Dance
Zenón Barrón
Zenón Barrón is a professional dancer trained in modern dance, classical ballet and Mexican folk dance. He is a researcher of Latin American folklore, costume and scenography who uses his broad training and experience to bridge gaps between various art forms, styles and cultures. Maestro Zenón founded San Francisco’s premiere Mexican Dance group Ensambles Ballet Folklorico de San Francisco; Ensambles’ mission is to promote Mexican dance with quality and authenticity.
Ballet Folklórico is the folk music and dance of the people of México, serving as a rich form of popular art, which brings together dance, music, theater and poetry.
Students will learn about the geography and history of Mexico’s people while joining in percussion rhythms and singing lyrics to traditional songs. The regional dances of México represent a fusion of the variety of cultural influences, which have been present in each region including European, African and Indigenous art forms. In their assembly performance, Zenon Barron and dancers from Los Ensambles demonstrate regional folk dances from one or more regions including Michoacan, Jalisco, Guerrero, Veracruz and Puebla.
Programs Offered: Mexican Folkloric Dance, Brazilian Dance, Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
*Se Habla Español
Julia Tsitsi Chigamba & Chinyakare Ensemble
Julia Tsitsi Chigamba is a master Zimbabwean dancer, singer, instrumentalist, and choreographer. She grew up in the rich cultural traditions of Shona music and dance of Zimbabwe. The daughter of highly respected "mai Chigamba and Baba Tute Chigamba", she is a long time member, and principal dancer, of The Mhembero Dance Troupe which performed throughout Southern Africa for over 15 years. Since 1999, Julia has perfomed and taught widely in the USA and Canada and has made Oakland her home away from home. She is the founding director of Tawanda MuChinyakare, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Shona music and dance.
In Zimbabwean music and dance, the body becomes and instrument, with many rhythms danced using leg rattles. Julia's Zimbabwean dance classes offer the whole package: culture, dance and music. Students learn the rhythms of a dance, the story and also the song that accompanies it. Julia can eventually teach students to dance while balancing baskets of seeds, or jugs of water on their heads.
Under the direction of Julia Tsitsi Chigamba, the Chinyakare Ensemble boasts a collection of diverse and experienced musicians from Africa, the United States and beyond. True to its name, "deep tradition in the arts of our ancestors", the ensemble performs traditional dance, mbira, drums, marimba, and song from Shona, and other tribal groups from around Zimbabwe in Southern Africa.
Programs Offered: Zimbabwean Dance, Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
Antoine Hunter
Antoine is an accomplished dancer and has been a member of the Savage Dance Company since 2002. Antoine has studied under many master artists including Reginald Ray Savage, Zafrim Miriam, West African dance with Masters CK and Betty Ladzepko; and in the Paul Taylor Summer Intensive in 2003 and 2004. Antoine has performed with Nuba Dance Theater, The Lorraine Hansberry Theater and Alayo Dance Company. Antoine is currently at the California Institute of the Arts and is studying towards a Bachelors degree in Dance through Saint Mary’s College of California’s LEAP program. Antoine was given a full scholarship to study with the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York. Antoine is a faculty member at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, co-director/teacher of Urban Ballet in Richmond and instructor/rehearsal director for the Ross Dance Company.
Antoine teaches the basics of dance and allows students to explore movements from the genres of ballet, modern, jazz and hip-hop. Having grown up hearing impaired, Antoine teaches dance from a new perspective. He teaches students to feel the music internally and to translate those feelings into movement as he does. Antoine is fluent in American Sign Language and hopes to teach anyone with hearing or any disability that they too, can reach their dreams.
Programs Offered: Contemporary Dance, Integrated Creative Dance
*Antoine is fluent in ASLPurnima Jha
Purnima is an expert in Northern Indian Kathak Dance including both the softer, more expressive “Lucknow,” and the rhythmically controlled dynamic “Jaipur” style. Trained by her father, Shanker Dev Jha, a legendary dancer and primary guru of Kathak dance, she carries on a dance lineage that traces back 2,500 years. At the age of 4, her first performance was before the Dalai Lama of Tibet. Jha has toured extensively throughout the world and was awarded the National Intellectual Honor of India for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. She is the founder and director of Dance Rhythm of India.
Purnima utilizes the tabla (hand drum), the hands, the eyes and the feet to teach basic rhythms and songs of India. Through drumming, dance, and storytelling students experience Indian culture and rhythm.
Programs Offered: Kathak Classical Indian Dance
*मैं हिन्दी बोलनेRoland Johnson
Roland is a professional Hip-Hop dance artist and has worked with artists such as Too Short, Rob Base, Tupac Shakur and Mark Wahlberg. Roland has been teaching Hip-Hop throughout the Greater San Francisco Bay Area for more than 15 years.
Roland’s goal is to promote hip hop as a positive culture, and to spread the excitement of dance to people of all ages.
Programs Offered: Hip-Hop Dance
Bonnie Lewkowicz
Bonnie, a native of Detroit, studied ballet, tap and jazz from age 5 to age 15, when an all-terrain vehicle accident left her paralyzed. Still having the desire and need to be physical, Bonnie became a founding member of the award winning AXIS Dance Company, one of the world’s preeminent physically integrated dance companies, based on the collaboration of dancers with and without disabilities. The Company has become internationally known for its high artistic and educational standards and serves as a widely known resource. Since 1998 Bonnie has been teaching Physically Integrated Creative Dance to grades K-8 both in the Dance Access/KIDS! Afterschool program, through in-school Courses and on tour nationally.
Bonnie’s personal experience as a dancer with a disability combined with her educational training as a recreation therapist gives her unique insight into working with youth with and without disabilities.
Programs Offered: Integrated Creative Dance
Eddie Madril
Edwardo Madril is a member of the Pascua Yaqui tribe of Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora Mexico. He is an active member of the Native American community and represents his culture as a dancer, singer, teacher, playwright and filmmaker. For the past 20 years, his involvement and commitment to native heritage has provided him with the opportunity to share a wealth of information with diverse communities. He has taught American Indian music at San Francisco State and was a three-year recipient of the California Arts Council Artist-In-Residence grant. As a dancer and educator, he has performed throughout the western United States, including the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and World Arts West’s arts education program People Like Me. As a playwright and filmmaker, his works have been presented on stage in San Francisco at such venues as The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and The Brava Theater. His short films have been accepted and featured in American Indian Film Festivals in San Francisco, Oklahoma and South Dakota since 2004. He has worked on films with other independent film directors and is currently acting in a feature film. He is also working on his first full-length feature film as a writer/director, to be released soon.Eddie works with students to encourage the appreciation of and respect for American Indian dance, music, culture, history, art and sign language. Students learn Native American dances, music and traditional crafts, and the stories behind them.
Programs Offered: Dances from the American Plains, Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
Daniel Mattar
Daniel Mattar is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he was introduced to capoeira in 1994. In 1999 he began to train intensively with Mestre Marrom. In 2002, Daniel moved to California and joined the International Capoeira Angola Foundation (ICAF). Together with Contra Mestre Rogerio, Daniel helped to build the two spaces for capoeira angola in West Oakland. In 2007 Daniel received the title of Treinel in Rio de Janeiro, during the annual ICAF conference. Daniel is the leader of the ICAF Oakland group under the guidance of Mestre Jurandir. Daniel has taught all ages of students, from kindergarten to college at UC Berkeley.
Students learn the rhythms, beats, moves and stories of Capoeira, giving them the tools to enjoy this dance form and its rich history.
Program Offered: Capoeira Angola
*Falo Português
Tom Mayock
As a teaching artist Tom Mayock’s resume includes residences with SFArtsED, Young Imaginations, and Let’s All Dance. Along with his involvement in many other school and community programs, he continues to teach dance to thousands of children annually. He has performed, choreographed, and taught professionally in Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Alaska, Washington DC, and the Bay Area. Tom was a performing artist with El Teatro Danza Contemporanea De El Salvador (modern, indigenous and classical dance), attended Cornish College of the Arts, has performed with ballet, jazz, and modern companies, and for corporate industrials and film. His choreography for children has been televised on Evening Magazine, and his musicals have been performed by the Branson High School. He is Co-Artistic Director of Sun Valley’s World Dance Festival.Tom’s Kid Dance Brigade offers children an exciting portfolio of dances highlighting the American Jazz genre, with excursions into the cultural traditions of Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. A few of the more popular dances in Tom’s repertoire include Bollywood, Tai Chi Kung Fu, Body Percussion, and Disco. Other areas of investigation include creative movement and somatic exercises that teach children to make intelligent choices concerning movement and relationships. “Mr. Tom” uses dance to integrate the values of positive risk-taking, problem solving, and cooperation with the students’ appreciation for the arts.
Programs include: American Jazz, Contemporary Dance, Creative Movement, World Dance
Netzahualcoyotl
Netzahualcoyotl, known as “Maestro Netza,” was born in Nayarit, México. Netza trained as a professional dancer all of his life, dancing in some of the most prestigious folklorico groups in México. Netza has been instructing students of all ages in his own group, Ballet Folklorico Netzahualcoyotl in Marin County since 1996 and his group performs in theaters and community events throughout the Bay Area.
Using traditional music and simple costumes, students learn a variety of traditional Mexican folk dances, as well as the stories surrounding them.
Programs Offered: Mexican Folkloric Dance, Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
*Se Habla EspañolTara Catherine Pandeya
Tara Catherine Pandeya is a second-generation performing artist who has trained in multiple dance styles ranging from Central Asian, to Middle Eastern, Western classical and classical Indian dance. Tara has earned recognition and awards for her work from the California Arts Council and the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards. She has traveled and studied dance and language in India, the Middle East, Central Asia, Tajikistan and Europe. Tara holds a Bachelors degree in International Relations and Performing Arts through St. Mary's College. She speaks Arabic and has a teaching credential in ESL. Tara performs throughout the United States and internationally as a soloist and is a principle dancer with Ballet Afsaneh, which she has been a member of for over 10 years.
Tara works with students to use traditional folk dances explore the geography, history and culture of Middle East & India, especially Tajikistan and Persia. Tara believes that children can learn much about world cultures through dance.
Programs Offered: Middle Eastern Dance, Central Asian Dance, Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
Maestre “Samuka” Alvez
Samuka was born and trained in Bahia, Brazil and is the director of Capoeira Barauna, a high energy group of Capoeiristas who study, celebrate and disseminate the traditional art-form of Capoeira. Samuka has dedicated his life to teaching the therapeutic combination of Capoeira and massage therapy to the low income and underserved people of his home town and is the author of a book on the same topic. Samuka and Capoeira Barauna perform in Marin County and all over the Bay Area, bringing the fascinating history, melodic sounds and skilled movements of Capoeira to audiences around the Bay. Samuka has lead intensive Capoeira programs in San Anselmo, Novato, the Marin YMCA and in Oakland.
Samuka shares the fascinating history, melodic sounds and skilled movements of Capoeira, a traditional Afro-Brazilian art form which blends music, dance, acrobatics and martial arts. The study of this art form fosters collaboration, trust, cross-cultural understanding and builds gross motor skills. Students will learn to play percussion instruments, sing traditional songs and play the game of Capoeira while learning about the rich history of Africans in Brazil.
Programs Offered: Brazilian Capoeira, Samba, Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
*Se Habla Español*Falo Português
Joti Singh
Joti Singh is the Artistic Director and founder of Duniya Dance and Drum Company. She is a choreographer, performer, and instructor of Bhangra dance from Punjab, India. Growing up in Atlanta, GA, Joti learned Bhangra from the Punjabi community, including her parents, uncles and aunts. She was an Artist-in-Residence at CounterPULSE in 2008. She participated in the Margaret Jenkins CHIME mentorship program during 2009, studying Mexican Folklorico dance with Zenon Barron. Joti received a Creative Work Fund grant to collaborate with Barron’s company Ensambles Ballet Folklorico de San Francisco to create a piece on the Punjabi Mexican communities of California.
Joti has traveled to Guinea several times to study with Master Dancer Moustapha Bangoura and other members of Les Ballets Africains. In addition, Joti apprenticed with Guinean dancer Alseny Soumah through the Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ Apprenticeship Program and received the organization’s Traditional Artist Development Grant.
