Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company records

Dana Tai Soon Burgess was born in Carmel, CA to artist parents Joseph and Anna. While Dana was still a young child, the Burgesses moved to Santa Fe, NM, where he was first introduced to dance at the age of 16. In 1985, Dana graduated from Santa Fe High School and moved to Albuquerque, NM, where he studied dance and Asian history at the University of New Mexico. After finishing college in 1990, Dana moved to Washington, DC and began auditioning and performing in the metropolitan area. In 1991 he founded Moving Forward Contemporary Asian American Dance Company as a way to explore issues concerning Asian American identity. Dana also began organizing a summer program for young Asian American dancers called Moving Forward Asian American Youth Dance Program. He enrolled in the George Washington University, where he earned a Masters in Fine Arts in 1994. In 2005, the company name became Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co.

Dana Tai Soon Burgess has performed with a wide variety of dancers at venues across the world, and taught hundreds of students. He trained with Tim Wengerd, Bill Evens, and Jill Wantanabe. He has received grants from the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities, and the DC Community Humanities Council. Additionally he has received corporate sponsorships from Anheuser Busch, the Meyer Foundation, and AT&T. His work has been performed in numerous venues, including Dance Place, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Kennedy Center; as well as La Mama, the United Nations and the Lincoln Center Out of Doors in New York. He has taught at the Kirov Academy in DC, the Hamborg Ballet, and the Washington Ballet; as well as the George Mason University, the University of Maryland, and Georgetown University. In 1994, he was awarded the Mayor's Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist. He has also served on the board of the Asian American Arts Alliance and was appointed to the D.C. Commission for the Arts and Humanities.