Johnny Huy Nguyễn

Johnny Huy Nguyễn

Johnny Huy Nguyễn: BURN
Sunday, August 30, 2026, 4:30pm: Dragons Dance/Erin Yen & Johnny Huy Nguyễn - ASL Interpretation Provided


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How do you burn? Reclaiming fire as a regenerative force for rebirth, BURN (Work In Progress) envisions dance as a transformative act of self-immolation. How do we set ablaze inherited legacies of war, forced displacement, and violence passed down through family to create ash for new growth?

Johnny shares stories that feel both intimate and universal, and the powerful underlying inquiries of BURN are critical for each of us to sit with. I have a feeling this work-in-progress will provide a container for exactly that.
Zaquia Mahler Salinas
Resident Curator, ODC Theater
 

Johnny Huy Nguyễn is a Vietnamese multidisciplinary dance artist and son of refugees based in unceded Ramaytush - Ohlone territory. He weaves together movement, theater, multimedia, spoken word, ritual, and installation to create body-based works characterized by sweeping physicality and dramaturgical depth. His works deal with themes of masculinity, spirituality, lineage, loss, and inheritance while interrogating the social, political, and cultural forces that shape us. Nguyễn is a 2025 Walter & Elise Haas Creative Power Award Finalist, 2025 Caldera Artist-in-Residence, 2023 United States of Asian America Festival Featured Artist, 2022 Isadora Duncan Dance Award recipient, and 2021 APAture Festival Featured Artist.


@johnny.huy.nguyen


This project is generously supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation (New Experimental Works Grant) and San Francisco Arts Commission (Arts Impact Endowment).

 

Program Credits
Lighting Designer: Danielle Ferguson

Production Manager: Anna Xu: @lowinternetpresence

Music

TGIM Episode 30: “Rope-A-Dope” - Eric Thomas

Residual Stress - Tzusing

Journey in Satchidanda - Alice Coltrane

Johnny Huy Nguyễn is a son of courageous refugees, an Isadora Duncan Dance Award Recipient and Walter & Elise Haas Fund Creative Power Award Finalist. His work has been presented at the United States of Asian America Festival, 500 Capp St, Asian Art Museum, and UC Santa Barbara to name a few. Instagram: johnny.huy.nguyen

Honoring Thích Quảng Đức, Nhất Chi Mai, Aaron Bushnell, Longba Ranzen, and the many other martyrs throughout history who have courageously given their lives and protested through self-immolation towards a better world. This work draws from and is indebted to the fire ritual of the Pà Thẻn ethnic peoples of Vietnam, the teachings of Thích Nhất Hạnh, the club rituals birthed in the Black communities of Detroit, Chicago, and New York City, and the sacred fire stewardship practices of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.
 

Special thanks to Alicia Goodwin, Nooshin Hakim Javadi, Jess Sladek Grace Jin, gizeh muñiz, Babatunji Johnson, Caldera Artists in Residence, Ragdale Residency, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, San Francisco Arts Council, and ODC Theater for their support in developing this work.

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Accessibility at ODC

ODC Theater and studios across the ODC Campus are ADA-accessible. Getting to Studio B and Argyle in the ODC Dance Commons involves riding an elevator or climbing one flight of stairs. Our restrooms are gender-neutral and wheelchair accessible. The front row of the ODC Theater is located on the ground floor; all seating beyond the front row requires climbing stairs.  Assisted listening devices are available upon request. Please indicate your access needs during the checkout process. Questions?

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ODC is on the ancestral lands of the Ramaytush People in Yelamu. We pay respects to elders past and present, who are still here and part of our community. We recognize that regenerative land management is not new, but is a continuation of practices from Native cultures and from our own ancestors. It is our responsibility to steward the land with care, as our elders did before us.

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ODC Theater exists to empower and develop innovative artists. It participates in the creation of new works through commissioning, presenting, mentorship and space access; it develops informed, engaged and committed audiences; and advocates for the performing arts as an essential component to the economic and cultural development of our community. This 170-seat venue is the site of over 150 performances a year involving nearly 1,000 local, regional, national and international artists.

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