Personal Persona Person is an evening-length solo tracking the 15-year evolution of my personal dance style, my battle arsenal of moves, and my B-boy personas, in relation to experiences of transition and loss. The work recognizes my creative process as a means of coping, and explores its inverse: coping as a creative process, and a fundamental human act of sustainability. Personal Persona Person incorporates everything I love about dancing; bringing together improvisation/freestyle, choreography, audience interaction, and my Breaking, Modern, and Postmodern influences and sensibilities.
Premiered October 2016.
See excerpts from the sections titled Personal, Persona, and Person.
Press
It is rare to come across an artist who can verbalize his/her thoughts, personal conflicts and creative ideas onstage with great clarity, while also communicating them beautifully through movement. Tom Tsai is one such artist. - Jeff Slayton, SeeDance.com
Performances
March 16-17, 2018 — excerpt at Inside Outside: Dancing Through Prison Walls @ Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, CA; featuring DJ Arty Art
October 30, 2017 — excerpt inside California Rehabilitation Center, Norco, CA
June 30, 2017 — Translate (Voices of Dance) @ Dixon Place, New York, NY; featuring DJ Eddie Res
April 30, 2017 — excerpt at Breakin’ Convention @ Sadler’s Wells (front of house), London, UK; featuring DJ Arty Art
October 8-9, 2016 — Tom Tsai: Personal Persona Person (Premiere) @ ARC Pasadena, Pasadena, CA; featuring DJ Arty Art