February 13, 2024
For immediate release
Contact:
Andrew Wood: 415-399-9554 (o) 415-305-1102 (c) [email protected]
Risa Adachi: (415) 481-9137 [email protected]
SF International Arts Festival
Features a Rich Program of Contemporary and Traditional Dance in 2024
Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: Multiple Dance Artists
What: 2024 San Francisco International Arts Festival
Where: Dance Mission Theater & Studio 210
Date & Time: May 2 - 12, 2024
Tickets: $20 - $28 general admission.
Early Bird Tickets On-Sale February 20, 2024
Box Office and Information:https://www.sfiaf.org or 415-399-9554.
Photos Available on Request
February 13, 2024 San Francisco: San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) will present a rich diversity of dance performances in 2024 ranging from contemporary dance, postmodern movement, Butoh, contemporary flamenco and Indian classical dance.
This year's Festival will include six world premiere dance performances. In the realm of contemporary work the world's of Elvis Presley and Freddie Mercury collide in Joe Landini's Freddie vs. Elvis. Aura Fischbeck embodies mycelial consciousness in Ambulatory Nature. Rosemary Hannon & Miriam Wolodarski deal promptly with reality in This Is It. While Megan Nicely mines the periphery of perception with humXn forms.
From the "ethnic dance" realm, Carola Zertuche seamlessly blends innovation with tradition in Pasajes Flamencos and Anupama Srivastava draws on the immigrant experience to present Pravaasi.
Srivastava and Zertuche both combine contemporary themes and ideas with more traditional genres.
Anupama Srivastava uses Kathak to address the issue of immigration to the United States in the 21st Century. The trend of using classical dance to address current sociopolitical issues is a growing practice among U.S. based Indian dance companies, recent Festival performances have included a focus on environmental issues, women's rights, and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This approach illustrates their adaptation to creating work for a new audience within a different cultural context.
Flamenco choreographer, Carola Zertuche, is another traditional artist whose work often explores contemporary themes. Pasajes Flamencos, that will premiere in 2024, promises to be another project that will follow this trajectory. It builds on Zertuche’s past Festival performances including El Cruce de Lenguajes (the Crossing of Languages) that created a multidisciplinary conversation between dance and music artists from across a number of cultures, Sin Tiempo (Without Time) made during the COVID 19 Pandemic, focused on the effects of the global lockdown; and the brilliant Rock Flamenco inspired by a time in the 1970s following the death of Franco. La Movida Madrileña was ascendant in Spanish popular music, including various strands of progressive rock. Until then flamenco had remained separate from the rock music movement, but in the period following the death of the dictator and the relaxing of censorship laws a wave of cross-disciplinary experimentation took place.
The Festival will feature both full-length works and shared bills. Landini is paired alongside Christine Cali's Perfect Response from 2023 that also calls perfection and norms into question. But with a very different approach.
Aura Fischbeck, Rosemary Hannon & Miriam Wolodarski also share a bill for an evening of reflective dance works.
Finally, Anupama Srivastava and the InSyncKathak Dancers are paired with Sarada Kala Nilayam who will present the California Premiere of Chakras - the wheel of energy from 2023.
The full dance calendar is as follows:
CALI & Co (USA)
Perfect. Response (2023) (30 mins. w/o intermission)
Dance Mission Theater. Fri May 3 8:30pm; Sat May 4, 4:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
Shared Bill with Joe Landini Dance
PERFECT. explores perfectionism and its impacts on the individual body, and the collective body, and seeks to dismantle notions of standards and norms (whose standards, whose norms!?) RESPONSE. researches the space between stimuli and response; seeking what is possible in the pause, the breath, the moment, the choice…
Joe Landini (USA)
Freddie vs. Elvis (2024, World Premiere)
Dance Mission Theater. Fri May 3 8:30pm; Sat May 4, 4:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
Shared Bill with CALI & Co
Freddie vs. Elvis is comprised of two abstract dances that use the music of Freddie Mercury (Queen) and Elvis Presley as backdrops to create a series of dances influenced by iconic imagery, pop culture and collective memory.
Aura Fischbeck Dance
Ambulatory Nature (2024 World Premiere)
Dance Mission Theater. Sat May 4 8:00pm; Sat May 5, 3:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
Shared Bill with Alma Esperanza, Rosemary Hannon & Miriam Wolodarski
Drawing inspiration from research into fungal modes of communication and movement, Ambulatory Nature asks questions about the connections between human animals and mycelial consciousness, considering the possibility of a body that is always more than one. At once visual, sensorial and visceral the dance invites the possibility of a body without a plan, one that is constituted through its willingness to stay in motion. Through tasks of orienting and disorienting, becoming and unbecoming, Ambulatory Nature offers a meditation on the beauty of unfixing, unraveling, failure and decay.
Rosemary Hannon & Miriam Wolodarski (USA)
This Is It (2024, World Premiere)
Dance Mission Theater. Sat May 4 8:00pm; Sat May 5, 3:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
Shared Bill with Alma Esperanza Cunningham and Aura Fischbeck Dance
Rosemary and Miriam propose that now is a time for dealing with reality as it is, not as you would have it be. The body is the material. Responsive devotion, receptive influence: in practicing being shaped, kindness matters.
Alma Esperanza Cunningham Movement (USA)
Dance Mission Theater. Sat May 4 8:00pm; Sat May 5, 3:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
Shared Bill with Aura Fischbeck Dance, Rosemary Hannon & Miriam Wolodarski
Project description pending.
Ogura Dance (USA)
Soil and Soul (work-in-progess)
Studio 210. Sunday May 5, 2:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
Soil and Soul is an excerpt of the performance, Land of Kamuy based on the beliefs of the Ainu people. Through a fusion of Butoh movement, Ainu folk dance, film and animation, Soil and Soul depicts the Ainu’s faith, ritual, and devotion to Kamuy, the god of nature.
Theatre Flamenco de San Francisco (USA)
Pasajes Flamencos (2024, World Premiere) (75 mins w/o intermission)
Dance Mission Theater. Friday May 10, 8:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
Directed by the visionary Carola Zertuche, this captivating production seamlessly blends innovation with tradition. A mesmerizing performance combining a unique fusion of modern creativity and the rich, authentic roots of flamenco. Pasajes Flamencos transcends boundaries, inviting the audience on a spellbinding journey through the heart of this passionate and timeless art form.
Megan Nicely/dance with Shoshana Green and Kevin Corcoran (USA)
humXn forms (2024, World Premiere) (60 mins w/o intermission)
Studio 210. Sunday May 5, 2:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
humXn forms explores the life of sensations that reside underneath human appearance. Drawing on butoh, contemporary dance, and somatic practices, ignited by sonic textures and language, the two works on the program mine the periphery of perception, asking questions that bring findings into relationship to create the performance environment.
Anupama Srivastava and the InSyncKathak Dancers (USA)
Pravaasi (2024, World Premiere) (40 mins w/o intermission)
Dance Mission Theater. Sunday May 12, 2:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
Shared bill with Sarada Kala Nilayam
The saga of a typical immigrant experience in search of a “home-away-from-home,” through phases of wanderlust, separation-anxiety, identity-crisis, nostalgia and assimilation. Drawing parallels to emotions of anyone who leaves the comfort of “home”, whether or not they cross an international border, this relatable journey is presented through Indian Kathak dance.
Sarada Kala Nilayam (USA)
Chakras - the wheel of energy (2023, California Premiere) (25 mins. w/o intermission)
Dance Mission Theater. Sunday May 12, 2:00pm. Tix: $20 - $28
Shared bill with InsynchKathak
Chakra refers to the wheel of energy flowing in our body. Each of the seven chakras has a unique purpose and location along the spine. The choreography details the location of each chakra, the yoga poses and elements of nature associated with them, and the voice of the activated Chakra.
SFIAF 2024 is made possible in part by the support of Bernard Osher Foundation, California Arts Council, California Office of the Small Business Advocate, California Venues Grant, Grants for the Arts, New Place Fund and the Further Foundation, the Western Arts Federation (WESTAF) and many generous individuals.
Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: Multiple Dance Artists
What: 2024 San Francisco International Arts Festival
Where: Dance Mission Theater & Studio 210
Date & Time: May 2 - 12, 2024
Tickets: $20 - $28 general admission.
Early Bird Tickets On-Sale February 20, 2024
Box Office and Information: https://www.sfiaf.org or 415-399-9554.
Photos Available on Request
~XXX~