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The question:
What can happen in a hotel room in 24 hours?
24 Hours.
7 Artists.
2 Rooms.
0 Sleep.
Jez Kuono`ono Lee
Jez is a multifaceted genderqueer hapa performance artist and arts administrator from Hawai`i Nei and the United States . As if that alone isn’t enough, Jez is also an all-around nice guy with a shit-load of accomplishments that ze will brag about here: (get used to the pronoun thing, folks… tough titties if it confuses you.).
In 1999, Jez moved to the Mainland (aka United States ) to pursue gays while gaining a proper college education and getting real smart. Four years later, Jez graduated from Mills College with a BA in Dance and has the names of great dance artists under hir belt including: Mary Cochran, June Watanabe, Molissa Fenley, Mark Morris, Kim Epifano, Ledoh, and lots others who aren’t as famous so they don’t really need to be mentioned regardless whether they were equally influential or not. Besides, I bet you don’t even know who the hell Molissa, or June, or even Mark, is… do you?!
Now then, a trained dancer with non-dance influences, Jez's interests include performance art (of the experimental “WTF” variety), post-post modernism cause it sounds cool, new butoh aka “neo butoh” or “butoh for butoh” sake, sports, and unconscious movement patterns (like swaying when drunk), with particular focus on the role and participation or non-participation of the spectator. Jez's thesis, Butches for Balanchine, focused on masculine female and lesbian iconology and representation in American Modern Dance. Jez has received the Paul Wood Performance Art Award, an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Project Grant, and the Robert and Betty Woo Scholarship, as well as a grant from the San Francisco Foundation through the Queer Cultural Center . (oooooh… aaaaaaah)
Yes. Most recently, Jez has collaborated with fellow 24 Hour Show Artist Shawn Tamaribuchi to create work as Twincest. A new media arts collaboration, their work explores the dynamics of their relationship, sameness, and desire though mediums such as movement, images, objects, and sound. Twincest's live performances are intelligent, explicit, and intended for mature audiences. They were named San Francisco Bay Guardian's "Top Ten" for Dance in 2005 and their work has been called "daring, hot, rough and unexpected" and "intense, beautiful and disturbing." Twincest looks at “sexual and gender taboos in a terrifyingly brave -- and brutally honest -- way." Raise your hand if you think that was copy n’ pasted directly from the website, and come to El Rio on Nov. 30th to see us in action.
Where was I…oh yes. Jez is the Executive Director of Asian American Dance Performances, a non-profit dance organization supporting Asian American dance artists in the Bay Area for over 30 years. AADP presents festivals, dance concerts, gives annual awards, acts as a fiscal sponsor to a large group of contemporary and traditional dance artists, and has a stellar Board of Directors. Asian American Dance Performances is the first Asian American Dance non-profit in the United States , and consequentially, the WORLD.
Wow! “Tell me more, you say?” Okay then. Jez is also a Board Member of the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, as well as a Board Director of CounterPULSE Theater. Ze is ALSO an Advisory Board Member of Fresh Meat Productions, AND sits as a steering committee member/stage manager of San Francisco ’s TransMarch, AND is a new member of the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee, which holds an annual Bay Area Dance Awards Ceremony each year at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
