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Dana Tai Soon Burgess Comes Home

www.dtsbdc.org

In Washington D. C., the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company is a cultural institution.  Performances marking its 25th anniversary will take place this year at the Kennedy Center and the National Portrait Gallery.  The celebration will also include a special week-long residency this month in New Mexico.  That's because choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess is a native son -- he grew up in Santa Fe and received his dance degree from the University of New Mexico. Company performances and workshops will be held at NDI New Mexico in Santa Fe and UNM in Albuquerque.

Dana says that growing up amidst the sometimes confusing "spectrum of cultures" in Santa Fe was one reason he became a choreographer.  "The only language I could count on . . . to express what I was feeling internally was movement."

In this longer version of the interview, Dana talks about Leaving Pusan and Margins, two of his works that the company will be performing in Santa Fe and Albuquerque during the New Mexico residency.

dana_tai_soon_burgess_interview_long_version.mp3

Spencer Beckwith reports on the arts for KUNM. For ten years, until March of 2014, Spencer was the producer and host of KUNM's "Performance New Mexico," a weekday morning arts program that included interviews with musicians, writers and performers. Spencer is a graduate of the acting program at the Juilliard School, and, before moving to New Mexico in 2002, was for many years a professional actor based in New York City.