photo credit: Mary Noble Ours

Known for Asian-inspired works and visual clarity, the Washington, D.C.-based Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co. was established under the auspices of its non-profit arts organization, Moving Forward. The Company debuted its first piece in December 1992 and since then has performed at top national venues such as the Kennedy Center, The Harborfront Theaters, Canada, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, La Mama, and the Kaye Playhouse, NY. In the ’04–’05 season the company toured Peru, Ecuador and Latvia with the support of the US State Department and Artslink. Founder Dana Tai Soon Burgess’s repertoire has been performed in Germany, Bulgaria, Colombia, Ecuador, Latvia, Venezuela, Panama, Peru, Korea, and Russia. The company has received commissions from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the NEA New Forms/Andy Warhol Foundation, the Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts Society and the Smithsonian Institute. The company is currently a participant of the Kennedy Center’s Capacity Building Program.

The company celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2002 with a gala performance at Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Theater. Of the evening-length program, The Washington Post wrote, “Each dance is as spare, intimate, and perfect as a pearl.”

In 2003, the company premiered Tracings, an evening length work commissioned by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program and the Kennedy Center to celebrate the Korean American Centennial. This piece toured nationally and internationally. The company was awarded the Washington, DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline in 2005.

What People Are Saying

"Each dance is as spare, intimate and perfect as a pearl."
- Washington Post

"The best Asian American dance work I've seen"
- Hong Kong Dance Journal

"Mr. Burgess's choreography was unhurried...Mr. Burgess can devise attractively sinuous choreography."
- New York Times

"... the chronic pain of lost love fills the stage like smoke, as subtle lighting, dark music and tense, deliberately hesitant movement create a layered impression of mourning."
- Washington Post

"This company's work is something that children can really identify with... encourages them to think."
- Dance Spirit

"The most significant Asian American choreography out there... dedicated to exploring the Asian American aesthetic in dance and nurturing Asian American dancers."
- Koream

"...Burgess's work builds bridges between the cultures of rice bowls and Coke cans"
- KOREA Update