February 21, 2023

By Anne Brice

When Lenora Lee, an artistic director, dancer and choreographer, debuted Within These Walls in 2017, she had no idea what the impact would be on the audience.

The immersive work was performed by a cast of 14 dancers on San Francisco Bay’s Angel Island, the site of the historic immigration station that enforced the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The performance reflected the experiences of 170,000 Chinese immigrants who were held on the island, some for months on end, and one person for nearly two years.

Dancers moved through the detention barracks and performed scenes critical to the detainees’ experiences, and the approximately 700 audience members could choose where to walk and which characters to follow.

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