Jennifer Lin Celebrates Asian American Dance Pioneer George Lee, with documentary, TEN TIMES BETTER

Backstage Pass with Lia Chang
Episode 64
Airdate 2/18/24
Interview w/ Filmmaker Jennifer Lin & George Lee, the Focus of her new Documentary, TEN TIMES BETTER
Works & Process at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division presented Spill the Tea with George Lee, Ten Times Better, Jennifer Lin’s documentary goes from library stacks to screen on February 7 at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium in New York. I sat down with George and Jennifer prior to the conversation.
In November 2022, while researching at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for her documentary project Beyond Yellowface, filmmaker Jennifer Lin came across images of a young Asian dancer performing the character Tea in the 1954 premiere of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. With the help of Arlene Yu, former collection manager of Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Lin was able to track down in Las Vegas the dancer George Lee and connect with this School of American Ballet alum.
A refugee from Shanghai who immigrated to New York in 1951, Lee became a scholarship student at SAB and, as one of the first Asian SAB students, was selected by Balanchine to originate the role of Tea. He went on to perform on Broadway, dancing in the original cast of Flower Drum Song.
A year after this journey started for Lin, she has produced and directed the documentary Ten Times Better, which will have its premiere at the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center on February 10.
For the documentary’s premiere, Lee left behind his full-time job as a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas and, coinciding around his 89th birthday, returned to New York to share his story as part of the Library for the Performing Arts’ Dance Oral History Project. With Lee, Lin and Yu participated in a discussion moderated by Cory Stieg, one of the film’s producers, which included film excerpts and archival material from the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection to illustrate how this forgotten story went from library stacks to screen.
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer, activist, documentarian and an Award winning filmmaker and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Lia is also the host and Executive Producer of BACKSTAGE PASS WITH LIA CHANG, an Arts and Entertainment and Lifestyle program that airs on Sundays at 6:30pm on FIOS 34, RCN 83, Spectrum 56/1996 and streams on MNN2. Lia was recently profiled on Asian American Life. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. www.liachang.com www.liachangphotography.com

[@ohchunglee2987]

Yes, i too iwant to see the documentary

[@carinangan05]

Where can we watch the documentary?