March 23-28, 2015

H.T. Chen & Dancers Residency

A week-long community residency including master classes and school performances will occur during the week leading up to the main evening performance between March 23-28, 2015.

Enjoy these video teasers of SOUTH OF GOLD MOUNTAIN by Nel Shelby Productions #htchenanddancers Chen Dance Center / H.T. Chen & Dancers

TWO MINUTE TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/chendancecenter/sgmtrailer

SHORT VIDEO CLIP: https://vimeo.com/chendancecenter/sgmprom

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Monday, March 23 (12 pm-1:20 pm) –  Master Dance Class at Paradise Valley Community College, 18401 N 32nd St, Phoenix

Tuesday, March 24 (11 am-11:30 am) – Lecture about “Dance as a Profession” at Paradise Valley Community College, 18401 N 32nd St, Phoenix

Tuesday, March 24 (1 pm-2:45 pm) – Master Class at Saguaro Hall Dance Studios, Grand Canyon University, 3300 W Camelback Road, Phoenix

Wednesday, March 25 (11:15 am-12:15 pm) – Nutrition for Dancers: Eating for Energy with Joanie Johnson at Saguaro Hall Dance Studios, Grand Canyon University

Wednesday, March 25 (6 pm-7:30pm) – Master Class at Dance Theater West, 3925 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix (sponsored by AzDEO & ADC)

Friday, March 27 (7:30 pm) – Featured Performance “South of Gold Mountain”

Saturday, March 28 (7:30 pm) – Featured Performance “South of Gold Mountain”

Click Here to Download: SGM Press Release (Updated)

“SOUTH OF GOLD MOUNTAIN”

Desert Dance Theatre will present H.T. Chen and Dancers in the featured performance of “South of Gold Mountain” on Friday-Saturday, March 27-28, 2015 at 7:30pm at Tempe Center for the Arts Theater.

South of Gold Mountain is a multimedia dance piece based on research conducted by H.T. Chen and Dian Dong while traveling the southern states. The production incorporates blues, traditional music, oral histories, childhood songs and stories in Toishanese, and contemporary music all assembled by sound designer, James Lo, video footage of historic photographs, and a multi-generational, multi-cultural cast of performers from New York and the local community. The interviews they conducted, and the oral histories created, were about the Chinese immigrant community that came to the South in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Many of the interviewees were part of this society during the period leading up to World War II. Their parents and grandparents came initially as inexpensive/indentured laborers who effectively replaced the slaves in the field post-Civil War. And they then went on to become shopkeepers and entrepreneurs opening businesses that replaced the plantation commissaries.

The week-long residency and presentation of South of Gold Mountain by H.T. Chen & Dancers was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information call Desert Dance Theatre, 480-962-4584 or go to www.DesertDanceTheatre.org. For more information on H.T. Chen & Dancers please visit: www.ChenDanceCenter.org. For tickets: TCA Box Office: 480-350-2822 or www.tempe.gov/tca.