San Diego's annual Asian American Dance Festival returns August 30th - September 12th!

Asian American Dance Festival exists to celebrate our AAPI communities, by providing a platform for AAPI dance artists to tell our stories in our own voices. We hope to share these stories, not just amongst ourselves, but with the greater community, fostering deeper empathy and understanding.

Asian and Pacific Islander Americans are highly diverse and hail from a multitude of heritages and experiences. We immigrated and were colonized at various times in US history and under various circumstances. We often isolated ourselves in our own insular communities, differentiated by ethnicity, culture, and generation, resulting in different identities as “Americans”. These differences are often muted in discussions of race and ethnicity within the larger melting pot of the United States. However, these differences are often the source of trauma within our communities, whether between generations, between the different Asian and Islander ethnicities, or between our individual and collective Asian/Islander identities and the larger American identity. Through the medium of dance, AADF seeks to create an avenue for Asian/Islander Americans to excavate and share our histories, tell our stories in our own voices. Through this work, we believe we can grow and heal together, creating more resilient connections inside and outside of our communities, finding our sense of belonging as Asian/Islander and American.

AADF began as a personal project of TILTshift Dance’s founder/director, Joyce Lien Kushner, which she has been incubating for several years. In her words…

“Second-generation Taiwanese, I and my younger brother were born in Los Angeles and raised in middle-class white neighborhoods of San Diego during the 1970s-1980s. Like many children of immigrants, we watched our parents sacrifice and work hard to realize the American dream. However, we had few Asian role models outside of family, and I had not a single one in dance. Often being the only Asian in social settings shaped my early views of society and myself, especially being American born. The myth of the “model minority” was strong in my family. As an Asian female, I kept my head down, worked hard, dodged veiled innuendos, and tried not to let the micro-aggressions get to me. I lived and moved in a liminal space, always bridging communities, but never truly belonging - sometimes I was too Asian, sometimes too American, and always never enough.

Attending UCLA in the mid-80s, I found myself surrounded and befriended by other US born Asians, and for the first time, I felt a sense of true community with people who understood me. While in Los Angeles, I joined a multi-racial dance company, directed by an African American man from LA’s inner city. I watched our director, who grew up amidst gang violence, use his dance company and school to make a difference, providing opportunities to the kids and parents of his community. As a teacher, I saw first-hand the impact on them, elevating their sense of self-worth and potential. I saw how dance could bring together and uplift a community, and it left a strong impression on me.

Fast-forward to 2017, San Francisco… I worked on a project with Five Feet Dance, centering AAPI women. We came from diverse Asian heritages and spanned ages 20s to 50s. This was the first time any of us had addressed our racial identities through dance. We spent months excavating our personal histories, learning of our unique yet shared experience of being Asian and American and female, traumas and all. We unearthed a bond and friendship we didn’t know we needed. Upon presenting our work, we discovered how much our presence in dance meant to others. Our AAPI audience members would engage with us after performances and express deep gratitude. We realized how important our stories and our presence were, igniting my desire to develop an Asian American dance festival.

Now back in my hometown of San Diego, I have been fortunate to meet several other AAPI dance artists, teachers, and educators who also share a desire for a dance avenue that centers our communities. I am particularly lucky to have met Dr. grace shinhae jun (dance educator and community activist) who joins me on this journey. Together, we are passionate about providing AAPI dance artists the opportunity to explore our collective histories, traumas, and celebrations, to share these stories in our own voices, and to have visibility and representation in the larger community."

We believe that AADF will have a huge impact, fostering greater communication and understanding inside and outside our AAPI communities. We plan to hold AADF annually and to expand its reach with collaboration and support from the many AAPI communities here in San Diego. AADF will continue to feature professional works of different dance and movement genres (both live and on film), works from students and community members, cultural dance, and classes and workshops. Through our Collaborative Residency, we also hope to engage more local AAPI artists of disciplines beyond dance, such as visual arts, music, theater, literature, and spoken word. In the coming years, this residency will evolve to include an internship program for young adults.

See our Team AADF page to learn more about our passionate group of volunteers:

Joyce Lien Kushner - Co-Organizer

Dr. grace shinhae jun - Co-Organizer

Aisha Reddick - Lead Volunteer / Community Showcase & Collaborative Residency

Lavina Rich - Lead Volunteer / Community Showcase

Nicole Oga - Lead Volunteer / Dance Film Festival

Des Enano - Volunteer / Graphic Designer