About AADF

Our Purpose

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.

Our Beginning

AADF began as a personal project of TILTshift Dance’s founder/director, Joyce Lien Kushner, which she had 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."

Our Future

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.

Team AADF

Joyce Lien Kushner

Co-Organizer

TILTshift Dance Founder/Director, Joyce Lien Kushner (she/her), is a Taiwanese-American dance artist, teacher, and maker. Throughout her years, Joyce has trained dancers of all ages and has performed and collaborated with artists all over California – Modern City Repertoire, Strong Pulse Dance, Epiphany Dance Theater, Surhabi Suraf, Sarah Bush Dance, Amy Lewis, Five Feet Dance, and Chris Black Dance. In 2015, Joyce founded TILTshift Dance in San Francisco. Now in San Diego, she continues to teach, make work, and holds open space for other dance artists to create and work. In 2024, she was awarded an 18-month artist residency by NTC Foundation in ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station to help further these endeavors. Joyce currently teaches youth and adults throughout San Diego County. She also proudly serves on the board of Disco Riot. Read more about Joyce here.

Instagram @cocozenmama @tiltshiftdance

Dr. grace shinhae jun

Co-Organizer

grace shinhae jun(she/her) is a mother, wife, artist, scholar, educator, and mover. She has performed nationally and internationally with bkSOUL performance collective which she founded in 2001. Her research and artistic practices are grounded in Hip Hop culture and cross cultural collaborations that challenge the systems of violence and oppression steeped in anti-Blackness. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at San Diego City College, teaches with transcenDANCE Youth Arts, and at UCSD where she was the recipient of the 2022/2023 Barbara and Paul Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award. Ph.D. Drama & Theatre UCSD/UCI, MFA Dance Sarah Lawrence College. Read more about grace here.

Webiste www.bksoul.org

Instagram @dr.mamagrace

Aisha Reddick

Lead Volunteer - Community Showcase & Collaborative Residency

Aisha Reddick (she/her) is an African American/Filipino movement artist and instructor based in San Diego, California. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at California State University, Long Beach in Fall 2021. Since graduating, Aisha has made work that has been presented across the west coast for various concerts/showcases and festivals. In her practice, Aisha finds fulfillment in moving between juxtaposing gentle and aggressive powers to create a flow into and through the body. Presently, Aisha shares this way of moving at DISCO RIOT, Culture Shock San Diego, BalletCenter Studios, Helix Charter High School and Canyon Crest Academy.

Website - aishahsia.com

Instagram @ahsia

Micah Parra

Lead Volunteer - Community Showcase

Micah is a multi-facted dance and movement artist and current company member of Malashock Dance. She was born and raised in Vancouver, WA where she danced with Virtuosity Performing Arts and Groove Nation. She has since continued her training in intensive programs with NW Dance Project, The TL Collective, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Micah was the recipient of Disco Riot’s 2022 Space Residency Program. She has performed works created by Alysia Johnson, Adam McGaw, James Gregg, Kameron Saunders and Ashley Green. Micah’s other passions include but are not limited to aerial pole, duo trapeze and visual/tactile arts.

Instagram @micahparra

Lavina Rich

Lead Volunteer - Community Showcase

Lavina Rich (she/her) is a native San Diego dance maker, lover, and supporter. Her love of the performing arts began at Grossmont College, to UCSD, to working with some of San Diego’s finest artists. She has since moved to behind the scenes, creating works with her own company, Push Process Movement.

Instagram @knerdgirl @pushprocessmvmt

Nicole Oga

Lead Volunteer - Dance Film Screening

Nicole Oga (she/her) is a radical thinking dance artist, educator, and pedagogue who approaches her work through an intersectional lens that is influenced by abolition, collective liberation, anti-racist, black feminist praxis. In June 2024 she graduated from the University of the Arts Helsinki with a Master’s in Dance Pedagogy. Nicole works and resides on unceded Kumeyaay land, where she currently does dance education and outreach work with DISCO RIOT and teaches at Grossmont College. In her work she regularly questions and evaluates her practices and methodologies to ensure she is inclusive and in true solidarity with her community – listening to, collaborating with, and following the lead of those who are most impacted. She cultivates genuine empathy, compassion, and kindness, which she knows will transform the world into an equitable society where all are truly free

PC: Antti Rintala

Instagram @dancingoga

Des Enano

Volunteer - Graphic Designer

Des Enano (she/her) is an artist and designer born and raised in San Diego, California. She received her BFA in Illustration at ArtCenter College of Design in 2020 and now works as an illustrator and graphic designer with clients such as Rotten Tomatoes, Google, and The New York Times. She finds joy in drawing the quiet moments in life and inspiring stories rooted in our connection with others.

Website - desenano.com

Instagram @e.desz