CORRECTION APPENDED

With glossy posters and professionally-edited YouTube promo videos, the p.r. staff of the Asian American Dance Troupe (AADT) has really “busted a move” in anticipation of the group’s upcoming performance. Tomorrow’s show, “Eastbound: 2007,” to be held in Lowell Lecture Hall, will mark the troupe’s fifth annual production, a presentation of Asian dances and cultures.

Although “Eastbound” has only been produced for the past four years, AADT has been organizing similar dance shows for over a decade. Committed to spreading awareness of Asian culture through dance, the show strives to find a balance between traditional and contemporary representations of these cultures.

“There’s modern, contemporary dance, a lot of cultural pieces, and we pushed this year to have more hip-hop, to make it more accessible to everyone,” says Youyang Yang ’09, one of the co-captains of AADT.

While the troupe’s aim may be clear, the definition of the word “Asian” is not. Not only does the troupe perform a variety of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean dances, but it also represents and attempts to explain a variety of sub-groups in Asia, as well as divisions within Chinese culture itself.

“Every year we try to present a balanced representation of both minority and Han dances,” says Eva M. Luo ’08, an AADT board member. “Han” is a term used to describe the majority ethnic group in China. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

However, it’s an uphill battle. “It’s these Han dances that people are more familiar with because it’s the majority,” Luo says. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

“Eastbound” was created not only to represent these minorities, but also in an effort to creatively fuse culture and artistic expression.

“For example, Tibetan style often has movements that are symbolic of their culture,” Luo says. “Because they walk up mountains, a lot of their moves represent that. Some of their costumes have long sleeves that go past their hands—that also symbolizes part of their culture.” [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

“Eastbound” strives not only to find this parity, but also a balance between traditional and contemporary styles.

“A lot of the pieces that the students enjoy performing the most are modern, jazz, hip-hop, or pop inspired, so we always have a lot of requests to do this,” Luo says. “But it’s always part of our core mission to keep alive the tradition of the ethnic dances.” [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

CORRECTION: The April 20 arts article "East is East, West Is West; Twain Meet" incorrectly attributed comments made by Vivien Wu '08 to Eva Luo '08. Each quotation in the story attributed to Luo should have been attributed to Wu, who is the costume manager for the Asian American Dance Troupe's cultural show "Eastbound: 2007."