DAN KWONG

Dan Kwong is a solo performance artist, writer, teacher, and visual artist who has been presenting his work nationally and internationally since 1989. Hailed by critics as “a master storyteller”, Kwong draws upon his own life experiences as well as historical and contemporary material to explore the many facets of identity. With keen insight and a generous sense of humor, topics such as culture, class, race, gender, sexuality and nationality all come under scrutiny. His dynamic creations intertwine storytelling, multimedia, poetry, striking visuals, innovative staging and dynamic physicality.

Touring extensively, Kwong has performed all across the U.S. and in England, Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mexico, Canada and China. He is recipient of numerous major fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Art Matters Inc., Brody Arts Fund, Franklin Furnace, N.Y., Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, and twice has been nominated for the Alpert Award in the Arts. In 2004 he received a major fellowship for Outstanding Mid-Career Artist from the California Community Foundation and in 2005 he was honored by the Japanese American Historical Society for Outstanding Contributions to Japanese American culture and history.

In 2004 he released his first book, FROM INNER WORLDS TO OUTER SPACE: The Multimedia Performances of Dan Kwong, published by University of Michigan Press and edited by Prof. Robert Vorlicky, Theater Studies, NYU.

He has also written a screenplay in collaboration with Academy Award-winning Cedar Grove Productions, about a baseball team in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II.

Since 2000 he has been working in Southeast Asia on various international collaborations such as Women Warrior Tales in Indonesia (2000), The Art of Rice in Bali (2002/2003), and The Mekong Project in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia (2003/2004).

Most recently he completed Sleeping With Strangers, an interdisciplinary collaboration with traditional Chinese opera artist Peng Jingquan developed in Los Angeles and Beijing (2005).

Kwong is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Highways Performance Space and is a Resident Artist at the 18^th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA.

You can view his website at http://www.dankwong.com

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