A new project that reimagines commodified East-meets-West stereotypes in dance. The Invisible Dog Art Center will host an open-rehearsal of research, dancing and community conversation. As a mixed-race Japanese American choreographer whose studies began in Chinese dance, Benjamin Akio Kimitch asks how his curiosities and sensibilities can honor the choreographies, social meaning, and artistic developments within non-Western forms in a 21st-century work. He is a choreographer with a foot in both traditional form and contemporary dance. Thinking beyond the worn-out mantra of East-meets-West, Kimitch set out to open the histories of his artistic influences and challenge the western conventions already embedded in the modernist developments of traditional Chinese dance and opera. Kimitch is interested in exploring the nuance of teaching and transforming codified technique, and the way in which tradition interacts with the contemporary. Dancers, Pareena Lim, Julie McMillan and Lai Yi Ohlsen; dramaturgy, Jeffrey Gan; costume design, Carlos Soto; and lighting design and production management, Serena Wong.

Image by Da Ping Luo.