Your gift will directly impact:

• The 2016 premiere of “Crossroads,” Part 2 in a trilogy examining the effects of war on resilience and transformation, serving as a meditation on healing and forgiveness.
• The deepening of existing and creation of new collaborations with advocate and community organizations and educational institutions nationwide.
• The 2016 premiere of the film “Light” a powerful and evocative story highlighting the lives of women, including Bessie M. Lee and Miriam Chou Jean, who were at the forefront of the early New York Chinatown community.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

In appreciation, respect, and community,

Lenora Lee

P.S. Just one gift can help take us all one more step forward!

A Very Special Thank You to All of the End of 2015 into 2016 Donors So Far

Jennifer Alonso-Garzee, Arlene Biala, Jeanette & Low Chan, Leslie & Bob Chan, Louisa & Arthur Chin, Philip Chin, Marjorie Chung, May & Wayne Chung, David Dea, Doreen Der-Mcleod, Larissa Fong, Raymond Fong, Shar & Al Hall, Perrine Hamel, Carolyn Hee, Ellie Hisama, Michael Holscher, Evelyn Huang, Pamela Jang & Keith Jew, Carl & Jackie Jew, Cindy Joe, Ed & Peggy Kam, Roberta Lee Kelly, Aileen Kim, Benjamin Kwan, SanSan Kwan, JJ Lara, Alson & JoAnn Lee, Gail Lee, Jenson & Winnie Lee, Larry Lee, Linda Lee & Harry Chuck, Shirley Lee, Dayton & Mary Wong Leong, Lianne & Terry Leong, Nancy Lim-Yee, Jean Liu & Terry Chea, George Louie, Larry & May Lui, Victoria Marks, Belinda Mekdara, Dora Ng, Nancy Ng, Gunthilde & Lew Perin, John Seto, Linda Shigio, David & Marcella Soohoo, Joel Wanek, Morrie & Evy Warshawski, Nancy Wong, Lillian Woo, Betty Foo Yamamoto, Jiro Yamamoto, Mei & George Yee, Connie Young Yu, Sandra Yuen

photos by Robbie Sweeny

Reflections on “Fire of Freedom” by Wan-Lin Lo

Highly recommend to everyone who are interested in modern/contemporary dance. Even I, who wasn’t a big fan of the dance in general, had very good time watching the performance and enjoyed it a lot.

The story has three independent lines that went on simultaneously. Every line was about violence and healing, yet all took different shapes of the violence (such as war violence, domestic violence as the two examples). The audience may follow any dancer throughout the performance; the storyline I was following was focused on the war violence, where my friend Wei-Shan was a major character to lead the story.

The dance was beautiful. It’s so beautiful that the emotion was contagious and made my heart hurt. When the bomb in battlefields dropped on the foreign ground, it destroyed not only everything that the enemy ever owned, but also hit the inside of yourself, and people who are close to you. Violence, no matter how well it’s masked by the so-called justice, is just like any other things in the universe, that for it to happen, you need to offer something to exchange. And most of the time, the price is the inner peace, where we could always find ourselves comfortable no matter cold or warm, lone or lost, with hope or desperate. And when that comfort is gone, no medical help may work the wonder to heal the wound.

The team used a lot of multimedia work to bring in the background and tell the story. No words were said, but Wei-Shan and her “military colleague” used every movement of their bodies and facial expression, to drive the story forward. Maybe because we as the audience may choose which storyline we wanted to follow, the performance became part of the “reality” at that moment when watching the dancers danced. Thus, when they drank in the bar to numb the pain, when the violence took place, when the medicine failed the hope, I felt like I was there as well. The dancers were struggling with the post trauma thanks to the war violence, and the audience, by standing in the same room, were struggling with the hurt that the violence seeded and a sense of helpless that may echo how these war victims’ friends and family feel.

photo by Robbie Sweeny

Rotunda Dance Series

Friday, September 4, 2015, 12pm
San Francisco City Hall

Rotunda Dance Series: Lenora Lee Dance Presented by Dancers’ Group and World Arts West, in partnership with Grants for the Arts and San Francisco City Hall

Free Friday, September 4, 2015 12 Noon

San Francisco City Hall SAN FRANCISCO, CA—August 1, 2015—On Friday, September 4th, the Rotunda Dance Series presents Lenora Lee Dance in excerpts from its latest performance work, Fire of Freedom, a new multimedia immersive dance piece.

The performance of Fire of Freedom at City Hall is part of Lenora Lee Dance’s 8th Anniversary Season which continues with its premiere at the General’s Residence in Fort Mason Center September 10-20, in partnership with Fort Mason Center, Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, and the Chinese Historical Society of America. Lenora Lee Dance’s work integrates contemporary dance, film, music, and research and has gained increasing attention for its sustained pursuit of issues related to immigration, global conflict, and its impacts, particularly on women and families.

The high-profile Rotunda Dance Series brings many of the Bay Area’s most celebrated dance companies to San Francisco City Hall’s rotunda space for free monthly noon-time performances. The series is presented by Dancers’ Group and World Arts West in partnership with Grants for the Arts and San Francisco City Hall. Throughout 2015, the monthly Rotunda Dance Series celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The 1915 Exposition left a lasting imprint on the San Francisco Bay Area, especially in regards to world dance and music. It is only fitting that the highly visible Rotunda Dance Series use this historic anniversary to celebrate the past, present and future of dance in the Bay Area.

About Lenora Lee Dance (lenoraleedance.com)
For the last eight years, Lenora Lee Dance has been pushing the envelope of large-scale multimedia dance performance that connects various styles of movement and music to culture, history and human rights issues. Its work has grown to encompass the creation, presentation, and screening of films, museum and gallery installations, civic engagement and educational programming.

The company is directed by San Francisco native Lenora Lee, who has been a dancer, choreographer and artistic director for the past 17 years in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. In 2013 she was an Artist Fellow at the de Young Museum and a Djerassi Resident Artist. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at New York University, an Artist in Residence at Dance Mission Theater, and is being commissioned by Fort Mason Center to create Fire of Freedom premiering this September 10-20.

Lenora Lee Dance creates works that are both set in public and private spaces, intimate and at the same time large-scale, inspired by individual stories as well as community strength.

About World Arts West (worldartswest.org)
For over three decades, World Arts West has supported and presented world dance artists throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The main presenting program of the organization is the nationally acclaimed San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, which presents over 100 distinct dance forms and thousands of local dancers who are sustaining and innovating within those forms. The organization works year round to advance cultural literacy and build bridges of cultural understanding.

About Dancers’ Group (dancersgroup.org)
Dancers’ Group promotes the visibility and viability of dance. Founded in 1982, we serve San Francisco Bay Area artists, the dance community and audiences through programs and services that are as collaborative and innovative as the creative process. As a hybrid dance service and presenting organization for the second largest dance community in the country, Dancers’ Group’s many programs help artists produce work, build audiences, and connect with their peers and the community.

The 2015 Rotunda Dance Series continues: Fri, Oct 2: Mary Sano and Her Duncan Dancers Fri, Nov 6: Nimely Pan African Dance Company Fri, Dec 4: Hālau ‘o Kawainuhi Visit dancersgroup.org/rotunda for more information.

Photos of Chin-chin Hsu, by Robbie Sweeny

Read the full press release

Fire of Freedom excerpts from Lenora Lee on Vimeo.

Fort Mason Center Presents in association with Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, and the Chinese Historical Society of America
present the World Premiere of

Fire of Freedom

a new site-specific multimedia immersive dance piece by Lenora Lee Dance

CLICK TO SEE FIRE OF FREEDOM PHOTOS, VIDEO, ARTICLES, REFLECTIONS, AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

Thursdays-Sundays, September 10-13 and 17-20, 2015, 8pm

Location: Fort Mason Center’s General’s Residence in the Upper Fort Mason area —
Enter at Franklin & Bay Streets. Turn right after the first Stop sign. Click here for a map.

Arts Patron: $30 includes reserved seating
General Admission: $16 in advance online, $20 at the door (fees apply)
Student rate: $12 in advance online, $16 at the door (fees apply) Valid student ID required
Group rate for 8 or more people: $10 each, must be purchased all together (in advance only)
Tickets: www.fortmason.org/boxoffice, (415) 345-7575
For questions, email LenoraLeeDance@gmail.com

LLD celebrates its 8th Anniversary Season with the World Premiere of Fire of Freedom, a new multimedia immersive dance piece that explores cycles of violence and healing in the context of our increasingly challenging world. The work of Lenora Lee Dance (LLD) integrates contemporary dance, film, music, and research and has gained increasing attention for its sustained pursuit of issues related to immigration, global conflict, and its impacts, particularly on women and families. Audiences will travel through a labyrinth of rooms throughout the three story General’s Residence in an intimate interactive environment, a tapestry of movement, sound and visual collage throughout the interior and exterior of the building.

“We strive to generate artistic work that engages deeply the connections between individuals and their experiences, and community and collective memory, through creative processes, research, and public involvement.” – Lenora Lee

“Fire of Freedom’s intrigue lies in its multi-modal exploration of violence and regeneration”, said Rich Hillis, Executive Director of the Fort Mason Center.  “The immersive experience created by Lenora Lee Dance is a powerful and moving journey through the lives of the unrepresented.”

conceived & directed by Lenora Lee
music by Francis Wong with Deszon Claiborne, Karen Stackpole, Tatsu Aoki
cinematography directed & editing by Tatsu Aoki, filmed by Ben Estabrook, Joel Wanek, Zhuoyun Chen
media design & editing by Olivia Ting
media programming by Ian Winters
set design by Lenora Lee, Olivia Ting, Karl Gillick
lighting design by Patty-Ann Farrell
text excerpts taken from Katinka Hooyer’s “Surplus Data”
sound engineers: Karen Stackpole, Caleb Willitz, Lenora Lee, Timmy Leong & Sound Innovations

choreography by Lenora Lee in collaboration with the following artists:
performing live: Nick Brentley, Christian Felix, Larissa Fong, Marina Fukushima, Chin-chin Hsu, Yi-Ting Hsu, Lynn Huang, SanSan Kwan, Wei-Shan Lai, Wayne Tai Lee, Tim Rubel, David Silpa
on video: Kelly Del Rosario, Raymond Fong, Mike Garabato, Jorge Hernandez, Jon Iiyama, Eric Jacobus, Rafael Janania, Ed Kahana, Yukihiko Noda, Lucas Okuma, Bo Speirs

Please Note:

• Comfortable footwear is encouraged.
• Coat, purse and bag check service is available for $2 and is highly recommended.
• Guests may encounter situations in close proximity with performers.
• We encourage guests with special needs to contact us prior to arrival at Boxoffice@fortmason.org or 415.345.7575.

• Parking for handicapped visitors displaying valid credentials is available near the General’s Residence or in any marked space at Fort Mason or Fort Mason Center at regular parking rates

• Event patrons arriving Monday through Friday after 6:00pm or any time on Saturday, Sunday or a holiday may park in appropriately marked parking spaces adjacent to the General’s Residence or Chapel per posted regulations.

• Under no circumstances may visitors use any parking adjacent to Fort Mason residences.

• Visitors are encouraged to park in the Fort Mason Center lot (space permitting and at prevailing rates) or on adjacent city streets per posted regulations. The Fort Mason Center lot is entered at Marina Blvd and Buchanan Streets (see link to map above). Visitors may walk back to the General’s Residence or Chapel either up the stairs or through the paths on the Great Meadow. The walking distance is about 1,800 feet and the elevation change is approximately 55 feet.

• Visitors who carpool may drop off patrons at the General’s Residence or Chapel and then remove vehicle to alternate parking site.

For the last eight years, LLD has been pushing the envelope of large-scale multimedia dance performance that connects various styles of movement and music to culture, history & human rights issues. Its work has grown to encompass the creation, presentation, and screening of films, museum and gallery installations, civic engagement and educational programming.

The company is directed by San Francisco native Lenora Lee, who has been a dancer, choreographer and artistic director for the past 17 years in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. In 2013 she was an Artist Fellow at the de Young Museum and a Djerassi Resident Artist. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at New York University and an Artist in Residence at Dance Mission Theater. LLD creates works that are both set in public and private spaces, intimate and at the same time large-scale, inspired by individual stories as well as community strength.

For more than 35 years Fort Mason Center has served as a unique destination in San Francisco, hosting arts and cultural events, organizations, and programs in a historic campus along San Francisco’s scenic northern waterfront. It is an extraordinary example of repurposing former military land and buildings for contemporary uses, including museums, performance spaces, and a vibrant schedule of art and cultural exhibitions and events. Each year the Fort Mason Center provides more than $2.2 million in grants to local arts groups like Embark Gallery.  With more than 1 million annual visitors, the Fort Mason Center is one of the highest attended arts and cultural organizations in the Bay Area. For more information, visit www.FortMason.org or call (415) 345-7530

Special thanks to the California Arts Council, Dance Mission Theater, Enshin Karate San Mateo Dojo, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, National Park Service, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and Generous Individuals.

Arts Patron Corporate Sponsors: DAE Advertising, Portsmouth Square Parking Corporation. Arts Patron Community Sponsors: Donaldina Cameron House, Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Community Circle Partners: Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, Asian Americans for Community Involvement, Asian Women’s Shelter, Chinese Progressive Association, OCA San Mateo, Xavier Tsang

Photos by Robbie Sweeny. Postcard design by Olivia Ting