Year: 2023-2024
DanceForce Member: Paz Tanjuaquio
Artists: Jessica Chen; Sun Kim; Mary Prescott; Huiwang Zhang
Audience: 600
County: Queens
In FY2024, TOPAZ ARTS presented the AAPI Dance Artist Residencies raising awareness to the stories, bodies and experiences of Asian American Pacific Islander dance artists. The AAPI Dance Residencies took place at TOPAZ ARTS, giving time and space for the following choreographers to develop, create and present new works. Each artist received 50 hours of fully subsidized rehearsal space and a stipend of $500. In FY2024, the following artists participated in residency activities at TOPAZ ARTS in Woodside, Queens, NY:
Summer/Fall 2023: Sun Kim, hailing from South Korea, is a distinguished dancer, choreographer, artistic director, dance educator, and a Bessie nominee for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer. She specializes in Popping – a style of street dance in which she finds strength and freedom to speak her truth. For her residency at TOPAZ ARTS, Sun Kim Dance Theatre (SKDT) prepared for performances at the New Victory Theater on July 20, 2023, and developed a new full-evening work “Lost and Found” presented at KnJ Theater on November 11, 2023.
Fall 2023: Huiwang Zhang/Wan Dance Theater created a new evening-length dance, TERRAIN 長江頭 – presented by TOPAZ ARTS on October 21, 2023 at TOPAZ ARTS. A company member of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company since 2017, Zhang’s choreography with a multilingual score, creates often through a sociocultural lens, giving voices to communities at risk of social exclusion and people whose stories are lost in the official narratives, carefully structuring an alternative history from individual personal and private stories.
Spring 2024: Mary Prescott, a Thai-American interdisciplinary performing artist, composer and pianist who explores the foundations and facets of identity and social conditions through experiential performance. Her residency at TOPAZ ARTS focused on new material while exploring the Queens area that relate to her Thai ancestry. She created a new work “Studies in Grief and Ease” presented at TOPAZ ARTS as part of Spring Salon 2024 on June 1, 2024.
Spring 2024: Jessica Chen, an American dancer, choreographer and Artistic Director of J CHEN PROJECT, is a 2023 Bessies nominee for Outstanding Choreographer/Creator for her piece NüWa (女媧). Her residency at TOPAZ ARTS occurred throughout the year, and in Spring 2024 focused on rehearsals with her dancers for performing “AAPI Heroes” at Arts on Site, NYC, with performances opening on June 30, 2024. Rich in dance and storytelling, the dance is inspired by iconic Asian Figures such as Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s first Chinese American star, and Bruce Lee, a legend in martial arts and philosophy – illuminating the strength and resilience inherent in the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.