Tint Dance Festival Seeks to Set the Stage for Artists of Color
A fusion of contemporary, hip hop, tap, Hawaiian, and African dance is set to hit the stage in the Tint Dance Festival on February 9-10. Founded by Sue Ann Huang and Arlene Martin, the festival hopes to raise critical awareness around racial and ethnic representation in the greater Seattle community by featuring choreographers and dancers of color. The vision of the festival is to open up the conversation so that artists and audiences will be inspired to reflect on and discuss their own diverse experiences around identity.
Huang, an assistant director for residence life at Seattle University thought of the idea after several years of going to different auditions and noticing that the choreographers and dancers were…show more content… “It was just a random day trip and I was just struck by it. […] I was walking through and just it’s crazy because I didn’t even know about it but this island was a deeply sacred place some people thought it was the birthplace of Apollo,” Tisa said.
From this experience, Tisa replicated the sights and emotions in her cotemporary piece Delos. She especially found inspiration from the ancient ruin found on the island.
“I’m a really visual person and my piece starts with 6 dancers in a diagonal line and I took a picture of these short pieces of column.”
The festival showcases pieces that differ vastly from each other, which Huang says is what sets it apart from other dance shows in Seattle.
“Sometimes you go to a show and it all seems like they have a similar theme and they get a little bit repetitive and I'm pretty sure no one we will be able to say that seeing our show,” Huang said. “There's a benefit to what art and dance can be when you have a diverse group of bodies and people and the dance community of Seattle should pay a bit more attention to
