By Khalida Sarwari
Hundreds of people gathered today in San Francisco’s Union Square to watch and dance along with five Bay Area dance companies as they expressed the hidden language of the soul on stage in a celebratory kickoff of the 11th Annual Bay Area National Dance Week.
The program included a youth performance by students from James Lick Middle School, and performances by AXIS Dance Company, Vanessa Mosqueda and Mixtiso Latin Hip Hop, Leung’s White Crane Lion Dancers, and Kellita Maloof and the Hot Pink Feathers, with music by the Hot Pink Feathers All Star Marching Band.
The James Lick students inspired the crowd to dance along with their performance of the Bachata, a Dominican dance similar to the Merengue. The girls, dressed in bright red and yellow skirts, smiled as they were led in an effortless dance by their male counterparts, who appeared equally energetic and composed.
James Lick student Zach Weisenburger, 13, said it took his dance class three to four months to prepare for today’s performance.
“It was exciting,” Weisenburger said afterward.
Another crowd favorite was a performance by Leung’s White Crane Lion Dancers, during which two boys brought a decorated lion costume to life in an acrobatic performance of the Lion Dance atop a bench. The dance troupe, established in Oakland in 1971 by brothers Kuen, Kwan, and Allen Leung, combines the ancient art form of lion dance and martial arts.
The most experimental performance of the day was by Oakland-based AXIS Dance Company, which brings together a group of dancers with and without disabilities in an exploration of dance and creation of a performance piece. As a slow and melancholic tune played on the piano, a man in a wheelchair circled around his female partner as she spun and twirled in a piece titled “Point to Something.”
Next was the Mixtiso Latin Hip Hop dancers, a medley of female dancers wearing large wings made out of purple, black and yellow feathers and children wearing single-feather caps, skirts and bright blue tops. They performed a traditional hip-hop dance to Latin and hip-hop music.
The Hot Pink Feathers took an interactive approach as director Kellita Maloof persuaded the crowd to participate in the “San Francisco Sway,” a simple move achieved by raising both arms and swaying to each side.
Of the cabaret and carnaval-style dance, Maloof said, “I love that it gives me an opportunity to let my spirit shine out through every part of my body.”
The program concluded with a Conga line around the Union Square block led by the large pink-feather-adorned dancers and the Hot Pink Feathers All Star Marching Band.
These and other Bay Area dance companies will offer more than 350 free dance events until May 3.
Information about events can be accessed online at http://www.bayareandw.org/.