‘Loneliness is Still Time Spent with the World,’ Ho Chi Minh City,November 2020. courtesy the artist.

Thanh-Toan Doan (he/they) is a choreographer and movement artist based in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. Toan was trained in Contemporary Indian dance technique Yorchha™ with Ananya Dance Theater (led by choreographer Ananya Chatterjea) and African-based movement with Brown Spirit Ensemble (led by choreographer Patricia Brown). After years of training and performing with the companies, he started experimenting with different modes of performance-making and choreography at Vietnamese art spaces including MoT+++, San Art, A. Farm, Time Between, and the Goethe Institut, performing solos as well as collaborative works with other sound, performance, and visual artists.

Toan’s choreographic works center around Vietnamese contemporary socio-political context and the queer identity.

In 2022, as part of the residency program MÚA RỨA in Hoi An, Toan choreographed “Chiem Bao Thay Minh”, an ensemble dance work which explores typhoons and their indelible imprint upon the psyches and souls of the central Vietnamese people.

Most recently, Toan collaborated with filmmaker Nguyen Le Hoang Phuc to make the movement-based fiction film “Buoyant” (2023), which was screened as part of the exhibition “After the Cataclysm, Before the Storm” in Toronto, Canada.

Thanh-Toan Doan will be on residency at Kaserne Basel.

“As part of the artist-in-residence program, I will immerse myself with the Swiss contemporary art scene,” says Toan, “I will pay special attention to experimental theater and dance performances in Basel, Zurich and Geneva while exploring a wide range of disciplines. Most importantly, I hope to connect with visual artists, dramaturgs, choreographers, and dancers in order to explore the potential for long-term collaboration.”

Follow Thanh-Toan Doan on Instagram.