World Arts West Dance Festival Weekend 1:Artist Dialogues + Dance Workshops

Weekend #1 opens up with our NEW Artist Dialogue Series + Dance Workshops at Dance Mission Theater.

The Artist Dialogue Series centers on themes such as dance as a form of resistance, female empowerment, the evolution of traditional dance in contemporary settings, and exploring queer identity within traditional dance. All dialogues will be moderated, recorded and include an audience Q+A at the end.

In this panel, we look to see how queer dance artists from a variety of cultural backgrounds center queerness within their work. How do artists both look to and break from tradition to celebrate queerness in their dance?

Moderator - Akhil Joondeph

Speakers - Amit Patel, Arturo Magana, Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert

Amit Patel (Ishami Dance Company) - Contemporary Indian

This panel will focus on how dance artists are using their work to resist the oppressive forces of colonialism upon the lands, traditions, values, and existences of their indigenous cultures. How are dance artists using their art to reassert indigenous traditions, fight against colonial residue, and engage with the history of oppression and resistance that their art forms represent?

Moderator - Dr. Anne Huang

Speakers - Alleluia Panis, Portsha Jefferson, Kiazi Malonga

Portsha Jefferson (Rara Tou Limen) - Haitian

is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and artistic director, living in the San Francisco Bay Area (unceded lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone people). He is the Co-Founder of Ishami Dance Company, a South Asian Contemporary dance company. As a first-generation born Indian-American, Amit strives to fuse his Eastern culture with his Western training to expand an idiom of Indian contemporary dance. Amit is equally notable for his rebellious pieces in heels, which challenge the norms of sexual identity in dance. He has toured all over the world teaching classes and creating safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community.

started his dance training at the age of 10 at the Casa de la Cultura of Jerez, Zacatecas, México. After migrating to California, he joined Folklorico Prolatino the first Gay Mexican Folkorico Project in the United States. It was in Folklorico ProLatino that Arturo discovered his calling for social justice. For more than a decade starting in 2003, he was part of Los Lupeños de San Jose (LL). Working directly with its co-founder Dr. Susan Cashion, he was Artistic Director for one year and General Director of the Lupeños Academy for five years, and completed an artistic residency at the University of Colima under the direct mentorship of Maestro Rafael Zamarripa. In November of 2015, Arturo founded Ensamble Folclórico Colibrí, which in 2020, was the first ever LBTQ Folklorico Academy.

is a Yaqui and Tzotzil Two-Spirit artist, dancer, drag performer, event host, entrepreneur, and filmmaker. Her artistry is a platform for activism, notably within the LGBTQ+ community. She nurtured talent as owner of The Dance Zone Studio, co-produces Seeds and Sequins, collaborates with The TRY Project, and serves on the boards of SADC and Stance on Dance Magazine. Her filmmaking includes "Chaac + Yum," and she is working on the dance project Neanderthal Land Acknowledgement.

is the driving force behind KULARTS and respected elder artist in the US and the Philippines. One of the founders of KULARTS, Panis has served as the Director since 1985. She received awards for her choreography from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, SF Arts Commision, California Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and Creative Work Fund. She was a board member of Brava! For Women in the Arts, Bay Area Dance Coalition, artist’s committee member of National Performance Network, and juror for Ethnic Dance Festival. She was a fellow at the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute and at Rockwood Leadership Institute and was awarded the prestigious SFAC Artist Legacy, Gerbode Special Artist Award, Dance USA Artist Fellow, and Hewlett 50 Arts Commission.

is a professional dancer and choreographer trained in Ballet, Modern, Jazz and African derived styles, who specializes in Haitian Folkloric Dance. She began her formal training at the age of six at the Marsha Woody Dance Academy in Beaumont, Texas. Established in 2004, Ms. Jefferson is the founder and artistic director of Rara Tou Limen (RTL), an arts organization that presents Haitian music, dance & culture through classes, workshops, and performances.

is a second generation Congolese American born into a family of artists. He was first introduced to the Ngoma drum at age two by his father Malonga Casquelourd, a world- renowned traditional drummer, dancer and choreographer from Congo Brazzaville and became the lead drummer of his father’s dance company, Fua Dia Congo, at age 16 and began teaching at that time as well. In addition to being a prolific musician, Kiazi founded and runs a US based nonprofit social enterprise, Pelisa Energy. Pelisa Energy aims to close the energy gap in Central Africa by supplying solar-powered technologies that have immediate benefits to the health, education and livelihoods of the Central African people.

Host or Publisher World Arts West