From U Street to Dupont Underground
By • October 16, 2025 0 537
With apologies to the late Bruce Lee: Enter the Dupont!
Dupont Underground has hosted performances by, among others, Counterpoint Concerts, Chamber Dance Project, the Washington Ballet, the Picnic Theatre Company and In Series. But kung fu?
This Saturday, Oct. 18, fans of Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li — not to mention David Carradine, who played a Shaolin monk in the Old West on ABC in the ’70s, or Po the Kung Fu Panda, voiced by Jack Black — should plan to descend the stairs at 10 Dupont Circle for the grand opening of “Strength, Spirit and Service: Celebrating 30 Years of Hung Tao Choy Mei.”
First, permit me to attempt some translations. Patience, Grasshopper …
Though it has become a generic term for Chinese martial arts, kung fu is a pairing of the character for “skillful work” with the character for “time spent.” The kung fu practice known as hung tao choy mei — literally “head of hung, tail of choy” — combines the hard hits of hung ga (Hung clan) style with the complex kicks of choy ga. It is also known as jow ga for its early 20th-century founder, Jow Lung. Of the five classic animals of kung fu, dragon, snake, tiger, leopard and crane, hung tao choy mei emphasizes tiger and leopard.
A student practices at Hung Tao Choy Mei Leadership Institute on U Street. Courtesy Hung Tao Choy Mei.
Returning to present-day D.C., the pop-up exhibition “Strength, Spirit and Service” was created by “legions of volunteers,” in the words of Dupont Underground CEO Ana Harvey, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of an organization based not in Chinatown but on U Street, Black Washington’s historic heart.
Since 1995, Hung Tao Choy Mei Leadership Institute has taught kung fu, Chinese lion and dragon dancing, Chinese thunder drumming and African djembe drumming. Its mission: “to keep students in school, promote health and steer them away from the criminal justice system.” The institute, which became a nonprofit in 2003, currently offers free after-school, Saturday and summer programs for ages 6 to 18, as well as kung fu classes for adults.
The founder and president of Hung Tao Choy Mei Leadership Institute is native Washingtonian Abdur-Rahim Muhammad, who goes by Sifu (teacher/father). Raised in Boston’s Roxbury section and later graduating from Hampton University in Virginia and the University of the District of Columbia, he began his martial arts training in 1970.
During Muhammad’s search for a local venue where the institute could display its warehoused collection of parade-dance animals, artifacts and assorted musical instruments (“lots of drums,” says Harvey), Dupont Underground surfaced, so to speak. She says he excitedly told her: “I can’t believe I have all this space.”
No need to wait for the Lunar New Year (Feb. 17, the Year of the Horse) to take in some lion and dragon dancing. A few of the institute’s two dozen fearsome lions and dragons will come to life at Saturday’s grand opening reception from 6:30 to 10 p.m., which will also feature kung fu demonstrations.
“By hosting projects like this,” explains Harvey, “Dupont Underground deepens its connection to the community, expands access to culture and continues transforming this historic space into a home for creativity in all its forms.”
The exhibition will remain on view through Sunday, Nov. 9. Extended hours are Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. On Friday, Oct. 31, Dupont Underground is closed for the annual Fantom Comics Halloween Party.
More Scary Season programming at the Underground: Good Beats Halloween, with classical musicians performing video game, movie and cartoon music (Nov. 1); a Family Friendly Dance Party (Nov. 2); and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” a Picnic Theatre Company parody directed by Steve Rochlin (Nov. 5 to 7).
Twenty years ago, architects Lucrecia Laudi and Julian Hunt founded the Arts Coalition for the Dupont Underground in the subterranean streetcar station, built in 1949 and abandoned a dozen years later. Next year marks 10 years since Dupont Underground opened to the public as an arts venue.
Harvey shares that she is working with Theatre Washington to book winter shows into Dupont Underground’s 200-seat theater. “We have four plays that do not want to be anywhere else.”
