About

ĐOÀN THANH TOÀN – VIETNAM

As a performing artist, Toan Doan (he/they) finds dance at the convergence of community, justice, and feminist queer world-making. Toan responds to politicized realities of the body through a wide range of movement-based performances, engaging with personal/political matters such as gender, violence, loneliness, and belonging. 

Toan trained in Contemporary Indian dance with Ananya Dance Theater, and African-based movement with Brown Spirit Ensemble led by choreographer Patricia Brown.

Born and raised in Quang Ngai, Toan is currently based in Ho Chi Minh city. Here, they have experimented with different modes of performance-making at MoT+++, San Art, A. Farm, Time Between, and the Goethe Institut in solos as well as collaborative projects with other sound, performance, and visual artists.

In addition to performance, Toan facilitates workshops that foster connections through movement and dance. Toan also works in the fields of development and advocacy. 



INDEPENDENT PROJECTS

2023

Video work Bồng Bềnh (Buoyant) commissioned by Gallery TPW for exhibition After the Cataclysm, Before the Storm (04/2023)

2022

Ensemble dance performance Chiêm Bao Thấy Mình (In the Eye) produced as part of MUARUA choreographic residency in Hoi An, Vietnam (02-04/2022)

2021

Thinking Like Dancing Artist Residency with Do A Front (Japan) (10-11/2021)
Video Work-in-progress “Mountain You” and writings produced as part of the 5-week virtual residency, in collaboration with music duo Tiny Giant and filmmaker Nguyen Le Hoang Phuc.

[+] for UrFear: Transit Sri Lanka and Vietnam – Inter-Asian theater encounter project (08/2021)
Virtual performance co-created with Tra Nguyen.
UrFear Website: https://urfearmpg.net/transit21/

Short Dance Film: Đó sẽ là một ngày bị đảo lộn trong một đêm không trăng không sao / It will be a disconcerted day in a starless moonless night. (01/2021)
Co-choreographer & performer.

2020

“Loneliness Is Still Time Spent With The World” – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Solo Performance at Ether: The Rebirth event (11/2020), produced by Time Between

The You – Ho Chi Minh City & Ha Noi, Vietnam – https://www.the-you.online/
Collaborative performance with sound artist Ian Richter and visual artist Jo Ngo
Performances at Ho Chi Minh Dance School Theatre (08/10) and Goethe Institut Hanoi (02/11).
In 2021, the project were revisited and transformed into an online experience.

Kites – A Farm, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Collaboration with sound artist Trang Ly
Dance & Sound performance, for A Farm Season 3 Open Studio event (21/6/2020)

2019

“Daisuke & Friends” Performance – San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Multi-disciplinary group performance with musician duo Daisuke Terauchi and Tamaho Miyake, performance artists Nhi Le, Red, and Kim, accompanied by a projection of Josie Rae Turbull’s film “Survive Acid Oceans”(28/12/2019).

Một hai ba chín bốn mươi | One, two, three, thirty-nine and then some
MoT+++, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Solo performance at MoT Performance Plus 2019 – Big day of performances #4 (01/12/2019)

“Loneliness is still time spent with the world” – MoT+++, Ho Chi Minh City
Solo performance art at MoT Performance Plus 2019 – Big day of performances #2 (24/11/2019)

“Repeat after me” Installation and Performance    
Durational installation and performance at Macalester College Arts Commons (5/2019)

2018

We Were Born Soft – United States
Solo dance – premiered at Macalester College Fall Dance Concert 2018
Selected for Gala Concert at American College Dance Association Central North Regional Conference 2019
Performed at Onurawnon/Vibration – Shawngram Institute for Performing Arts & Justice (06/2019)

2017

Pendulous – Macalester College, MN, United States
Trio dance performance co-choreographed with Midori Hasegawa and Linnea Fox, performed at Macalester Spring Dance Concert.

ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCES

2016 – 2019 Ananya Dance Theater – Saint Paul, MN, USA          

  • Ensemble work, evening-length show, original choreography by Ananya Chatterjea
  • Breath (2017): Northern Spark Festival
    • Ensemble and solo, site-specific work based on structured improvisation, performed in a glass box with artificial smoke

2016 – 2019 Brown Spirit / African-based Movement Ensemble – Saint Paul, MN, USA        

  • Stimela (2016): Macalester College Fall Dance Concert 2016
  • Beautiful (2017): Macalester College Fall Dance Concert 2017
  • Bound to Freedom (2018): Macalester College Fall Dance Concert 2018

Medea (2017) – Dancer 

Original choreography by Wynn Fricke in an interdisciplinary production and collaboration between music, dance, and theater departments at Macalester College

EDUCATION

2019 | Bachelor of Arts, Macalester College | International Studies; Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

HIGHLIGHTED WRITINGS ON PERFORMANCE & DANCE

  • Performance Review: Đa Thức – một kịch múa đầy nức nở đương đại.
  • Post-colonial dance: Yearning for Contemporary and Indigenous (Senior Thesis, May 2019) 
    Presented at South East Asian Graduate Conference, University of California – Riverside (May 2019)
  • Performance Making and the Ensemble (November 2018) – scholarly research, creative reflection