Garden Tongues
Created by Grace Yi-Li Tong in collaboration with the performers
Performed by Sydney Shu-Yu Chow, Rachel Ha-Eun Lee, Hiroka Nagai, and Grace Yi-Li Tong
Costumes by Dan Wang
Photography by Anthony Barton, Alice Chacon, and t.filmm
Selected for The Second Avenue Dance Company’s Senior Retrospective Concert, The Craft NY: Governors Island, and the Made by Women Festival.
Garden Tongues is a spiteful performance of tastes: the bitterness of exotification, the saltiness of my grandmother’s kitchen, and the sweetness of collective strength. Employing movement, voice, comedy, and task, Garden Tongues aims to re-appropriate “the figure of the Asian woman” as she has been drawn over time by a white, patriarchal system. With spite and pizazz, the four performers of Garden Tongues parody seminal East Asian caricatures, take the pen into their own hands, and find sisterhood within conflated experience.
Produced with the support of Mare Nostrum Elements, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Mark Morris Dance Group, Movement Research, The Malcolm Family, The Baker Family, Jeff Taylor, Richard and Lindsay, Trang Le and Rich Tong, William and Mary Mao, and Connie Mao.
Performance history
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An evening of work by Grace Yi-Li Tong featuring Garden Tongues (full) and ZOO! (premiere) at Arts on Site.
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Mixed bill featuring full accumulation of Garden Tongues and work by Ke’ron.
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An accumulative performance of three installments of Garden Tongues at Arts on Site on July 15, 2022, performed with If Ever by FiveTwo Dance.
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Premier of (iii. together), the third installment of Garden Tongues. Created with the support of the Emerging Choreographer Series 2022.
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(i. kiss), the first installment of Garden Tongues selected for the Made By Women Festival hosted by Dual Rivet and Arts on Site.
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(ii. mmm), the second installment of Garden Tongues premiered at The Craft NY: Governor’s Island in June, 2021.
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Garden Tongues (i. Kiss) created for the Second Avenue Dance Company in the 2020-2021 academic year. First premiering in December 2020, Garden Tongues was then selected to return for the Second Avenue Dance Company Retrospective concert in March 2021.
“Garden Tongues builds a comical bridge between flirtation and mockery in a cultural and gender-based sense. Each dancer’s voice is noticeable and present. Their commitment throughout the piece gives the audience a laugh as much as a sense of curiosity about what choice Tong will make next.”
Miranda Stuck for Dance Enthusiast
