Dana Tai Soon Burgess

Dana Tai Soon Burgess is a leading American choreographer, arts administrator, and cultural figure known worldwide as the "Diplomat of Dance." In 1992 he founded the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company, the preeminent modern dance company in Washington, DC. Burgess has been the Smithsonian Institution’s first-ever Choreographer-in-Residence based at the National Portrait Gallery. He has served as a Cultural Ambassador for the US State Department for over two decades, has received two Senior Fulbright scholarships for dance, and was awarded the Selma Jeanne Cohen Award in 2021. He and his husband, Jameson, live in the nation’s capital with their dogs, Bana and Dali.