Gold Standard Arts Foundation hosts A Day of Gathering

On Saturday, May 31, Gold Standard Arts Foundation is excited to host a day of gathering to celebrate our AAPI dance community and all of the contributions to the vibrant arts scene that YOU help activate! The day begins with two free dance classes where our combined energy will move and shake us, followed by a robust Community Tea House discussion hosted by Phil Chan, founding President of GSAF. Come for one, two, or all of the day’s offerings, but pre-registration is required through Eventbrite. GSAF looks forward to sharing this beautiful time of togetherness with you during such a vital time in our collective momentum.

If you want to see us to continue to produce free events like this, please consider donating at our .

Host Bios:

Jessica Tong

Raised in Salt Lake City, Tong attended the University of Utah dancing as a member of Utah Ballet. She went on to dance with BalletMet Columbus, Ballet Tech, and Hubbard Street 2 before dancing in the main company for 11 years. Upon retirement from the stage in 2017, she became Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s rehearsal director and was named the company’s associate artistic director in 2020.

Named one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch in 2009, Jessica has served on the Ambassador committee for Dance for Life Chicago, on national grants panels, and in mentorship programs, including 92NY’s Future Dance Festival, Rhode Island Women’s Choreographic Project, and TU Dance: CULTIVATE. Tong is an accomplished teacher, leading movement classes nationally and staging works for such companies as Pacific Northwest Ballet and Dutch National Ballet. Jessica is a founding board member of Gold Standard Arts Foundation and has served as rehearsal director for A.I.M by Kyle Abraham since 2022.

Brinda Guha

Brinda Guha is a Bessie-nominated artist, and identifies as a non-disabled, caste-privileged, cisgender and queer South-Asian American Kathak and Contemporary Indian dancer. She co-founded Kalamandir Dance Company in 2010 after working in the Kathak (Malabika Guha) & Manipuri (Kalavati+ Bimbavati Devi) dance disciplines, as well as Flamenco (Carmen de las Cuevas; Dionisia Garcia) and Contemporary Fusion vocabularies. She's choreographed for many national stages and self-produced original feature-length dance productions which earned her artist residencies at Dixon Place (2018) and Dancewave (2019) to continue to develop work. Now, she is represented by CESD Talent Agency and is pursuing artistic direction, performance and arts education opportunities. She teaches for Kalamandir of NJ Dance School and dances with all-female multicultural percussive trio, Soles of Duende. She is also the curator of WISE FRUIT NYC, a seasonal live arts installment (est 2017) dedicated to the feminine divine and honoring select women-led organizations. For her day job, she works as the Senior Producing Coordinator for Dance/NYC, a dance service organization based on the values of justice, equity and inclusion.

Phil Chan

Phil Chan is a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface and the President of the Gold Standard Arts Foundation. He is a graduate of Carleton College and an alumnus of the Ailey School. He has held fellowships with Dance/USA, Drexel University, Jacob’s Pillow, Harvard University, the Manhattan School of Music, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, NYU, and the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art in Paris.

As a writer, he is the author of Final Bow for Yellowface: Dancing between Intention and Impact and Banishing Orientalism, and has served as the Executive Editor for FLATT Magazine and contributed to Dance Europe Magazine, Dance Magazine, Dance Australia, and the Huffington Post, and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Dance Magazine. He served multiple years on the National Endowment for the Arts dance panel, the Jadin Wong Award panel presented by the Asian American Arts Alliance, and is currently on the advisory council for the Dance Data Project. He has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard University, Carleton College, and was named a Next 50 Arts Leader by the Kennedy Center.

His recent projects include directing “Madama Butterfly” for Boston Lyric Opera (garnering “Best of 2023” in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Broadway World), staging a newly reimagined “La Bayadere” for Indiana University, and producing a series of 10,000 Dreams Asian Choreography Festivals (‘Best of 2024” in Minneapolis Star Tribune, Utah Review, and Pointe Magazine). His dances are currently in the repertory at Ballet West and Oakland Ballet, where he serves as Resident Choreographer. He received the 2024 Dance Advocate Award from Dance/NYC.

Info: Jessica Tong (Rehearsal Director, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham and GSAF founding board member) uses ballet exercises as the foundation for class, but further emphasizes the fundamentals of spiral, weight, momentum, and imagery to free up the emotional power of bodies in space.

Info: Taught by Brinda Guha (Bessie nominated artist and current dancer, Soles of Duende)

At the core of contemporary Indian dance lies a hybrid of the intricacies of classical Indian dance—footwork, expression, and hand movements—with targeted exercises to provide for a fulfilling and fresh contemporary dance routine at the end of every class.

Info: Join Phil Chan (scholar, educator, choreographer and co-founder, Final Bow for Yellowface)

and network with other Asian creatives, learn strategies from your peers, expand your professional toolbox, and be in community together during this unprecedented time for the arts.

Also check out other Arts events in New York, Dance events in New York, Workshops in New York.