Founded in 1978, this festival celebrates and fosters the appreciation for the diverse group of dance companies and performers that call the San Francisco Bay Area their home. The annual performance season includes dance styles such as traditional classical dance, sacred dance genres, vernacular dance forms, social dance and folk dance presentations. Throughout the festival's history more than 600 companies have been presented from more than 100 genres and ethnic cultures. The festival also contributes to the professional experience of more than 14,000 performers dancing alongside recognized masters, students and cultural groups. Each program features between 7 to 11 companies as culturally diverse as Senegalese dancers from the Kaolak region to Mexican folklorico dancers from the Tobasco region.
This year's festival will include a unique mix of ethnic dancers from Bali, the Appalachian Mountain region of the United States and Liberia. A few of the dance companies that will be performing are El Tunante, performing the la marinera which is the first national dance of Peru, Sanhiti, performing Kummi Adi depicting a typical South Indian village carnival with balancing acts and dancing horses, and Fua Dia Congo, a combination of traditional dance and music of Central Africa's BaTeke and BaBembe people. The Ethnic Dance Festival will be held in various locations in San Francisco from June 6-28th with a kick off party at the Cheryl Burke Dance Studio in Portrero Hill. For more information and to purchase tickets to the events please visit www.worldartswest.org/main/home.asp.
