We celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the San Francisco
Ethnic Dance Festival with a series of inspiring events and performances
featuring 35 dance companies that embody the breadth and diversity of the Bay
Area’s dance communities.
Join us for four weekends of dance from around the world,
including both traditional masterpieces and innovative world premieres that may
forever change the way you think about dance.
Tickets on sale now!
Festival Opening Weekend, June 7 & 8
Friday, June 7, Noon
City Hall Rotunda Dance Series FREE
Ballet Folklórico Netzahualcoyotl (Mexico – Zacatecas)
WORLD PREMIERE
Don’t miss this colorful, percussive dance from
Zacatecas, Mexico, which has both Spanish and indigenous Nahuatl origins. This
processional piece, performed to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe, features
dancers in magnificent hats, spinning in lines, and marking time with clapping
sandals, clicking beads, and gourd rattles.
Fogo Na Roupa Performing Company (Brazil)
WORLD PREMIERE
In full euphoria and full regalia, San Francisco's
prize-winning Afro-Brazilian Carnaval dancers will perform with a full drum
bateria and contingent of dancers in glorious coque feather headpieces. This is
urban-derived, African inspired, clothes-on-fire, funky Fogolystic samba reggae
at its best!
Stay for a lively and enlightening Artist Dialogue after
the performances
Saturday, June 8, 8pm
Florence Gould Theater, Legion of Honor Museum
Charya Burt Cambodian Dance – Blossoming Antiquities
A remarkable conversation about form and grace began in
1906, when the centuries-old Cambodian Royal Ballet performed in Paris and
captivated sculptor Auguste Rodin.
Cambodian choreographer Charya Burt evokes Rodin's
historical sketches in a performance that evolves from a visually stunning
traditional Khmer dance into an exciting new work reflecting the cultural
collision of East and West.
This innovative collaboration includes original
compositions by Alexis Alrich and live visual art-making by painter
Mario Uribe.
This performance will be followed by a dialogue and special reception with
Charya Burt.
Tickets: $38 – On sale now!
Available at sfedfopeningnight.bpt.me or by phone
800.838.3006
*Tickets for this performance must be purchased in
advance. No tickets available on-site.
Festival Weekend Two, June 15 & 16
Lam Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Saturday at 3pm* & 8pm; Sunday at 2pm
*Note: the matinee performance on June 15 begins at 3pm
Tickets: $18 - $58
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Available online or by phone 415.978.2787
Colectivo Anqari (Bolivia and Peru)
WORLD PREMIERE
Choreographer Luis Valverde presents Mistisikuri, an
urban expression of indigenous Andean dance. When this joyful baile alegre is
danced in the streets—from La Paz to Puno to pathways of Andean pueblos—dancers
become twirling flowers within a thicket of panpipes and drums.
Chaksam-Pa (Tibet)
A rarely-seen purification dance from the only Tibetan
Opera outside Southeast Asia. Masked dancers invoke spirits with wide-gestured
dance, haunting song, and otherworldly crash of cymbals. Learned in Dharamsala
from master Norbu Tsering, the form is Ache Lhamo, a 14th-century Buddhist
UNESCO Intangible Heritage.
Parangal Dance Company (Philippines)
WORLD PREMIERE
Choreographer Eric Solano presents the tale of a royal
marriage from Maguindanao. This elaborate presentation from the Philippines
features a full stage of traditional dancers, traditional attire, symbolic
flags, golden umbrellas, a royal banquet, a Maguindanaoan boat, and the
mesmerizing music of gongs and drums.
El Tunante (Peru)
WORLD PREMIERE
Champion dancer Nestor Ruiz presents Peru's national dance. La Marinera is an utterly romantic courtship dance with skillful
cepillado and zapateo footwork. Here, handkerchiefs fly like doves,
well-dressed men mimic Paso horses, and women dance barefoot, swishing their
skirts like ocean waves.
Tarangini School of Kathak Dance (India)
In this innovative combination of Bollywood song about
true love, and North Indian Classical dance, ten women stamp and spin swift
pirouettes in tightly-choreographed unison. They express fine emotion through
kathak pure dance.
Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Carlos Moreno (Mexico –
Guerrero)
From Mexico's state of Guerrero, a beautifully
choreographed Ballet Folklórico, to the unique musical sones The Bull, The
Vulture, and La Iguana. In dances of courtship and love, twenty dancers swirl
skirts, spin handkerchiefs, tap out rapid zapateado, and show off wonderful
acrobatics.
Gamelan Sekar Jaya (Indonesia)
Legendary Balinese dancer Ni Ketut Arini guest-directs
this modern arrangement of an ancient temple dance. Lithe dancers—in flowers
and gold—perform a choreography based on the movements of nature, as a
light-hearted bamboo gamelan guides fluttering hands and expressive eyes.
Shabnam Dance Company (Middle East and USA)
WORLD PREMIERE
Near East belly dance celebrates the feminine! To an
Arabic doumbek beat, eleven sensuous dancers perform a daring balancing act,
with mystical zaar, glimmering sequins, show stopping shamadan, and hypnotic
hipwork—dancing to summon the energy of earth, wind, fire and water.
De Rompe y Raja Cultural Association (Peru)
WORLD PREMIERE
It's an Afro-Peruvian dance party! With whistles, cajón
box-drums, donkey-jaw rattles, flags, and a fabulous a capella session of
counter-pointed zapateado footwork. This dynamic dancing percussion team turns
sad, sweet songs from slavery times and African, Spanish, and Andean
syncopations into the unhesitating rhythms of freedom.
Cheikh Tairou M'baye and Sing Sing Rhythms (Senegal)
A master Senegalese drummer and griot and his West
African sabar orchestra turn up the heat—setting in motion a high-intensity and
sensual celebration from the Wolof people: a dance for protection and a dance
for joy with a rhythmic finale where arms and legs fly.
Festival Weekend Three, June 22 & 23
Lam Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 2pm
Tickets: $18 - $58
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Available online or by phone 415.978.2787
Chinese Performing Arts of America (China)
WORLD PREMIERE
In a delicate Court Dance from the Tang Dynasty, eight
girls dance their solemn respect to God. They perform a dance technique called
"water sleeve," creating patterns with extraordinarily long silk
sleeves. Their gestures summon dashing rain, thundering wind, and tranquility
that returns like a rainbow.
OREET (Egypt and Israel)
This belly dance soloist builds on the timeless form
learned from her Yemeni and Sephardic Israeli families. In glorious sequins and
silver wings, she shimmies and shakes from her foot to her wild hair, matching
precise and intricate movements to Egyptian, Turkish, and Latin rhythms.
La Tania Baile Flamenco (Spain)
This stunning Spanish flamenco performance features
award-winning dancer La Tania, and brings music to the forefront. As three
female dancers perform the Farruca—a men's dance of somber virtuosity,
aggressive, musical footwork and dramatic shifts in tempo—their feet add
percussion to violin and guitar.
Vishwa Shanthi Dance Academy (India)
WORLD PREMIERE
Shreelata Suresh presents a sacred bharatanatyam dance,
expertly choreographed from the Gandharva Veda. To bright violin, veena, and
cymbal, jeweled dancers weave rhythmic feet through the triangles, circles, and
squares that symbolize nature—evoking rays of the sun, undulating rivers and
strong lines of mountains.
Ballet Folklórico Mexico Danza (Mexico – Nuevo Leon)
This suite from Nuevo Leon is pure Mexico Norteño, with
echoes of floating Viennese waltzes, exuberant Czechoslovakian polkas, and
vigorous German accordion. After the stately women's dance in Victorian dress,
the hombres saunter in—and twelve couples spin in unison, with dazzling
footwork, turns, and stomps.
Hālau o Keikiali`i (Hawai`i)
Kumu Hula Kawika Alfiche builds on his native Hawaiian
tradition with a new dance, evoking sacred stories through song, coconut drum,
and hula pahu. He sings Kahekili nui. Thunder roars, heavens split—as graceful,
dignified dancers honor Hawai`i's gods of lightning, wildwoods, and canoe
landings.
Ensohza Minyoshu (Japan)
Sansaodori, from the northern Japanese prefecture of
Iwate, is danced during the Obon Festival. Folk dancers in traveling garb play
taiko drums and flute, as they perform a series of dances, including a rice
planting dance, a solo by a masked fool, and a closing with stylized bows.
Xpressions (India)
WORLD PREMIERE
Vigorous and graceful dances bring a vibrant joy from the
Rajasthan desert. Dancers spin like multicolored silk tops and strike cymbals
sewn into their clothing. They also perform a rare and remarkable dance of
snake-charmers listed as a UNESCO Intangible Heritage.
Diamano Coura West African Dance Company (Liberia)
This exceptional West African dance group brings to life
scenes from a Liberian dance drama: a village is threatened by a leopard, and
dancers portray the hunt, the victorious battle scene, and an exuberant
celebration of victory.
*We will honor Diamano Coura's founder and master drummer, Dr. Zakarya Diouf, with the 2013 Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award during the June 22, 8pm performance.
SPECIAL EVENT – Saturday, June 22, 11:30am
YBCA Forum
Performance and Workshop FREE
Ballet Folklórico
Costa de Oro
From high in the remote regions of Mexico's Sierra Madre
Mountains, here are three ritualized danzas of the indigenous Wixáritari (Huichol):
a harvest dance celebrating maize; a prayer danced with Ojos de Dios weavings;
and a shamanic dance honoring the mystic and sacred blue deer.
Participants will have the opportunity to learn some of the dance steps as well as weaving an Ojo de Dios (God's Eye) to take home and share with friends and family.
Festival Weekend Four, June 29 & 30
Lam Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 2pm
Tickets: $18 - $58
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Available online, or by phone 415.978.2787
Bolivia Corazón De América (Bolivia)
WORLD PREMIERE
Haunting Andean panpipes call from the high mountains, in
this evocative set of indigenous Aymara and Quechua dance. One piece, said to
date back to 800 BCE, features performers in elaborate feather headpieces
mimicking the ostrich-like rhea bird; another dance ridicules the colonial
Spanish.
Charlotte Moraga (India)
WORLD PREMIERE
Kathak soloist Charlotte Moraga exhibits rhythmic
virtuosity and subtle expression in an exquisite Indian storytelling dance in a
rare 9-beat structure. As told in the 12th-century Sufi poem Conference of the
Birds, the nightingale, peacock, and hawk must relinquish something they love
as they embark on a spiritual quest.
Łowiczanie Polish Folk Ensemble of San Francisco (Poland)
Folk culture is alive in the high Beskid Mountains of
Poland. Accompanied by traditional fiddles and shepherd's pipes—and decked out
in their embroidered finest—sixteen dancers present mountain songs and dances:
with greeting marches, twirling couples, acrobatics, and some astonishingly
rhythmic push-ups.
Dimensions Dance Theater (New Orleans, USA)
West and Central African dance and music are the roots of
this New Orleans Second Line tradition. High-stepping, vibrantly clad,
handkerchief-twirling dancers and a boisterous brass band take to the streets,
buck jumping – celebrating life and honoring tradition.
Mona Khan Company Emerging Performers (India)
A Bollywood show-stopper. Talented young dancers turn
Indian classical styles and traditional folk dance into contemporary Bollywood
—expressing joy, happiness, and togetherness! This non-stop performance of
swirling silks and colored lights, swords and cymbals pays tribute to Krishna
and Ganesha—an Indian festival dance!
LIKHA - Pilipino Folk Ensemble (Philippines)
WORLD PREMIERE
A world-premiere from master choreographer Rudi Soriano,
based on indigenous Visayan dance. Elaborate props and rhythmic beating of
drums and gongs bring this story alive: it opens with a graceful ritual
sacrifice and ends in wild combat with a full-feathered Banog eagle.
Suhaila Dance Company (Egypt and Lebanon)
WORLD PREMIERE
A beautifully executed choreography of classic belly
dance, evoking 1920s Cairo cabarets, when traditional Middle Eastern dance took
the stage. Coins and beads shimmer as the dancers' subtle, graceful movements
emphasize the feminine—and complex Arabic music from Lebanon lends poetic
themes of love and loss.
Grupo Folklórico Raíces de Mi Tierra (Mexico –
Aguascalientes)
WORLD PREMIERE
This spring fair in Aguascalientes, Mexico, is a
fantastic display of music, dance, and trick roping. A live mariachi band sets
the festive mood as dancers swing and twirl—from uniformed railroad men, to
horsemen in bolero jackets and sombreros, to elegant women in embroidered
colonial dresses.
Urban Jazz Dance Company (American Sign Language Dance)
In this stunning solo, Antoine Hunter presents American
Sign Dance, expressing felt syncopation through the athletic body. Hunter
unites jazz, African, hip-hop, gospel, and signing as a poetic gestured
language. The piece honors deafness as human experience.
El Wah Movement Dance Theatre (Haiti)
WORLD PREMIERE
From Haiti, a high-intensity adaptation of a traditional
prayer chant, calling people everywhere to positive action. Dancers exult in
intricate foot patterns and polyrhythmic movements. Red and blue sequins flash
across the stage as the African Rada rhythms intensify, calling the good
spirits in.
SPECIAL EVENT – Saturday, June 29, 6:30pm
Lam Research Theater, YBCA
Admission included with ticket to either the 2pm or 8pm June 29 performance
Artist Dialogue with four Bay Area dance leaders - Blanche
Brown, Colette Eloi, Latanya d. Tigner, and Deborah Vaughan – who will reflect
on the history and current status of dance from the African Diaspora with
Festival Artistic Director CK Ladzekpo.
