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2026 World Arts West
​Cultural Dance Catalyst Fund
Round 1 Grantees

World Arts West Dance Announces Cultural Dance Catalyst Fund Grantees 

World Arts West is pleased to announce it has awarded $493,500 in grants to 20 California cultural dance organizations. Each grantee will receive $24,675 as part of the inaugural round of the Cultural Dance Catalyst Fund.

This is World Arts West’s first time as a grantmaker!


Through this regranting program, World Arts West will support California-based cultural dance organizations whose work sustains, advances, and uplifts diverse cultural traditions, advances well-being in their communities, and strengthens connections across generations.

This initiative is designed to increase access to resources, foster equity in funding, and amplify the voices of under-resourced cultural communities. In addition to direct funding, grantees will also join a cohort-based engagement model (including a beginning, mid-point, and closing gathering and other professional development opportunities based on cohort feedback), creating opportunities for exchange, collaboration, and mutual support.

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Abhinaya Dance Company of San José

The Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose was founded by its Artistic Director Mythili Kumar in 1980, to present innovative and professional quality performances of South Indian classical dance, primarily Bharatanatyam.

​Since 1986, Abhinaya has staged annual dance productions featuring collaborations and guest artists. In 2025, Abhinaya celebrated its 45th anniversary.
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  Afro Urban Society

Over-articulated and barely translated, Gbedu Town Radio (GTR), a multidisciplinary Pan-African dance and music performance company, under the umbrella of the Afro Urban Society organization, tells dynamic stories for the culture. Led by Artistic Director, Nkeiruka Oruche, and featuring a dynamic group of performers, GTR explores social and political themes through Pan Afro-Urban music and dance including Afrobeats, Dancehall, Coupé-Décalé & varieties of Hip hop. ​


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AfroRooted

Multidisciplinary creative, dancer, and DJ Karla “Karlita” Flores served as a Hip Hop Cultural Diplomat with Next Level, an experience that inspired the creation of AfroRooted, a groundbreaking community dance festival that explores the rich, intersecting histories of Black and Brown street-style art forms and the urban and traditional movements of the African diaspora.

​Currently, they are working to foster the next generation of dancers through community programming, dance workshops, and DJing for the club styles community.


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  Axé Oakland

Axé Oakland is an Afro-Brazilian cultural center and Capoeira school rooted in the traditions of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Founded by Mestre Chipa, Axé offers classes, workshops, and community programming centering movement, music, and cultural practice as tools for connection, healing, and collective growth.

Through Capoeira--
a practice developed by enslaved Africans in Brazil as a form of resistance—they create spaces where participants build strength, confidence, and cultural awareness while connecting to a lineage of resilience and creativity.


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Bahareque LLC

Bahareque is a Colombian folk dance ensemble based in the San Francisco Bay Area dedicated to preserving, promoting, and celebrating Colombian cultural traditions through dance, music, and community engagement. Founded by Colombian artists and cultural advocates, Bahareque creates opportunities for people of all backgrounds to connect with the richness and diversity of Colombian folklore.

​Through performances, educational workshops, and cultural events, Bahareque showcases traditional dances such as cumbia, mapalé, bambuco, and Sanjuanero Huilense while fostering intercultural understanding and community pride.


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  Ballet Folklórico Nube de Oro

For more than three decades, Ballet Folklórico Nube de Oro has served the Sacramento region through the preservation, education, and presentation of Mexican folkloric dance. Founded in 1994, Nube de Oro is dedicated to teaching and inspiring youth and adults to embrace the diversity, beauty, and cultural significance of Mexico’s regional dance traditions.

Through dance, they foster self-esteem, cultural pride, respect, teamwork, and commitment while creating a supportive community that encourages personal growth, artistic excellence, and lifelong connections. In recent years, the organization has undergone a thoughtful reorganization focused on sustainability and expanding opportunities for dancers, instructors, and audiences alike.


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BCA Dance Company

BCA Dance Company, formerly Bolivia Corazón De América, is a Bolivian Folkloric Dance company that was established in 2000 by Susana Salinas to connect Bolivians to their cultural heritage. The company is dedicated to educating audiences through high-quality, innovative, and professional performances.

​By reimagining ancient and rare Bolivian dance forms, the company preserves cultural traditions while infusing them with fresh, creative approaches. Through its commitment to cultural preservation, education, and artistry, BCA Dance Company continues to inspire and unite communities in appreciation of Bolivia's culture and heritage.


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  Calpulli Ocelochihuatl

Calpulli Ocelocihuatl serves the community by sustaining and sharing the ancestral traditions of the Mexica (Native Mexican) people while creating accessible, intergenerational spaces for cultural connection, education, and belonging. They hold a weekly Aztec dance ceremony every Wednesday evening at the School of Arts & Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San José, CA. This partnership with the School is significant as it allows them proximity to the east side of San José, a community predominantly Latino and historically rich in cultural resilience. They intentionally welcome individuals of all gender expressions and support participants in wearing regalia that reflects their identity.

Overall, their work serves the community by preserving cultural knowledge, expanding access to Indigenous traditions, and fostering spaces where identity, belonging, and intergenerational connection can thrive. Through ceremony, education, and consistent presence, they strengthen cultural continuity and support community well-being across generations.


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CarOlé Flamenco's FLAMENCO SPANISH DANCE THEATRE of America

Fifth-generation flamenco and Spanish dancer (classical, regional) CarOlé Tachíria Acuña Flamenco is the principal artist/director of CarOlé Flamenco’s FLAMENCO SPANISH DANCE THEATRE of América (FSDT), an internationally acclaimed cultural dance theatre company rooted in her family’s legacy that began in 1894 and was formally established by her mother in 1995 under the name Carolina Lugo’s Ballet Flamenco.

The company’s work centers on preserving and sharing flamenco as well as the Spanish dance theatre traditions, while challenging stereotypes about Gitano communities and uplifting the many cultures woven into this practice.


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  Cheza Nami Foundation Inc.

Cheza Nami Foundation, Inc. is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2011 and based in Alameda County. Operating under the slogan Cultural Diversity in Communities, the Foundation promotes cultural education and diversity awareness through grantmaking, fiscal sponsorship, community convening, programming, and licensing, all in service of African and Diaspora arts, cultural preservation, and equity.

For over a decade, Cheza Nami has served as a cultural steward and community connector in the East Bay, building relationships with artists, cultural bearers, and organizations whose work reflects the richness of the African continent and its global Diaspora.


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Danza Azteca Citlaltonac

Danza Azteca Citlaltonac, is an Indigenous-led nonprofit rooted in the preservation and sharing of Mexica/Aztec traditions in the Coachella Valley. Through their work, they create culturally grounded spaces that center healing, education, advocacy, and community connection.

As a practitioner and Executive Director of Danza Azteca, Gabriela “Gabby” Armenta uses ceremony, storytelling, music, and traditional dance as tools for cultural preservation and collective healing. Under her leadership, Danza Azteca Citlaltonac has developed programs including Indigenous Talking Healing Circles, cultural workshops, advocacy circles, youth and family programming, and community resource events that uplift Indigenous, immigrant, LGBTQ+, and underserved communities.


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Fogo Na Roupa

Fogo Na Roupa was founded in 1989 by Mestre Carlos Aceituno as a "Grupo Carnavalesco" and performing company based in the Bay Area. For 34 years, Fogo Na Roupa has provided arts education through its award-winning contingent in Carnaval San Francisco, year-round dance and drum classes for adults, seasonal youth programming, and a performing company showcasing staged pieces throughout the Bay Area.

​Their mission is to provide cultural education through music and dance of Afro-Brazilian Carnaval while creating a safe space and community for BIPOC artists and cultural bearers. They uplift the cultural traditions of the Afro-Latin Diaspora, foster the evolution and dynamic adaptation of our traditions, and bring this experience to the streets through 
accessible programming for inter-generational families and artists.


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Fua Dia Kongo

Fua Dia Kongo is a 49-year-old cultural arts organization rooted in the preservation and transmission of traditional Kongolese dance, drum, song, and cultural practices. Founded in 1977 by (Ta) Malonga Casquelourd, the organization has long served as a cultural anchor for Kongolese and African-rooted cultural communities in the Bay Area, carrying forward a lineage grounded in the principle of Wa Dia Fua Yika Dio—what we inherit, we must add value to.

Their work lives at the intersection of cultural preservation, healing, cultural caretaking, and restoration. Through year-round classes, workshops, performances, and intergenerational programming, they create spaces where youth, adults, and elders engage Kongolese traditions as living practices, guided by culture bearers. These spaces are communal and restorative, offering participants a place to move, remember, and reconnect.


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GER Youth Center

What began in 2007 as a simple quarterly newsletter grew into something much deeper, a home for a culture thousands of miles away. In 2009, the “GER” Youth Center officially opened the Bi Mongol (“I am Mongolian”) program with just 13 students and two small classes.

Today, that seed has flourished, consistently serving between 40 and 100 students each year while remaining rooted in their mission to preserve the Mongolian spirit within the vibrant, diverse landscape of the SF Bay Area. They serve Mongolian immigrant families who have spent decades building lives in the United States, alongside their American born children.

​They are ensuring that the nomadic soul of Mongolia continues to thrive and breathe in a new land.


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Herencia Guantanamera

Herencia Guantanamera is a Bay Area–based nonprofit cultural organization founded in 2023 by Afro-Cuban artists Angel Yoel Mulen-Robert and Royland Lobato. The organization is dedicated to preserving, promoting, and sharing the rich cultural traditions of Guantánamo, Cuba, through music, dance, education, and community engagement.

Rooted in Afro-Cuban, Afro-Haitian, and Afro-Caribbean heritage, Herencia Guantanamera offers performances, workshops, classes, and cultural events that celebrate traditions such as Conga Oriental, Tumba Francesa, Vodú, Gagá, Rumba, and other folkloric expressions unique to eastern Cuba. Through these activities, the organization creates meaningful opportunities for cultural exchange, artistic growth, and intergenerational learning.


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MPWRD Artists Collective

The MPWRD Artists Collective acts as a safe space for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ arts/cultural practitioners to build awareness around preserving and showcasing the diversity and power of Filipino/Fil-Am, African/African-American and Afro-Pinoy diasporic culture. Advancing and creating continuity between these communities through art, creation and most importantly, cultural resistance is also at the center of their practice.

​They work directly with culture bearers from respective diasporic and indigenous communities when re-creating indigenous dances/practices, experimental and fusion work.


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Parangal

Parangal, which means "tribute", is a Filipino immigrant-rooted and non-profit cultural organization based in the unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Territory also known as San Francisco.

Founded in 2008, Parangal is recognized as one of America's leading organizations dedicated to advancing, cultivating, educating, and promoting the living traditions of the Philippines.

​Guided by the teachings of more than 100 Culture Bearers representing over 30 indigenous communities throughout the Philippines, Parangal brings these traditions to life through powerful performances, cultural education, and community engagement.


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Rara Tou Limen

Rara Tou Limen (RTL) is a Haitian folkloric dance company and arts organization based in Oakland, California. Founded in 2004 by Artistic Director Portsha Jefferson, RTL brings a wide range of Haitian dance forms to the stage through ritual theater performances featuring dancers, drummers, and vocalists.

RTL honors the sacred healing rituals of Vodou, Haiti's legacy of 
political struggle, and the festive spirit of Carnival through traditional rhythms, chants, and movement that integrates the strength, fluidity, and precision of Haitian folkloric dance. For over 20 years RTL has been a cornerstone of Oakland's Haitian diasporic, Black, and dance communities.


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Shruti Abhishek Dance

Founded in 2018, Shruti Abhishek Dance is a Livermore-based organization dedicated to performing and teaching Bharatanatyam, a South Indian classical dance form. Their company pushes the boundaries of Bharatanatyam, creating works that speak directly to contemporary life, and making the form both traditional and deeply relatable to the modern diaspora. As a presenting organization, they fill a critical gap. 
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The “When Eyes Speak” Festival, established in 2019, is the only South Asian choreography festival in San Francisco, showcasing Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Chhau, contemporary Indian dance, theater, and fusion work.


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Thai Cultural Council

The Thai Cultural Council (TCC) is located on the grounds of Wat Mongkolratanaram - a Thai Buddhist Temple in Berkeley. In addition to presiding over the spiritual life of Thai immigrants, the temple's responsibility is to also impart Thai culture to Thai youth in the diaspora. Thus, the performing arts and language school was founded in 1989 by community elders in partnership with a university performing arts department in Bangkok.

Together, the temple and cultural council provide language, dance, and music classes for all ages year-round and also serves as the ensemble performing blessing ceremonies for festivals and Thai holidays on-site. These rituals allow for the larger Bay Area Thai community to practice their ways (blessing dances, processions, celebration) and tell their stories through dance (myths, epics, village life).

WAW Cultural Dance Catalyst Fund is part of World Arts West's Cultural Dance Sustainability Initiative (CDSI).

CDSI includes the following artist service programs:​
  • ​​WAW Cultural Dance Catalyst Fund
  • Grants Accelerator Program (GAP)
  • Special Artist Commissions (SAC)
    • Migrations
    • ​5th Quarter Bantaba
    • Ipat A Kadsakay
  • Career Pathways Roundtable (CPR)
  • Professional Development Workshops

​As well as:
  • Visibility & Advocacy
  • Research & Impact
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  • Home
  • About
    • About Us >
      • 50 Years of Cultural Continuity
      • Mission & Vision
      • Program Pillars
      • Staff & Board
      • Press & News
  • Performances/Events
    • Annual Festival >
      • 2026 WAW Dance Festival
      • 2025 WAW Dance Festival >
        • 2025 WAWDF FAQ's
      • 2024 WAW Dance Festival
      • 2023 WAW Dance Festival >
        • The Artists
        • Festival Team and Funders
      • 2022 WAW Dances in the Park >
        • The Artists
      • 2021 SFEDF Film
      • Festival Program Books
    • Artist Dialogues >
      • Living Traditions >
        • 2021
        • 2020 >
          • Season 1
          • Season 2
      • Live Arts In Resistance
    • Community Partnerships >
      • Afro Urban Society
      • Asian Art Museum
      • Bay Area Dance Week
      • First Sundays at the Presidio
  • Cultural Dance Sustainability Initiative
    • World Arts West Cultural Dance Catalyst Fund >
      • 2026 CDC Fund Grantees
    • Grants Accelerator Program >
      • Meet the 2026 GAP Cohort
    • Visibility & Advocacy
    • Research & Impact
    • Special Artist Commissions >
      • Migrations
      • 5th Quarter Bantaba
      • Ipat a Kadsakay
      • Amazed By Grace
    • Career Pathways Roundtable
    • Professional Development Workshops
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Funders and Partners
    • Contact Us