Points of Arrival is a multimedia stage performance with five dancers that explores the similar history as Room: A Corporeal Dialogue Across Time but from a different angle. Inspired by poems carved on the walls by early Chinese immigrants detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco between 1910 and 1940, Points of Arrival recounts some of their discriminatory experiences of arrival. The work engages with the dancers’ individual experiences and family histories to ask the questions of why caring about stories of those whom we may or may not directly identify with and how their experiences remain relevant today.
The work was originally set on students at Duke University and premiered at Reynolds Industries Theater on November 17, 2023.
Choreographer: J.J. Guan
Dancers’ names: Natalia Cervantes, Indigo Cook, David Liu, Amare Swierc, Azie Zong
Visual Design: J.J. Guan
Original Music: Karam Salem
Voice-over: Bryonn Bain and Dancers