PART ONE
During college, I had to evaluate whether I would want to be the token Asian dancer in a predominantly white or Black company or dance with a predominantly Asian company. The reality of this was reflected in my career when I began dancing with STEAMROLLER Dance Company. STEAMROLLER is a queer loud dance company of mostly Asian Americans where rehears- als brimmed with crying laughter, mockery, and sweaty cheeks. Jesselito Bie was our choreographer or who we called ‘fearless leader’ but there was no traditional hier- archy. The collective collaboration was never defined through by-laws but I felt safe. In fact, during STEAM- ROLLER rehearsals, and the outings following, we would mercilessly tease one another as only siblings can do. I would blush from the impact as the zinging could sting, but I couldn’t deny the truth embedded in those words or the love where it came from. During those weekend rehearsals on sidewalks, and meals shared with gravel and glass on our clothes and in our hair, we also shared the challenges of being dancers in the Bay Area which boasted a diverse dancer commu- nity but with much less diversity in institutional and choreographic leadership, a fact still true today. Confrontations are challenging and yet I demand further equity in our field. Thankfully, affinity groups help us to better understand how to harmoniously work with personal and communal reactivity. Can I feel valid when making an observation? Can we, as a community, ask one another to do better without fear of repercus- sion, being labeled as difficult, or dismissed? Instead, can we call each other up to be better allies and commu- nity members? I’ve also been thinking more about why was STEAM- ROLLER rehearsing on sidewalks when my rehearsals with white choreographers were in studios? STEAM- ROLLER’s lack of funds to pay for studio space is the practical answer. And yet, as I’ve participated on grant panels it’s made me ask questions like: Is it hard to fund culturally specific work? Is Asian American dance mostly supported through cultural equity efforts and cultural preservation interests? Are other cultural groups having this issue? I wonder if the aesthetics of soft power and collaborative leadership are fundable for white folks, but not for us? I’ve become aware of artists calling themselves the Asian Babe Gang (ABG)*, and it made me nostalgic for my STEAMROLLER days. Maybe it’s their shared plea- sure in art-making, collaborative spirit, and the fact they meet in their homes. Or is it because they kind of look like me in my twenties? Or maybe its because the ABG collaboration tube top manifesto , a video to express
the revolutionary potential of tube tops as the site of the revolution, was made specifically for me? If I am their audience, they are making work for someone like me, shouldn’t they be fundable? I caught up with Asian Babe Gang (Malia Byrne, Kim Ip, Rose Huey, Nina Wu, Aiano Nakagawa, and Melissa Lewis) to learn more about their shared work.
DURING COLLEGE, I HAD TO EVALUATE WHETHER I WOULD WANT TO BE THE TOKEN ASIAN DANCER IN A PREDOMINANTLY WHITE OR BLACK COMPANY OR DANCE WITH A PREDOMINANTLY ASIAN COMPANY
What do you think of when you think of Asian American dance work? Can you name a major Asian American dance company? MELISSA: In my experience, I didn’t encounter ‘Asian American dance’ until my twenties - when I’d moved to San Francisco. I distinctly remember Googling “Asian American Dance SF” ... Lenora Lee Dance and Lily Cai Dance Company came up in my search. Yay, it existed here! But I really had to seek it out myself. Another big moment for me was when Shen Wei came from New York to show ‘ Undivided Divided ’ at YBCA. There are so many predecessors to ABG that we wish to name, acknowl- edge, connect with, learn from, recruit into ABG; but the followup observation is: there are not that many ‘main- stream’ examples. That’s where the white supremacy of the dance world shows up— keeping us in competition or isolation from each other instead of in relationship with. KIM: As a youngin’ growing up between New Zealand and the United States, Asian American Dance Work was tradi- tional Chinese Ribbon Dancing and anything that was on a variety show that my mum would watch on the televi- sion. I remember Asian American Dance Work seeming
flyer extraordinaire (Rose) and I could PROBABLY GO ON. Each of us has been in someone else’s rehearsal pro- cess or sharing our cultural experiences at a Dialogue (on Diaspora) at Nina’s Home (pre-pandemic). What I noticed in dance rehearsals with other Asian folks was how comforted I felt having discussions about our bod- ies, our herstories in ways that resonated with each other rather than just acknowledgement. AIANO: Echoing everything already said, and adding that, for me, ABG is also about learning how to build solidarity within the Asian diaspora. Within the United States, we are categorized into a monolith of “Asian American,” but there is a complex history of coloniza- tion, imperialism, and war between many of our ances- tral homes (Japan, China, Philippines, Korea, etc.). For me, ABG is an attempt to begin to explore the question, “How do we build solidarity against white-supremacy, while also facing the complex reality that as a Japanese person, my ancestors were responsible for colonization, genocide, and imperial violence against the ancestors and ancestral lands of my current comrades?”White-suprem- acy runs deep and we must address its manifestations at every level.
How would you describe Asian Babe Gang?
MALIA: Asian Babe Gang (ABG) is six friends within the asian diaspora who found each other through various dance projects and started unpacking our shared and individual experiences. We just kept hanging out and gravitating towards each other, even after the projects we were working on ended. I think engaging with race and identity can feel really isolating, and I personally was seeking witnesses and empathy in that process. We also know that Asian people have been strategically used by the forces of white supremacy to reinforce anti-Blackness and we strive to coalition build with our Black, Indige- nous, Latinx, and other friends towards mutual libera- tion. The name ABG wrecks the “asian baby girl” trope, which is rooted in the appropriation of Blackness and also depends on the monolithic stereotype of Asian women being a certain way. KIM: ABG is a group of dance artists, multi-media artists, healers (Aiano+Melissa), a mathematician (Nina), writ- ers, poets, stand up comedian (Malia), vertical dancer/
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In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
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