PURI ARTS

Mu Stamp
Dohee Lee as Mago crow
Photo by Pak Han
Dohee lee
Artistic Director
Dohee Lee Puri Arts is the producing organization of performance artist, Dohee Lee. Our mission is to create and tour multi-disciplinary, community performance rituals under the direction of Dohee Lee. We utilize art to heal fractured relationships in the urban environment – relationships between humans and the land and between individuals and their communities.

Dohee's work arises from her intensive training in the practices of mudang (Korean shamanism). This tradition combines singing, dancing, drumming, costuming into village healing gatherings. Dohee Lee Puri Arts applies this ancient, indigenous approach to community healing to our urban village of the San Francisco Bay Area, updated with modern tools of post-modern immersive performance art.

MISSION

I passionately believe by practicing and performing art we can commune and heal with people and spirits to express and share our thoughts and ideas on vital issues such as identity, politics, nature and spirituality.

The performance is the ritual; a new form of performance with Korean traditional and contemporary art. Whenever I prepare for the performance, I always research and look around at the inner and outer to see what I and we need to pay attention to. And it aways begins with myself with issues which are surrounding me and then connecting to others in different forms physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, economically, politically, geographically and spiritually. This intention enhances the connection between beings, nature, ancestors and spirits, so that we can communicate and share feelings, wishes and hopes.

I am very lucky and honored to do art because it gives me the power of transformation to confront all these challenges, facts and issues creatively through the new way of performance ritual.

Why ritual? In difficult times people have the tendency to congregate and find strength with each other and to free themselves from fear and doubts by participating in collective ceremonies. Rituals are complex and bring together different art forms into a cathartic experience. It carries the purpose of action and intention to form a link between the human, nature and spiritual realms. As a performer, connector and educator, I have committed my life and art to support and expand the connection with people, nature and spirits. So then we can be fully aware of ourselves in different forms of places and issues that we are confronting all the time to transform.

staff

Jason Ditzian
Managing Director
 Jason Ditzian is a multi-wind instrumentalist, performer, composer and community arts organizer. He has been working with Dohee Lee since 2010 to bring her work to the wider world. He is clarinetist for and leader of klezmer ensemble, Kugelplex. He is a longtime collaborator with Jewlia Eisenberg and her anarcho-jewish-punk-chamber-bibliophilic ensemble, Charming Hostess. Jason has performed with: Joan Baez, Frank London, the Oakland Symphony, Kitka, SF Mime Troupe, inkBoat, and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. He has helped create and produce festivals such as The International Body Music Festival.
Lauren, Geiger, Puri Arts
Lauren Geiger
Production Director
Lauren Geiger is an Oakland based mixed-media artist with diverse experience spanning nonprofit arts administration, fashion styling, art direction, and multidisciplinary performing arts production, with a focus on ritual. She has an embodied knowledge of professionalism, artistry, and innovation stemming from independent and collaborative work most notably with the organizations The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Dohee Lee Puri Arts, Eastside Arts Alliance and the fashion E-commerce start-up Stitch Fix. Independently, she has worked with artists Dana Kawano, Amelian Hamilton, Hanan Sharifa, Sepher Mashiahof (Bedroom Witch), Jyoti Arvey (Eileen Kilometers), Gabriella Gamboa and Colby Cannon. She works across the mediums of performance, visual art/installation, and fashion in both conventional and nonconventional creative spaces. Skillful improvisation through a strong and practiced intuitive approach grounds her creative strategies in empathy, personal history, and healing. She is the Production Manager for Dohee Lee Puri Arts (DLPA) and has been with Puri since 2014. Lauren also previously performed with CoRaZon.


Advisors

Eun-Joung Lee
Eun-Joung Lee is a consultant with extensive experience helping corporations, startups and NGOs innovate and transform. Using a blend of strategy, design and innovation methods, she helps build and teach entrepreneurial capabilities, skills and mindsets for organizations and leaders. She has an MBA from MIT Sloan, and a BA in History from the University of Chicago. She enjoys history, nature, dance, food and making connections across diverse fields and people. She also performs with CoRaZon Collective.
José María Francos
José María Francos, Theatrical Designer, has designed for a multitude of opera, ballet and theater productions. Read his biography as part of the Puri Arts Ensemble.

PURI ARTS COUNCIL

Deann Borshay Liem
Director/Producer, Mu Films
Susanne Takehara
Daria Halprin