Oakland Ballet to Present Third Annual Dancing Moons Festival This Spring

Oakland Ballet Company's 2023-24 Season will continue in March with the third annual DANCING MOONS FESTIVAL, a celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander choreographers. The highlight this year will be the preview of a major new work inspired by the lives of detainees at Angel Island, the United States' main immigration facility on the West Coast from 1910 to 1940.

The Dancing Moons Festival opens at the Asian Cultural Center in Oakland with four performances March 14 – 16, followed by three performances at ODC Theater in San Francisco, April 5 – 6. Tickets for the Oakland dates, starting at $35, are now on sale at oaklandballet.org/dancing-moons-festival.

The preview of Oakland Ballet's Angel Island Project will feature choreography by guest artists Natasha Adorlee and Feng Ye. Adorlee began her career as a choreographer and filmmaker while dancing with ODC/Dance, where she performed for almost a decade. She is now the founder and artistic director of Concept o4, a marriage of her interests in dance and multimedia design. Feng Ye moved to the Bay Area from China as a “National First-Class Dancer,” where she served as artistic director and president of the Chinese National Song and Dance Troupe. Now based in the South Bay, Feng Ye directs her own self-named dance company, promoting the integration of dance cultures from multiple ethnic groups.

When the Angel Island Project finally premieres next spring, there will be additional contributions by guest choreographers Phil Chan and Elaine Kudo among others.

"With captured imaginations, we take flight on a journey of discovery and storytelling shaped by a beautiful score by Chinese American composer Huang Ruo, and the inspired poetry that was carved into the walls by detainees at the Angel Island Immigration Station,” said Oakland Ballet Artistic Director Graham Lustig. “The Angel Island Project helps us to trace who we are today by remembering from where we came."

In addition to a preview of the Angel Island Project, this year's Dancing Moon Festival will also include a revival of Chan's Ballet des Porcelaines or The Teapot Prince and Caili Quan's Layer Upon Layer. Rounding out the program will be selections from Exquisite Corpse, choreographed jointly by Chan, Kudo and Seyong Kim. Exquisite Corpse premiered at last year's festival to great fanfare.

This year's festival will, for the first time, also feature an exhibition of visual artists at the Asian Cultural Center in Oakland. Among the artists are Sanjay Vora, Mark Shigenga and JaYing Wang.

For more information, visit oaklandballet.org/dancing-moons-festival.

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