Dancing for Identity: Spotlight on Linda Kuo
Interview by Monet Takeda
Linda Kuo is a student in the Certificate in Arts Management at the NYU SPS Center for Applied Liberal Arts as well as the co-founder and director of Dancers Unlimited, a bi-coastal company based in New York and Hawai’i that “creates authentic movement for community advancement through creative collaboration, community engagement, and social justice work.” Dancers Unlimited blends contemporary dance styles with cultural practices while healing communities through anti-racism work. We had the opportunity to speak with Kuo about her journey through the world of art and community building, as well as her experience as a continuing education student at NYU.
Q: Can you tell us about your background and who you are?
A: I’m Taiwanese-American, born in Taiwan, and I moved to Hawai’i when I was three. I grew up in a multicultural environment and was in the ethnic majority. It wasn’t until I first went to Boston for college that I was a minority, which was a huge culture shock and wake-up call for me. I didn’t know that these experiences were going to be so influential in my thought and creative process, but they eventually shaped how Dancers Unlimited approaches dance, culture, and community building.
It was interesting having a strong Asian identity while also being rooted in Hawaiian values. The Hawaiian Renaissance came about in the 80s and 90s when I was growing up, a time when there were a lot of Hawaiian culture practitioners, activists, and advocates of Hawaiian language and learning. Growing up, I asked: what are the roots? Why do we dance? What does Hula mean for the native Hawaiians who lost their land?
When I moved to New York to be a dancer, I got introduced to a lot of hip hop pioneers. I experienced hip hop differently in Hawai’i through MTV, and only got exposed to the fun, party side of hip hop. But the hip hop pioneers showed me how hip hop strengthens people and how it is an expression of anti-oppression, personal feelings, and freedom. I also grew up dancing ballet. While my Hula teachers are rooted in the foundations and history of the Hawaiian people, my ballet teacher focused on achieving a certain look. Both are very strict, but one is more about culture, people and their survival, while a lot of ballet is about the fantasy world. These three styles shaped how I approached dancing in general.
Q: What inspired you to found Dancers Unlimited?
A: When I founded Dancers Unlimited, I didn’t start the company because I wanted to perform or tour. I moved home to Hawai’i in 2009 and was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life, when Furlough Fridays happened. The Department of Education cut funding and cancelled school on Fridays. My dancer friends and I happened to move back to Hawai’i around the same time, so we decided to do something. We partnered up with different dance studios and community centers and offered free dance classes for the kids. That’s how Dancers Unlimited started, as an answer to a community call for help.
Somehow, that got us invited to do shows. We performed at the Contemporary Museum of Honolulu, and that first performance got us booked to go on tour in China. We ended up meeting a lot of great people in Shanghai and grew. We did commercial gigs, performances, and more entertainment stuff.
But we always had cultural practitioners guiding us, so our company focus has always been community. In 2016, we pivoted and started restructuring our programs towards offering a platform to amplify marginalized voices. Then Donald Trump won the election, and conversations about immigration, racism, and white supremacy kept coming up. That’s when I realized I don’t have the tools to continue these conversations without specific training. So, I connected with Urban Bush Women and attended their Summer Leadership Institute at NYU, and was eventually invited to their BOLD Leadership program. There, I built anti-racism tools and learned about using dance as a platform for equity and justice.
Q: What impact has Dancers Unlimited had on its community?
A: Last year, we started Edible Tales, which is our new program that will culminate in a dance documentary. It will include dance, interviews, intergenerational dialogue and food, and cover topics like cultural heritage, social justice, and food apartheid.
The community was a big part of creating this program. We met virtually with our community both in Hawai’i and New York every month, then eventually we started having people coming in from Africa and all over the world. Surprisingly, we started talking about taro; we didn’t realize how universal taro is. Taiwanese people, Hawaiians, East Asians, Southeast Asians, Africans, Caribbeans, everybody uses taro and have similar ways of preparing it. These conversations we’ve been having with our community go beyond dancers and dance lovers. It’s exciting to see people jumping on board who are not dancers, like filmmakers, chefs, farmers, and neighbors. We found that everyone is actually very similar, but racism and social constructs got in the way and divided us. Our impact is bringing the community together to give birth to this project.
We got to hear so many stories that were different yet had similar challenges, like capitalism and colonization. The beauty is that we are allowing these conversations to happen in a lighthearted, nourishing way. It’s hard to talk about anti-racism and colonization, but when
approached through dance and food, it’s much easier to come up with solutions to build and collaborate together.
Q: Why did you decide to pursue the Certificate in Arts Management?
A: I always wanted Dancers Unlimited to be a non-profit, but it was an LLC until last year because it’s a lot of work to be a 501(c)(3) and I didn’t know how to manage one. But when the pandemic hit, we needed a structure to be more financially sustainable, and all of our tours got cancelled overnight. So, I finally had the time to start my first class in March of 2020. I picked NYU specifically because the Certificate was virtual. I have a 5-year-old, and being on campus as a mom can be challenging. I loved that the virtual format meant I can do it on my own time. And when I saw Donna Walker-Kuhne on the faculty list, I knew I wanted to take classes with this amazing woman. I had come across her newsletter five years ago and read it every month religiously, and this was the perfect opportunity to learn even more from her.
Q: How have the courses in the Certificate in Arts Management supported your work?
A: I started the certificate program at the same time I applied for 501(c)(3) status, and applied everything I learned directly to Dancers Unlimited. It was great because I wasn’t thinking about a theoretical company, I was learning about exactly what my company needed.
The professors were very helpful advisors. They gave feedback with every assignment and tailored advice for Dancers Unlimited, and were surprisingly accessible and always responded to emails within a day. When I took the course Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Arts, the timing worked out perfectly because the final project was to make a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access (DEIA) plan, which we didn’t have at Dancers Unlimited. We’ve always been a diverse and inclusive company, but we had never put it on paper. The project was very useful because right after it was over, there was a grant application due in a week that required our DEIA plan. I wouldn’t have even known how to make a DEIA plan or what language to include without that class–and we ended up getting the grant!
Q: What do you have planned for Summer 2022?
A: In August, we will have our travel program MoveMEANT Destination, which explores socially and culturally important topics through dance. Working with native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, we aim to decolonize our artistic practices and realign ourselves with social justice and re-indigenization work through this program.
In the Kingdom of Hawai’i before the U.S. takeover, there were one million people on the island of Oahu who sustained themselves only through indigenous farming and fishing practices. Unlike capitalism, these practices focus on being caretakers of the land without overtaking or abusing it. However, these practices are no longer commonly used, and today 95% of produce in Hawai’i is imported. When the pandemic hit, the unemployment rate in Hawai’i shot to 65% because of the reliance on tourism and the military. This unemployment led many people to gravitate towards these indigenous ideas of sustainability and go back to land-based practices.
MoveMEANT Destination returns to these re-indigenization ideas. It is a one-week cultural immersion experience where you work with different Hawaiian cultural practitioners restoring farms and ancient fish ponds. The program will also include authentic Hula dancing.
Hula is a very spiritual practice, and starts with making your own costume through ceremonies where you have to ask the Earth for permission before taking a leaf or a flower. There will also be a reflection and journaling process throughout. Ultimately, you will learn what it means to reconnect with culture and how to apply Hawaiian practice to your own life.
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Thank you to Linda Kuo for speaking with us about her fascinating and important work. The
NYU SPS Certificate in Arts Management provides aspiring and practicing arts professionals
with the leadership, fundraising, marketing, and financial skills necessary to succeed in the
competitive world of visual and performing arts administration. The program is based at the
Center for Applied Liberal Arts, which offers professional certificates and Continuing Education
courses in the humanities, arts, writing, filmmaking, and translation.
During the Summer 2022 semester Donna Walker-Kuhne will be teaching at CALA. For information click: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Arts