DONNA UCHIZONO

Donna Uchizono Company (DUC), under the direction of Artistic Director of Donna Uchizono, has performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America, Australia, and Asia. Uchizono received critical recognition for her innovative movement language and distinct wit, recognized by notable commissions for Mikhail Baryshnikov, Paula Vogel, David Hammons, and Oliver Sacks. In 2011, after decades of critically acclaimed works that toured nationally and internationally, Uchizono was identified by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (NYPL) as a master choreographer whose work requires preservation. A United States Artist Awardee, Guggenheim Fellow, Alpert Awardee, and an NEA, NDP, NPN, and Bessie recipient among others, Uchizono has been distinguished by numerous national awards and grants.

Active in community programs, she founded the Artist Advisory Board at Danspace Project, initiated panels on issues in the Dance Field at Dance USA, Danspace Project, and Gibney, served as a panelist for various funding institutions, and served as a mentor for Sugar Salon, DoublePlus at Gibney Dance Center, and DUC’s choreographic mentorship program.

With her 2022 distinction as the only American-born choreographer of Asian ancestry in the history of Modern Dance, to have received cumulative esteemed national grants and toured a dance company across the US and the world, Uchizono has been tirelessly reaching out to leaders in the field to address the problem of invisibility and omission faced by Asian American artists.

Since 2022, Uchizono has been humbled by the distinction of being the first and only American-born choreographer of Asian ancestry in the history of Modern Dance, who has received cumulative national award recognition and toured an eponymous dance company across the U.S. and internationally. She has been continuously grappling with issues of invisibility/visibility and the subsequent sense of isolation from the lack of American-born of Asian descent dance mentor(s) who share the experience of growing up with the invisibilized scars of racism.