With 2 days to go until our 3rd annual show, we're excited to share @sc.lee 's trailer.
This piece is 閹割 or "Severed". It tells the story of young Sayyid Muhammad's transformation into Zheng He. At the age of 10, he was captured by Ming revolutionaries, enslaved, and castrated, before entering the service of the new dynasty. This piece explores how he ultimately found a way to exist in the new Empire while maintaining a relationship to the traditions of his ancestors.
The pieces in this show, "What Makes Us Great Again?", tell the story of the Ming Treasure Fleet voyages from all points of view to explore what patriotism can mean as a minority and what building a moral relationship to the state looks like in an imperfect world.
Join us in re-examining the past to ask what truly makes us great.
🎟️ Tickets: https://our.show/great (link in bio)
📅 Sat, Mar 21 | 7:00 PM
📍 Creativity Theatre at @creativitykids
Director: @sc.lee
Co Director: @stefaniechen9688
Assist. Directors: @gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst
Head of Dramaturgy: Xiaoyu (Mary) Liu
Assist. Dramaturg: Natalia Demko
Honourary Dramaturg Prof.: @emilyewilcox
MC/Script Consultant: @humairaghilzai
Production and Stage Manager: Jordan Lian
House Manager and Director of Development: @sweetnlowe202
Assist. Grant Writer: @abiwithagail and Arabella Tan
Head of Visual Design: @erinpanguin
Assist. Visual Designer: Chevy
Technical Director and Head of Lighting Design: Alex Wong
Assist. Lighting and Sound Designer: @kewong215
Director of Photography: @shawnli_photo
Company Photographer and Assist. Videographer: @jujubeleaflet
Director of Audiography: @wingdynasty87
Dancers: @sc.lee@stefaniechen9688@gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst@priskillahh@mindalynsanity , Arabella, and @chennala
Guest Choreographers: @baigali_and_dancers@calcelerity
Guest Composer and Carnatic Violinist: @sruti.sarathy
Guest Carnatic Vocalist: @janani4oakland
Supporters: @dancersgroupsf@eastbaycf@sanfranciscofoundation@alamedacountyartscommission
Fiscal Sponsor: @shawlanderson
#bayareadance #sfdance #chinesedance #asianarts #古典舞
Shawn has 11 years’ experience as a classical and folk Chinese dancer in Bay Area collegiate Chinese dance groups. Shawn is passionate about pushing the line between contemporary and tradition, challenging ahistorical unions of religion, nationalism, and normative gender. Shawn loves lifting up other artists, and giving them the space to express their own voice. Outside of Chinese dance, Shawn does Waltz and occasionally contra. They also serve as an advisory board member for National Choreography Month San Francisco, a contract EP advisor for 2kAve, and works full time as a Senior Scientist for New Energy Risk, an alternative energy insurance company.
Join us in re-examining the past to ask what truly makes us great.
🎟️ Tickets: https://our.show/great (link in bio)
📅 Sat, Mar 21 | 7:00 PM
📍 Creativity Theatre at @creativitykids
Director: @sc.lee
Co Director: @stefaniechen9688
Assist. Directors: @gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst
Head of Dramaturgy: Xiaoyu (Mary) Liu
Assist. Dramaturg: Natalia Demko
Honourary Dramaturg Prof.: @emilyewilcox
MC/Script Consultant: @humairaghilzai
Production and Stage Manager: Jordan Lian
House Manager and Director of Development: @sweetnlowe202
Assist. Grant Writer: @abiwithagail and Arabella Tan
Head of Visual Design: @erinpanguin
Assist. Visual Designer: Chevy
Technical Director and Head of Lighting Design: Alex Wong
Assist. Lighting and Sound Designer: @kewong215
Director of Photography: @shawnli_photo
Company Photographer and Assist. Videographer: @jujubeleaflet
Director of Audiography: @wingdynasty87
Dancers: @sc.lee@stefaniechen9688@gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst@priskillahh@mindalynsanity , Arabella, and @chennala
Guest Choreographers: @baigali_and_dancers@calcelerity
Guest Composer and Carnatic Violinist: @sruti.sarathy
Guest Carnatic Vocalist: @janani4oakland
Supporters: @dancersgroupsf@eastbaycf@sanfranciscofoundation@alamedacountyartscommission
Fiscal Sponsor: @shawlanderson
#bayareadance #sfdance #chinesedance #asianarts #古典舞
With 9 days to go until our 3rd annual show, we're excited to share @sc.lee 's trailer.
This piece is 閹割 or "Severed". It tells the story of young Sayyid Muhammad's transformation into Zheng He. At the age of 10, he was captured by Ming revolutionaries, enslaved, and castrated, before entering the service of the new dynasty. This piece explores how he ultimately found a way to exist in the new Empire while maintaining a relationship to the traditions of his ancestors.
The pieces in this show, "What Makes Us Great Again?", tell the story of the Ming Treasure Fleet voyages from all points of view to explore what patriotism can mean as a minority and what building a moral relationship to the state looks like in an imperfect world.
Join us in re-examining the past to ask what truly makes us great.
🎟️ Tickets: https://our.show/great (link in bio)
📅 Sat, Mar 21 | 7:00 PM
📍 Creativity Theatre at @creativitykids
Director: @sc.lee
Co Director: @stefaniechen9688
Assist. Directors: @gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst
Head of Dramaturgy: Xiaoyu (Mary) Liu
Assist. Dramaturg: Natalia Demko
Honourary Dramaturg Prof.: @emilyewilcox
MC/Script Consultant: @humairaghilzai
Production and Stage Manager: Jordan Lian
House Manager and Director of Development: @sweetnlowe202
Assist. Grant Writer: @abiwithagail and Arabella Tan
Head of Visual Design: @erinpanguin
Assist. Visual Designer: Chevy
Technical Director and Head of Lighting Design: Alex Wong
Assist. Lighting and Sound Designer: @kewong215
Director of Photography: @shawnli_photo
Company Photographer and Assist. Videographer: @jujubeleaflet
Director of Audiography: @wingdynasty87
Dancers: @sc.lee@stefaniechen9688@gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst@priskillahh@mindalynsanity , Arabella, and @chennala
Guest Choreographers: @baigali_and_dancers@calcelerity
Guest Composer and Carnatic Violinist: @sruti.sarathy
Guest Carnatic Vocalist: @janani4oakland
Supporters: @dancersgroupsf@eastbaycf@sanfranciscofoundation@alamedacountyartscommission
Fiscal Sponsor: @shawlanderson
#bayareadance #sfdance #chinesedance #asianarts #古典舞
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Humanity Declaration 人間宣言, when the last Confucian monarchy, in its New Year's message, rededicated itself to humanism, democracy, and peace after the horrors of the Second World War.
Today is the seventh day of Spring Festival, traditionally called the Day of the People 人日: the day the goddess Nüwa 女媧 created humanity from mud. It is a day for the ordinary people of the land, and is everyone's birthday: the day our ages increment.
On this ancient day of humanism, we want to share BAICD's own humanity promise, which together with our land acknowledgement, is one of the goals we work towards every year across all our stories and choreographies. It is partly a love letter to the #chinesedance community outside mainland China, as we work to define what it means to practice our arts in our own countries. At BAICD, we want to tell undertold stories with compassion, recognize the injustices of the past, and answer them with kindness and listening in the present.
To our amazing friends and partners across so many communities, especially those we share common and often tragic history with, thank you for your courage:
Ma'af zahir dan batin; forgive us our trespasses against you: physical and spiritual
#人日快乐 #ChúcmừngNgàyNhânloại #民間舞 #chineseamerican
On the heels of @sfchronicle 's @lilyjaniak 's review of @sfballet 's opening gala, we're proud to announce the Chinese and English titles for our March 21st show "What Makes Us Great Again? The Hajj of Syed Muhammad Shamsuddin Al-Bukhari (Admrial Cheng Ho)" 『復興? 賽典赤馬贍思丁布哈里（三寶太監 鄭和）之朝覲』
Have you ever been told, as an Asian-American, a good Muslim, or as an American visiting overseas that you have to behave a certain way? That only if you conform to the imperial culture, or you must cast yourself solely in the anticolonial resistance, can you honor your histories?
In the US, China, and across the world, we are seeing movements that answer that question with a firm “Yes.” There are stories that the only way to Make America Great Again, to achieve our National Rejuvenation, is to look back to our past, and force everyone to conform to what that past looked like.
But what did that past look like? In our story, we tell the story of the last ethnic Han dynasty’s Treasure Fleets: 40,000 soldier expeditions, sent by the new Ming court to secure tribute in southeast from Vietnam to Tanzania. This fleet was led by Sayyid Muhammad Shamsuddin (Zheng He), a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and spread Imperial power and Islamic evangelization hand in hand, in the Malay World, Sri Lanka, and beyond.
Here was a man, and a fleet, whose diversity advanced imperial greatness. People on all sides of this encounter, in the treasure fleets, in the nations it visited, and the people left at Home, recognized the complexity of what they were doing, whether it's interfering in a Sri Lankan civil war, or following in his grandfather’s footsteps to Mecca and Medina.
🎟 https://our.show/great
🗓 Sat, Mar 21 | 7:00 PM
📍Creativity Theatre at @creativitykids
Director @sc.lee
Co Director @stefaniechen9688
Assist.Directors @gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst
Guest Choreographers @baigali_and_dancers@calcelerity
BAICD Dancers SC Lee @stefaniechen9688@gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst Arabella @priskillahh@mindalynsanity
Guest Carnatic Artistes @sruti.sarathy@janani4oakland
Supporters @dancersgroupsf@eastbaycf@alamedacountyartscommission@shawlanderson
#BayAreaArtists #bayareadance #古典舞
In this trying moment for the Iranian people and the Iranian and Persian diasporas of all identities, for the first time ever, BAICD is introducing our show with its Dari/Farsi title first: 《عظمت در آیینهٔ غربت》 or "Greatness in the Mirror of Exile: the Hajj of Syed Muhammad Shamsuddin Al Bukhari" Our show's Persian title pays tribute to the stories told in Persian outside of Iran: in Central and South Asia, in East Africa, and in southeast Asia. In this time, we see the strength not only of those within the country, but the nervous, aching love of so many around the world.
Our Persian title draws on excerpts from two ghazals by Behdil Devali, who's family were originally Turks from Bukhara just like Admiral Cheng Ho's ancestor Syed Ajjal, but was born Azimabad (today's Patna in the Indian State of Bihar), and composed largely Persian Ghazals under Emperor Aurungzeb in Delhi. They tended to be grounded more in everyday concerns of commoners of every religion and ethnicity instead of court politics or high theology, but in so doing, captured some of rawness of exile and belonging that so many of us feel, especially in moments like these.
«این جهان خانهی ماتم است، چگونه شاد باشد؟ ای دوستان سوگ کنید، در یک ماتمخانه مردم نمیخندند»
“This world is a mourning‑house—how can one be joyful? O friends, lament—for people do not smile in a funeral‑home.”
«حیرتم بیدل سفارشنامهی آینه است میروم جایی که خود را او تماشا میکنم»
“My wonderment, Bīdel, is this epistle of the mirror: I go to a place where the Other watches me as myself.”
🎟 https://our.show/great
🗓 Sat, Mar 21 | 7:00 PM
📍Creativity Theatre @creativitykids
Director @sc.lee
Co Director @stefaniechen9688
Assist.Directors @gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst
Guest Choreographers @baigali_and_dancers@calcelerity
BAICD Dancers @sc.lee@stefaniechen9688@gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst Arabella Tan @mindalynsanity
Head of Dramaturgy Mary Liu
Assist. Dramaturg Natalia Demko
MC/Dramaturical Consultant @humairaghilzai
Honourary Dramaturg Prof. @emilyewilcox
Technical Director Alex Wong
Assist. Lighting and Sound Designer @kewong215
Hujan turun air tumpah
Penuh parit penuh lorong
Terlihat jerih payahnya
Isi kasut pun tersorong
Thank you @ebrpd@rpbotgarden for curating this beauty, even between the showers
Opinions my own
Then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wrote to the first US minister to Gran Columbia that the United States' "Policy, their interest and their feelings all concurred to favor the cause of the colonies; and the principles upon which the right of independence has been maintained by the South American patriots have been approved, not only as identical with those upon which our own independence was asserted and achieved, but as involving the whole theory of government on the emphatically American foundation of sovereignty of the people and the inalienable rights of man. To a cause reposing on this basis, the people of this country could never be indifferent.”
Thank you so much for an incredible 2025! As we wrap up the year, we're taking a look back at our amazing guest performances in the East Bay, Peninsula, and in SF! We're always open for LNY, AAPI Heritage Month, or any other events you may have in mind. We love bringing Chinese Dances that speak to your event, and thank you to everyone who's had us this year, and if you want us next year, email [email protected]
Beyond merely new years, Auld Lang Syne in Hongkong, Malaysia, Singapore and throughout the Commonwealth is associated with graduations, independence ceremonies, and times of change. Brought by Scots and Irish colonial officers, who often interacted more with local public servants than their English counterparts, especially in the run up to independence and the transition to local leadership, its a nostalgic tune to many in Asia and played at the funeral procession of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew.
Beyond the Commonwealth, it's the song used to signify the daily close of business for many stores and schools in Japan and in Taiwan, where it is also used for funerals commencements. Wherever you may be, and whatever your background, we wish you peace in the coming year, and we hope to see you in it.
Dancers @stefaniechen9688@sc.lee@gen_evievehh4@shirleyburst@cynthiaaa.le Chevy @erinpanguin@93xyao of @baigali_and_dancers@chennala and a special appearance from @tapsf 's @genesandtonic
Clients @oaklandmuseumca@tapsf@tafestival@berkeleyrep@sfgiants@oraclepark@shoptheelmwood@shawlanderson@chinatownvolunteercoalition@sanmateocofair@friendsoflincolnsquarepark@the_smart_collective@fei_tian_dancers@claymarketstudio@calaapa
📸 @kron4tv@jujubeleaflet@shawnliphoto Josie Sweeney et al
🎶 「友誼萬歲」@william_gung
#2025 #古典舞 #民間舞 #chinesedance #bayareadance
