- 7 days ago
- 8 min read
Just in time for AAPI Heritage Month, we’re thrilled to announce that Voices Rising: Asian Americans in Motion is out NOW on Youtube!
Presented by ALL ARTS and The Serica Initiative, Voices Rising: Asian Americans in Motion is the latest installment of the New York Emmy Award nominated Voices Rising series, celebrating the brilliance and influence of Asian Americans in sports and dance.
We are proud to amplify leading Asian American voices across sports and performance — including athletes, dancers, sportscasters, sports medicine physicians, and more — as they share their experiences on how movement has shaped their identity, storytelling, and community.
Learn more about the speakers & performers of Voices Rising: Asian Americans in Motion below!
Dance Spotlight
Duke Dang - Award-Winning Dancer & Executive Director of Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Duke Dang is the executive director of Works & Process, a performing arts organization that champions and resources artists and their creative process from studio-to-stage by partnering with over a dozen residency centers across Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York to provide fully-funded residencies and presents iteratively at the Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and SummerStage. Under Duke’s leadership, Works & Process pioneered the bubble residency model in summer 2020, which was captured in the NY-Emmy nominated docuseries Isolation to Creation, and broadcast on PBS and ALL ARTS. Works & Process was honored with a 2021 Dance Magazine Award and nominated in 2021 and 2022 for the APAP William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence and Sustained Achievement. Multiple Works & Process commissions including LaTasha Barnes’ The Jazz Continuum, Les Ballet Afrik – New York Is Burning by Omari Wiles, and More Forever by Caleb Teicher and Conrad Tao have been honored with Bessie Awards.
Mira Nadon - Principal Dancer, New York City Ballet
Mira Nadon is a Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Nadon began her dance training at the age of 6 at the Inland Pacific Ballet Academy in Montclair, California under the direction of Victoria Koenig and Jill Voznick. She began studying at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, during the summers of 2014 and 2015, before entering SAB full-time for the 2015 winter term. In November 2017, Nadon became an apprentice with NYCB and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in November 2018. She was promoted to Soloist in January 2022 and to Principal Dancer in February 2023. Since joining NYCB, Nadon has performed featured roles in ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Sidra Bell, Ulysses Dove, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Peter Martins, Justin Peck, Tiler Peck, Alysa Pires, Alexei Ratmansky, Pam Tanowitz, and Christopher Wheeldon. Her awards include the 2022 Princess Grace Award and the 2021 Clive Barnes Award in Dance.
Alex Wong - Professional Dancer and Actor & So You Think You Can Dance All Star
Alex Wong began his professional career with American Ballet Theatre and was a Principal Soloist with Miami City Ballet. He was a finalist on “So You Think You Can Dance” and has returned as an all-star over multiple seasons with several of his duets winning Emmy Awards. Alex was also a semifinalist on American Idol and was an original Broadway cast member in Newsies and King and I on Broadway. He has also danced for artists like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Mariah Carey, Jonas Brothers, Dolly Parton, Eminem, as well as appearing in several TV shows and movies such as The Greatest Showman, Glee, SNL, Étoile, Disney's Hip Hop Nutcracker, Schmigadoon, Dancing with the Stars, NBC’s Annie Live, Little Mermaid Live, Ellen Degeneres, Ted 2, Marvelous Ms Maisel, The Voice, The Oscars, Billboards, VMA’s, Grammy’s and several more. Alex has been a choreographer for Carly Rae Jepsen, Laufey, American Horror Story and several national commercials. Alex holds a junior world tap dance title and is a gold medal winner at the prestigious ballet competition Prix de Lausanne. Alex also travels the world teaching at dance conventions and continues to create content on his social media pages IG and TikTok, amassing over 4.5 million followers.
Phil Chan - Professional Dancer, Choreographer, and Director; Co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface; President of the Gold Standard Arts Foundation
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. 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, and was named a Next 50 Arts Leader by the Kennedy Center. He is currently a visiting professor at Harvard University and Rutgers University.
Mai Lê Hô - Movement Artist, Curator, and Educator & Founder and Artistic/Executive Director of LayeRhythm
Mai Lê is an arts educator, choreographer, DJ, and curator who relocated to Brooklyn in 2009. Since 2013 she has been a lead dancer in the pioneering street dance theater company Rennie Harris PureMovement, performing throughout the United States (Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, LA Music Center), and abroad (US Cultural Ambassador in Central Africa in 2013). She’s a core member of the emerging Passion Fruit street dance company and also is a lead dancer in Europe with seminal Detroit house music producer Theo Parrish and his live band.
In 2015 Mai Le founded LayeRhythm, a monthly jam session that brings live musicians to collaborate with street/club dancers. In 2012-2014 Mai Lê co-produced the USA division of Juste Debout, the international street dance competition that brings highly developed dancers to audiences worldwide. Currently, Mai Lê is the Program Director of It’s Showtime NYC!, a program that celebrates NYC street culture and provides performance and professional development opportunities to street and subway dancers. Mai Lê serves on the selection committee for the New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies). She has also taught dance workshops at Princeton University, Duke University, Georgian Court University, and Lehman College.
Sports Spotlight
Michelle Yu - Emmy Winning Journalist; USTA Sports Reporter; Asset TV Anchor
Michelle Yu is an Emmy Award winning sports anchor/TV host in New York. She was at SNY—the home of the Mets—for 10 years and prior to that, she was an anchor/reporter at NY1 News. She is the first Asian female sportscaster in New York City. Currently, she is an announcer for various tennis tournaments including the US Open and Indian Wells. In addition, she is a financial anchor for Asset TV and was a true crime host for Law and Crime Network. A Bronx native, Michelle also co-authored two fictional novels, China Dolls, and Young, Restless and Broke.
Neha Uberoi - Former Professional Tennis Player +& Co-founder & Chairperson, South Asians in Sports
Neha Uberoi is a licensed mental health clinician, a nonprofit leader and a former professional tennis player. As a psychotherapist, she helps individuals and athletes to overcome challenges and develop personalized mental health skills to optimize and sustain emotional wellbeing and performance. Since 2017, Neha has been running a nonprofit as the co-founder and chairperson of South Asians in Sports- a network for South Asians who work and play in the sports industry. Through educational opportunities, advocacy, networking, mentorship programs and partnerships, the org has been fulfilling its mission to grow and strengthen the South Asian impact on sports.
Neha played on the WTA Tour from 2003-2008 and reached career high singles of 196 (singles) and 108 (doubles). She has played in the US Open and reached two tour doubles finals alongside her sister, Shikha Uberoi. Neha also played collegiate tennis, winning Ivy-League Rookie of the year as a freshman at Princeton University. She is a junior Orange Bowl finalist and winner of the 2003 Luxilon Cup. After a 6-year leave of absence, Neha completed her undergraduate degree at Princeton University in 2012 and completed her Master of Social Work from Columbia University. Neha lives in NJ with her husband and three young daughters.
Dr. Alexis Colvin - US Open Chief Medical Officer & Orthopedic Sports Medicine Specialist, Mount Sinai Hospital
Dr. Alexis Chiang Colvin is a Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Senior Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs at Mount Sinai. A graduate of Princeton University, she received her medical degree from Mount Sinai and completed her orthopedic surgery residency at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases. During her residency, Dr. Colvin was selected for one of the most prestigious Sports Medicine Fellowships in the country at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA. While in Pittsburgh, Dr. Colvin cared for professional athletes, including the Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins, collegiate athletes at the University of Pittsburgh, and numerous other collegiate and high school athletes. Dr. Colvin specializes in the surgical treatment of knee and shoulder disorders. She has authored numerous scientific publications and has presented both at national and international meetings on sports medicine and orthopedic surgery.
Dr. Colvin is a board certified orthopedic surgeon and member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, and the Arthroscopy Association of North America. Dr. Colvin is the Chief Medical Officer for the US Open, the team physician for the USA's Billie Jean King (former Fed Cup) team, and served as the Chief Medical Officer for the United States Tennis Association until its relocation to Florida. Dr. Colvin has also served as a physician at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. Crain’s New York Business recognized her on their inaugural “Notable Women in the Business of Sports” list in 2019 and 2022 and she has been selected as one of New York Magazine’s Best Doctors since 2016.
Still in Motion: More Moments Celebrating AAPI in Sports & Dance with Serica!
We're incredibly fortunate to have celebrated AAPI in sports and performance with many opportunities this past year, including:
Our Voices Rising: Asian Americans in Motion live filming & community event
An Afternoon Journey with Shen Wei: STILL / MOVING, an exclusive tour of the dual-venue exhibition STILL / MOVING from artist & choreogrpaher Shen Wei and performance from Shen Wei Arts
An exclusive interview on our blog with Shen Wei
Most recently, honoring Dr. Alexis Colvin (US Open Chief Medical Officer & Orthopedic Sports Medicine Specialist, Mount Sinai Hospital) at our 2026 AAPI Trailblazers Gala: The Power of Us!
Is there an AAPI athlete, dancer, or performer you think we should feature? Send us a message now!
