This collection of AAPI dance documentaries celebrates movement as both art and testimony. Through the rhythms of traditional forms and the innovation of contemporary performance, these films reveal how dance becomes a language of identity, memory, and resistance. Each story highlights the ways AAPI artists carry culture forward, using the body as an archive of history and a canvas for transformation. Together, they remind us that dance is more than performance—it is resilience in motion.
Two Asian American dancers try to persuade the world's leading ballet companies to jettison Asian stereotypes, including dancing in yellowface. Georgina Pazcoguin and Phil Chan battle entrenched tradition and political pushback as they shine a critical spotlight on The Nutcracker and other beloved classics in this vivid account of cultural missteps and creative evolution.
Director Jennifer Rita Lin
Jennifer Lin is an award-winning journalist who worked as a correspondent for The Philadelphia Inquirer in China, New York and Washington, D.C. Her first documentary, Beethoven in Beijing, premiered on PBS's Great Performances in April 2021.
This collection of AAPI dance documentaries celebrates movement as both art and testimony. Through the rhythms of traditional forms and the innovation of contemporary performance, these films reveal how dance becomes a language of identity, memory, and resistance. Each story highlights the ways AAPI artists carry culture forward, using the body as an archive of history and a canvas for transformation. Together, they remind us that dance is more than performance—it is resilience in motion.
Two Asian American dancers try to persuade the world's leading ballet companies to jettison Asian stereotypes, including dancing in yellowface. Georgina Pazcoguin and Phil Chan battle entrenched tradition and political pushback as they shine a critical spotlight on The Nutcracker and other beloved classics in this vivid account of cultural missteps and creative evolution.
Director Jennifer Rita Lin
Jennifer Lin is an award-winning journalist who worked as a correspondent for The Philadelphia Inquirer in China, New York and Washington, D.C. Her first documentary, Beethoven in Beijing, premiered on PBS's Great Performances in April 2021.