Carlos Carvajal, a native San Franciscan, is a distinguished dancer/choreographer of more than two hundred works for ballet, opera, musical theater and television. Beginning as a folk dancer, he went on to the San Francisco Ballet, then the Ballet of the Marquis de Cuevas, Opera of Bremen, Opera of Bordeaux, and Ballet Nacional of Venezuela as soloist, principal dancer and choreographer. He created more than twenty works for the SF Ballet as its ballet master and associate choreographer. He founded San Francisco Dance Spectrum, creating over fifty works during its ten year tenure. He has also choreographed for the SF Opera, Oakland Ballet, and Dance Theater of Harlem, among others. His full length ballets include Cinderella's Crystal Slipper, Totentanz, Wintermas, Carmina Burana and The Nutcracker. Honors/grants/awards include five from the National Endowment for the Arts, the SF Art Commission, the Critics’ Circle and Isadora Duncan Lifetime Achievement. He holds a BA in Theater and MA in Creative Arts from SF State University. Carlos returns for the 4th season as an artistic director for this Festival.
CK Ladzekpo, PhD, is the director of the African music program at the University of California Berkeley. His has a distinguished career as a performer, choreographer, composer, teacher and published scholar in the African performing arts. He is a member of a renowned family of African musicians and dancers who traditionally serve as lead drummers and composers among the Anlo-Ewe people of southeastern Ghana in West Africa. He has been a lead drummer and instructor with the Ghana National Dance Ensemble, the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies and the Arts Council of Ghana. He joined the music faculty of the University of California Berkeley in 1973 and continues to be an influential catalyst of the African perspective in the performing arts. Awards include two choreographers’ fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Irvine Choreographer's Fellowship, and the Ruth Beckford Extraordinary People in Dance Award. He has been a member of the faculty council of the East Bay Center for Performing Arts since 1974. This is his 4th season as an artistic director of this Festival.
Audition Panelists
Zenón Barron was born and raised in Guanajuato, Mexico, where he began his dance training at the age of twelve. He studied with America Balbuena at the Universidad Autonoma de Guanajuato. He was honored with being selected to participate in the Cultural Exchange program with Casa Cultural Florencia Italia in 1980. Later he became a member of the Ballet Folklórico de la Universidad de Guadalajara under the direction of Carlos Ochoa. Deciding to further his professional dance training, he moved to Mexico City, attending classes at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes while a earning a degree in Dance Instruction. He was subsequently accepted as a member of the world famous Ballet Folklórico de Mexico de Amalia Hernandez. He moved to San Francisco in 1992, and founded Ensambles Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco later that year. Over the years, he has choreographed numerous works both for his own dance company, and as a guest choreographer, in addition to teaching workshops and dance classes throughout the country.
Naomi Diouf is the artistic director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company. She was born in Monrovia, Liberia, where her artistic career was greatly influenced. She holds a BA in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego, and an MA in Organization Management from the University of Phoenix. Ms. Diouf has studied with prominent dancers and musicians from other West African countries, and has also engaged in extensive research on world dance genres. An expert in West African dance, she has choreographed for the University of California, Berkeley; Dimensions Dance Theater in Oakland; and Kankoran Dance Company in Washington D.C. Ms. Diouf has also collaborated with the San Francisco Ballet, the Ballet of Florida, the Singapore Ballet, and the South African Ballet. A credentialed teacher with the State of California, she has conducted and organized various projects that introduce youth to the performing arts. She currently teaches West African dance and culture at Berkeley High School, at Laney College, and at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in Oakland.
Ramya Harishankar is the founder and artistic director of the Arpana Dance Company that performs bharatanatyam. Over the past twenty-eight years, she has created fifteen full-length productions for her company. As a performer, she has toured in India, Southeast Asia, the Far East, the Middle East, Europe, Australia, and North America. She trained under legendary gurus – the late Swamimalai K. Rajaratnam and Kalanidhi Narayanan. Awards include two choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Fund for Folk Culture, Helene Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award, and the Outstanding Artist of the Year by Arts Orange County. An accomplished teacher, she has trained over 250 students at her Arpana School of Dance founded in 1982. She is proud of raising nearly $100,000 for worldwide charities and presenting over forty soloists/dance companies in Southern California.
Edwardo Madril is an acclaimed performer, choreographer, singer, and teacher of Native American dance and culture. He co-founded the dance company Four Winds in 1983 which has performed thrice in this Festival. He also founded the Revision Production Company which promotes the development, performance, and research of Native American culture. As a recipient of a California Arts Council Artist-in-Residence Grant, a member of the artistic roster of Young Audiences, a lecturer at the San Francisco Art Institute, and an instructor at San Francisco State University, he has brought Native American dance to thousands of Bay Area students. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Friendship House of American Indians, Inc., and on the Advisory Council of the De Young Museum’s Native Programming.
Carolena Nericciois the creator of American Tribal Style Belly Dance (ATS) and the founder and director of FatChanceBellyDance based in San Francisco. She began studying belly dance at the age of fourteen. She trained with Masha Archer for seven years before starting FatChanceBellyDance in 1987. Ms. Nericcio has authored two books on belly dance, Tribal Talk, and The Art of Belly Dance, a special edition publication by Barnes and Noble. Her dance company celebrated its 20th Anniversary in 2007, marking the completion of eleven dvds, five cds, and a Folkwear pattern. The improvisational choreography of FatChanceBellyDance incorporates movement vocabularies and design elements from the cultures of Northern Africa, Spain, India and the Middle East. Derived from traditions in which women danced together to entertain each other, this form of belly dance is a celebration of community.
Hilary Roberts is a Bay Area veteran dancer, choreographer, artistic director, teacher, and advocate of Eastern European and American traditional dance. She has an extensive choreography resume, including World Arts West’s commissionof A Palestinian Wedding and theSan Francisco Slavonic Cultural Center’scommission of Lindjo. Ms. Roberts has been honored with a number of recognitions, including an Isadora Duncan Award nomination, and an Eminence Credential in Dance from the California Commission for Teacher Credentialing. She has presented at a number of conferences, and has been a member of many panels, including the Isadora Dance Awards Committee and the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Advisory Board.Ms. Roberts has performed widely as a dancer and singer and was the artistic director of Westwind International Folk Ensemble,leaving that post to found and direct Jubilee American Dance Theatre, for which she is now emeritus.
Miguel Sanchez was born in Cusco, Peru and has focused on preserving the mystic and mythological traditions of the Andes. He holds a BA from San Antonio Abad University of Cusco, and an advanced degree in Education from Federico Villarreal University in Lima. He is co-founder and current president of Asociación Cultural Kanchis, a non-profit folkloric group that specializes in dances from three regions of Peru. He appeared with the National University Folkloric Dance Ballet of Cusco before relocating to the Bay Area in the late 1980s. In addition to numerous Festival performances from 1994 through 2010, Kanchis has been presented in the Sacramento World Music and Dance Festival, Stanford University, and Long Beach State University, among many other cultural and academic venues.
Kaiwen You received his education and training from the Beijing Dance Academy where he later founded the Ethnic and Folk Dance Department. He has choreographed over fifty dance productions, several of which have been performed by national Chinese dance companies during international tours around the world. Mr. You has also been recognized for excellence in national dance competitions in China. His choreography has been staged at New York's Joyce Theater. Mr. You has also authored works on Chinese Han and ethnic dance, including Learning Dance from the Masters. His work has been honored at the highest level of Chinese cultural society and featured throughout Asia on television and radio. Since 1999, Mr. You has been an instructor of Chinese Dance at UC Berkeley, and is the founding artistic director of the China Dance School and Theatre. He has also developed the dance curriculum at Skyline College, where he currently instructs.
