Asian-American Dancer Attacked En Route To Off Broadway Theater In Apparent Hate Crime
deadline.comAn Asian-American dancer en route to a first-performance celebration at New York’s Public Theater was attacked Wednesday night in what theater officials describe as the latest “disgusting and heartbreaking” incident “in a long history of violence against Asian Americans.”The dancer, who was not identified, was attacked near Seward Park on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a short distance from the Chinatown apartment where Christina Yuna Lee was murdered on Feb.
13 in a violent attack that was the latest in a surge of high-profile crimes involving Asian-American victims.In Wednesday’s incident, a performer with the Chinatown dance troupe Yip’s Dragon Style Kung Fu and Lion Dance was on his way to perform with the group as part of the festivities celebrating the first preview performance of the play The Chinese Lady at the Public Theater.
The dance troupe had been invited to perform in the lobby of the Public’s Lower East Side venue (the dancers are not part of The Chinese Lady company).According to a joint statement from The Chinese Lady co-producers Ma-Yi Theater Company and The Public Theater, the dance troupe “shared a beautiful performance with us, but what many people might not have realized was that one of the incredible artists had just been attacked on his way to The Public.”The statement, signed by Ralph B.
Pena, Ma-Yi Producing Artistic Director (who directed The Chinese Lady) and Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater, says that the dancer’s “glasses were broken, his eye was bruised, and he was kicked multiple times.
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