Press
release 2008
30th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
For Immediate Release
April 7, 2008
Contact: Nina Sazevich (415) 752-2483; nina@worldartswest.org
30th Anniversary San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
World Arts West Celebrates 30 Years of World Dance and Music with Four Special Weekends of
Performances by 500 of Northern California’s Best and 50 International Master Artists
June 7 & 8; 14 & 15; 21 & 22; 28 & 29,
2008
Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO-- 2008 marks the 30th Anniversary of the
San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, and in
celebration of this landmark occasion, 50 master musicians and
dancers from around the world join 36 Northern
California dance companies on the Festival stage to make
this year’s
event extra special. With so many performers and so much to see,
the Festival expands to FOUR WEEKENDS in June with a different
line up of performers each weekend. Performances take place
at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco on Saturdays
at
2 & 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. on June 7 & 8; 14 & 15;
and 21 & 22; 28 & 29, 2008 with a special Opening
Night
Gala on Saturday, June 7 at 6 p.m. Many workshops, dance
parties and a special exhibition are also taking place in June
as part
of the Festival’s "30 Events Celebrating 30 Years"
programming.
What started 30 years ago as a modest experiment by San Francisco’s
Hotel Tax Fund to provide support to San Francisco’s many
ethnic dance groups, has grown into the largest and most prestigious
gathering of its kind in the country. Over the years, the Festival has presented over 20,000 dancers from more than 750 dance groups
throughout Northern California. The event, under the direction
of the non-profit organization World Arts West, has become an unforgettable
marvel of beauty and awe-inspiring virtuoso performances that,
over the decades, have represented more than 100 cultures from
Hawai‘i to Haiti. The Festival celebrates its 30-year legacy
with an expanded four weekends of performances that highlight the
enduring spirit of world dance traditions as they are passed from
masters to students and from parents to their children. “The
San Francisco Bay Area is home to the greatest ethnic dance community
in the world, with many thousands of people sustaining gorgeous
dance forms from cultures near and far,” says Executive Director
Julie Mushet. “On this year’s stage, there will be
evidence of the many lineages nurtured over the years, with masters
and their accomplished students performing throughout the entire
month of June.”
The Festival celebrates this continuation of dance lineage with
an unprecedented gathering of 50 master artists from countries
around the world, who will make the journey to San Francisco to
join their Northern California-based students and disciples on
the stage for this year’s event. Two master Hungarian dancers,
László Diószegi (a recognized national treasure)
and Gergō Csiszár, arrive to perform with Foster City’s
Eszterlánc Hungarian Folk Ensemble, a company with long
standing ties to the famous artists. Sindhu Ravuri of San Jose,
the Festival’s Indian kuchipudi artist, will perform
to the accompaniment of her gurus Raja and Radha Reddy, two of
India’s foremost kuchipudi masters who were favorites of
Indira Ghandi. Allassane Kane, a master drummer and dancer from
Senegal, will join Oakland’s West African dance collective
Ballet Lisanga directed by Renee Puckett, Kane’s student
for many years.
Many of the arriving international guest artists are master musicians
who will significantly enhance this year’s event by giving
audiences a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear many rare traditional
songs played live by some of the world’s most accomplished
musicians. Sacramento’s Raíces De Mi Tierra will be
joined by five top marimba players from Chiapas, Mexico. LIKHA,
a San
Francisco Pilipino company, is bringing an elder chieftain from
a remote island tribe in the Philippines to head up its musical
ensemble. Other musical guest artists include a live pin peat orchestra
from Cambodia that will accompany Charya Burt Cambodian Classical
Dance company, as well as musicians from Korea, China, Tajikistan
and more.
Locally, this year’s Festival also honors many pioneering
artists who are now mentors to new generations of performers. Local
Indian kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das appeared in one of the
very first Festivals, and thirty years later, sixteen young disciples
from his school’s Chhandam Youth Company make their debut
on the Festival stage in this year’s event.
Also appearing this year is long-time Festival favorite
Theatre Flamenco, the second oldest dance company in the city after
the
San Francisco Ballet and one of the oldest in the state. Director Miguel
Santos will receive a Malonga Casquelourd
Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Festival every
year to artists who have made significant contributions to their
field. To mark the expansion
of the Festival to an unprecedented four weekends this
year, four Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented. The three
other
recipients include Carlos Moreno Sr., founder
of Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Carlos Moreno, appearing
on the stage this year under
the direction of his son Carlos Moreno Jr.; Ann Woo,
director of Chinese Performing Artists of America, whose youth
and adult companies
will perform this year; and Blanche Brown, a leading
figure in Haitian dance who will perform with Alafia Dance Ensemble
on the
final weekend. The awards will be presented at a special reception
for the artists and the Festival’s Kick-off Celebration
at the de Young Museum on June 1, 2008 from 2 to 4:30 pm. Reservations
are required to attend this event and can be made by visiting the
World Arts West website at www.worldartswest.org.
The awards reception is just one of the Festival’s
special “30
Events Celebrating 30 Years.” Festival fans will
also want to take advantage of some of the other offerings this
June including
workshops in everything from bhangra to Tahitian ori technique;
dance parties that bring amateurs and professionals alike together
for Irish jigs, tango and Palestinian folk dances; and a first-ever
exhibition at the San Francisco International Airport from May
26 through August 11, 2008 of the Festival’s photographs
taken by RJ Muna, photographer of the event since 2006. More information
about all "30 Events Celebrating 30 Years" is available
on the website at www.worldartswest.org.
On June 7, the opening night of the Festival, the Board
of Directors of World Arts West hosts an Opening Night Gala and
reception from
6 to 8 p.m. The public is invited to purchase tickets to this annual
fundraiser featuring food and wine from some of San Francisco’s
top restaurants, an exciting auction, and the evening’s exhilarating
performances including the world premiere of new works choreographed
especially for this year’s Festival by Patrick Makuakāne,
Kumu Hula/Director for the dynamic Hawaiian dance company, Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu, and Mythili Kumar, director of Abhinaya Dance
Company of San Jose. Tickets are $175 each.
These premieres are two of four specially commissioned original
dance works that will have their world debuts at the 2008 Festival.
With the support of the San Francisco Foundation, World Arts West
has developed an exciting program to foster the creation of new
work by important, local artists. Other commissioned artists this
year include Zenon Barrón of Ensambles Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco and Rudi Soriano of LIKHA Pilipino Folk Ensemble.
Tickets to the 30th Anniversary San Francisco Ethnic
Dance Festival are $22 - $44. A subscription package for all four weekends of
performances is priced from $80 - $158. Tickets are available by
calling City Box Office at (415) 392-4400; online at www.cityboxoffice.com
or www.tickets.com All matinees offer 50% discounts to children
under the age of 16, and group discounts for 20 or more are also
available by calling City Box Office.
The 30th Anniversary San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival is supported
in part by Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, The
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission,
The San Francisco Foundation, The Wallace Foundation and Target
Corporation. Media sponsors include: ABC7/KGO-TV, Asian Week, Common
Ground, KDTV Univision, KFSF Telefutura, KLOK 1170 AM, KPFA, KQED
Public Broadcasting, KTSF TV 26, India West, Radio Recuerdo, San
Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Magazine, SF Station, World
Journal and Yelp.com.
BACKGROUND
World Arts West has been presenting and promoting the dance and
music traditions of the world since 1978, creating opportunities
for individuals and communities to celebrate, share, and sustain
the vitality of ethnic dance. Our work promotes the importance
of cultural heritage for strengthening community and building
cultural understanding. For more information about World Arts
West, visit www.worldartswest.org.
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PHOTOS ARE AVAILABLE BY REQUEST by contacting Nina Sazevich
at (415) 752-2483 or nina@worldartswest.org or
can be downloaded in high resolution JPG format at http://www.worldartswest.org/about/press/photos.html B ROLL VIDEO IS ALSO AVAILABLE BY REQUEST.
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