Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company presents
Vector: A Site-Specific work celebrating kinetic sculptor George Rickey
Saturday, September 26 | 4:30pm-5:30pm
Photo credit: Lauren Victor
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
Tickets: $40
Kreeger Museum Members: $35
The performance will take place in the Great Hall at 4:30pm. Please join us immediately after the performance for a post-performance discussion with Dana Tai Soon Burgess, followed by an outdoor reception to view George Rickey's Two Lines Oblique Down III.
Set within the main gallery of The Kreeger Museum, this dance transforms the experience of viewing George Rickey’s kinetic sculpture into a living dialogue between steel, wind, architecture, and the human body. Rickey’s precisely balanced forms—activated by the slightest breeze—become both inspiration and point of departure, their quiet rotations echoed in the dancers’ fluid spirals, suspended balances, and sweeping pathways. Celebrated for their graceful, wind-driven motion, Rickey’s sculptures blur the line between engineering and choreography.
Dana Tai Soon Burgess’s choreography unfolds in the museum, allowing audiences to encounter movement inspired by sculpture. The performance invites visitors to experience Rickey’s work as part of a broader dialogue between visual art and dance, where themes of motion, balance, and transformation resonate across multiple spaces. Rooted in Burgess’s long history of creating works in museums, the choreography dissolves the boundaries between performer, artwork, architecture, and viewer.
Together, movement and art create a poetic conversation in which space, perception, and the human experience continually reshape one another. The performance is followed by a talk with Dana Tai Soon Burgess and a wine reception.
About the Residency
The Kreeger Museum and Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company are thrilled to announce a two-year residency for the Company at The Kreeger Museum. This collaboration grows out of an ongoing relationship between Burgess and The Kreeger Museum. Between 2015 and 2025, Burgess choreographed three new pieces inspired by the works of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Helen Frankenthaler, artists represented in the Museum's permanent collection.
“It is wonderful to formalize our longstanding partnership with Dana Tai Soon Burgess with this residency,” says Helen Chason, Director of The Kreeger Museum. “Earlier collaborations with Burgess were performed to sold-out audiences and we are thrilled to welcome the Company back to our spaces. Audiences are captivated by the Burgess's interpretations of work in our permanent collection, and we look forward to additional creative and inspirational performances in the future.”
Now in its 33rd Anniversary season, the Company plans additional performances at the Kreeger which it will be announced soon. Dana is a leader in the national movement to collaborate with and perform in museums.
The Kreeger Museum welcomed the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company early in the Company’s inception. “It’s a jewel box with a treasure trove of a collection. The collection as well as the architectural design by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, lends itself perfectly to dance and music,” says Dana. “And we’re looking forward to returning there with this special work.”
About the Artists
Now in its 33rd season, Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company (DTSBDC) creates and performs contemporary dance works to celebrate the indomitable American spirit. DTSBDC performances uplift, inspire and bring insights to seasoned dance lovers and new audiences alike. The Company is a leader in the national movement to collaborate with and perform at visual arts museums, as well as theaters. In 2016, DTSBDC was named the Smithsonian Institution’s first-ever resident dance company. Last year the company began a series of new residencies including a yearlong “social impact” residency at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Company has a long history of artistic collaborations and partnerships with other organizations including: NASA, the U.S. State Department, the Mayor’s Office of Asian Pacific Islander Americans, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and more. DTSBDC has been presented at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, The Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, Arena Stage, National Gallery of Art, the Noguchi Museum, the United Nations, La MaMa, the Asia Society, the Korean Cultural Center, as well as at the White House at the invitation of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. As a U.S. State Department cultural envoy, DTSBDC has toured extensively internationally, to 5 continents and over 30 countries. For more information about DTSBDC visit www.dtsbdc.org.
This project is supported by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
