Choreographing Asian America

Acknowledgments

- ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book could not have materialized without the support and guidance of family, friends, and colleagues. First I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation advisors, Marta Savigliano and Susan L. Foster, for believing that my half-formed ideas could become a field of study and to Suzanna Tamminen for seeing the project to its end. Time to think, and write, was made possible by an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Bryn Mawr College, an Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Faculty Fellowship, and a Research Board Grant from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Over the years numerous people have provided invaluable feedback as the work emerged in both its written, spoken, and performed iterations. I thank Priya Srinivasan, Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns, San San Kwan, Esther Kim Lee, Sean Metzger, Dan Bacalzo, Karen Shimakawa, Josephine Lee, and Anthea Kraut for years of listening. Their insights are reflected on the pages of this book. I want to thank the artists who shared their work with me including Hung Nguyen, Hiep Nguyen, Ham Tran, Uyen Huynh, Jayvee Hiep Mai, Sue Li-Jue, Maura Nguyen Donohue, and Erin O’Brien. The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign provided an intellectual home for this work. Thank you to Kent Ono, Augusto Espiritu, Martin Manalansan, Lisa Cacho, David Coyoca, Junaid Rana, Moon-Kie Jung, Yoon Pak, Lisa Nakamura, Mary Ellerbe, Pia Sengsavanh, and Viveka Kudaligama. A thank you to the School of Music and Dance at San Francisco State University for welcoming me into a spirited community of faculty and students. Jens Richard Giersdorf, Denise Uyehara, Fiona I.B. Ngô, Mimi Nguyen, Soo Ah Kwon, Christopher Lee, Michael Masatsugu, and Brian Locke have provided love, food, and friendship to survive the ups and downs of academic life. From my family I have inherited a number of things that have manifested in this work for better or worse. From my gonggong and popo I have inherited a love of a good anecdote told with a sense of drama, from my mama a love of dancing, and from my baba a love of reading. That I would x - Acknowledgments one day write an ethnography on Asian American dance theater was perhaps inevitable. My brother Yu-Tung has provided steadfast support, and my sister Adrienne has provided the personalized cheerleading that only an astrological twin can channel. Most of all I thank my sweetheart Bruce and my son Blake, whose very first words included ‘‘sing the book.’’ ...