Chino and the Dance of the Butterfly - by Dana Tai Soon Burgess (Paperback)

About the Book

Renowned Korean American modern-dance choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess shares his deeply personal hyphenated world and how his multifaceted background drives his prolific art-making in Chino and the Dance of the Butterfly.

Book Synopsis

Renowned Korean American modern-dance choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess shares his deeply personal hyphenated world and how his multifaceted background drives his prolific art-making in Chino and the Dance of the Butterfly.

Review Quotes

A deft weaving of the author's experience with self-discovery as he realizes a life as a dancer and artist.--El Palacio

An inspiring journey of an Asian American artist's transformation from truly humble beginnings to become one of the most distinct voices in American modern dance. Dana Tai Soon Burgess shares the experiences that shaped him as a performer and choreographer, from his encounters with famous artists to his creative challenges, writing with grace, humor, and insight.--Laurel Victoria Gray, founder of the award-winning Silk Road Dance Company

Dana Tai Soon Burgess has written a memoir as intimate, delicate, and, ultimately, beautiful as the dances he creates. Anyone interested in how an artist develops should read this book.--Michael M. Kaiser, president emeritus of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Dana Tai Soon Burgess is a spellbinding storyteller in words no less than movement. With this memoir, he entrances readers as he has so long entranced audiences, with scene after scene of an extraordinary and transformative life.--Susan Choi, author of Trust Exercise: A Novel

With wonder, appreciation, and self-deprecating humor, choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess recalls how he became a dancer and founded his distinctively Asian American dance company. The book describes how dance, evoked by the flight of the monarch butterfly, can serve as the key to a fully lived life; the migrations of the monarchs symbolize the movement, transformation, and beauty of a life in the arts and a lifetime of learning and teaching.--Patricia P. Chu, author of Where I Have Never Been: Migration, Melancholia, and Memory in Asian American Narratives of Return

About the Author

Dana Tai Soon Burgess is a leading American choreographer, arts administrator, and cultural figure known worldwide as the Diplomat of Dance. In 1992 he founded the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company, the preeminent modern dance company in Washington, DC. Burgess has been the Smithsonian Institution's first-ever Choreographer-in-Residence based at the National Portrait Gallery. He has served as a Cultural Ambassador for the US State Department for over two decades, has received two Senior Fulbright scholarships for dance, and was awarded the Selma Jeanne Cohen Award in 2021. He and his husband, Jameson, live in the nation's capital with their dogs, Bana and Dali.