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Every Spring, the World Arts West (WAW) headquarters in Fort Mason Center’s Building D is filled with people planning the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. This acclaimed event unites many members of the Northern California ethnic dance community for a month-long celebration of global dance styles.
At other times of the year, WAW stays busy with dance education programs, developing a world-class dance resource on its web site, and finding funds for another magical year of dance.
30 Years of Dance That Matters
In 1978, the Grants for the Arts of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund sponsored the ethnic dance festival, which was the first of its kind in the US. By 1982 the festival had come under the wing of an earlier incarnation of WAW called City Celebration.
Over the years, WAW has presented ethnic dance involving 14,000 dancers in more than 600 groups to hundreds of thousands of audience members. For the first time in 2008, dance groups from other countries participate in the festival. This year the festival has added a fourth week of performances funded by the prestigious Wallace Foundation Excellence Awards.
The 2008 event is a watershed 30-year retrospective of the many dance forms that have made the festival a world-renowned showcase. According to WAW, no other US city has an ethnic dance festival on a par with the one in San Francisco.
Giving Dancers Creative Space And Time
“I’m surprised there are not more ethnic dance festivals,” said Julie Mushet, Executive Director at World Arts West. “There are so few opportunities for dancers to be presented professionally.”
Mushet said that part of the festival’s appeal for dance groups is the chance to “be the artists” and work with the professional photographers, lighting designers, and stage crews contributing to WAW productions.
“I love helping other people perform,” said Mushet, a former dancer. “Dance is one of the most difficult art forms to present.”
Presenting Dance in Fine Form
From the lively acrobatic movements of West African dance and Brazilian carnival sambas to fiery Spanish flamenco and compelling Asian dance, the SF Ethnic Dance is a potpourri of traditional styles, costumes, and music. Regional American favorites also make appearances, such as Polynesian forms from Hawaii, and the Barbary Coast Cloggers, an all-male Bay Area group preserving lively Gold-Rush era dance steps.
Given its diversity, San Francisco is the perfect place for an ethnic dance festival. However, there are so many groups to consider, that the January audition process lasts four days.
A panel of dance experts reviewed nearly 100 groups to select the 2008 festival participants. Mushet said that the 2008 festival introduces the concept of dance lineages because performers can invite teachers and elders who helped preserve cultural traditions.
“There is going to be an extraordinary gathering of performers, musicians, and leaders, including a tribal chief from the Philippines,” said Mushet. “There may be three or four generations on stage.”
The unique dances and wonderful staging and music at the festival guarantee that it sells out every year. The addition of an extra week of shows may help keep pace with demand in 2008, but Mushet advises those who really want to see the festival to buy tickets in advance.
“People are more interested in dance than they used to be,” Mushet said. “Our festival is being credited with making the Bay Area a notable ethnic dance region.”
Dancing Into the Future
The dance festival and auditions draw many people to World Arts West. WAW uses this attraction to educate the world about the vitality and importance of different dance cultures. WAW’s People Like Me multicultural arts education program delights children and adults each year in March and April with theme-based theatrical stories.
The 2008 education theme is The Environment. WAW had puppetry performers telling stories for the first time this year. Like other years, WAW supplements the shows with extensive curriculum guides and web site materials.
WAW continues to expand its popular web-based World Dance Encyclopedia, which pulls in the most web site visitors after the festival. Mushet hopes to secure funding to shoot professional dance video clips using the more effective, and expensive, three-camera method. She would like to add these clips and other multimedia elements to the web site.
The festival costs a great deal to produce because it is a high-quality production. Mushet and the WAW board of directors are always looking for other funding opportunities and have had partial success with robust ticket sales and a star-studded opening night gala.
Working with other groups at Fort Mason Center would also be a good development, according to Mushet, who said, “Fort Mason has been integral to the work of WAW.”
“The potential for collaboration is so great here,” said Mushet. “I have high hopes for this place.”
— Claudia Willen
Images:
Bolivia Corazon de America, Photo: RJ Muna
Julie Mushet, Executive Director, World Arts West, Photo: Bradford Gregory
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INFO BOX
WORLD ARTS WEST
Description
World Arts West (WAW) honors and celebrates diverse dance forms through its annual Ethnic Dance Festival, People Like Me, web-based arts education programs, and more. WAW seeks to promote and preserve the cultural heritage of dance in order to strengthen communities locally and globally and build cultural understanding.
Since 2002, WAW programs have presented more than 100 cultural dance forms. During its 30-year history, WAW has worked with more than 600 Northern California dance groups and 14,000 dancers.
Executive Director
Julie Mushet
Location
Building D
Contact Information
(415) 474-3914
www.worldartswest.org
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