San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival 2014 Season Closing Event

A Tribute to Nelson Mandela on what would have been his 96th birthday

FREE and open to the public Friday, July 18, 12noon

www.sfethnicdancefestival.org

Media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc / (415) 693-0583 / news@davidperry.com

Presented in partnership with Dancers’ Group, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, and San Francisco City Hall, as part of the monthly Rotunda Dance Series 


15 July 2014 – San Francisco, CA: On Friday, July 18th the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival will officially close the 2014 Festival Season with a free public program under the grand San Francisco City Hall rotunda. The final event will honor the late South African leader Nelson Mandela with a traditional African “homegoing” ceremony on what would have been his 96th birthday.

The program will include a procession of drummers led by Festival artistic director CK Ladzekpo, with many of the same musicians who drummed so powerfully during Mandela’s appearance in 1990 at the Oakland Coliseum. Thamsanqa Hlatywayo, artistic director of Jikelele Dance Theatre, will lead the crowd in singing the South African national anthem, and Jikelele Dance Theater will perform and lead a South African Praise. There will also be a sacred offering, including a libation, and brief tributes from dignitaries, including Naomi Diouf, artistic director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, and the Honorable Marilyn Hall Patel, former Chief Judge of the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Finally, Diamano Coura West African Dance Company will present three African dances celebrating Mandela’s life.

The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival celebrates and fosters appreciation for the world dance and music artists living throughout the greater Bay Area’s diverse ethnic communities. On the Festival stages, audiences have the opportunity to experience dance from over 100 distinct world cultures. The New York Times called the annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance festival “a glorious achievement…one of the finest of all American dreams: a setting where cultures can celebrate their own traditions while honoring and applauding others.”

The Rotunda Dance Series is a partnership between Dancers’ Group, World Arts West (producers of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival), San Francisco Grants for the Arts, and San Francisco City Hall. It brings many of the Bay Area’s most renowned dance companies to City Hall’s rotunda space for free noon-time performances on the first Friday of each month (with occasional calendar adjustments). Events primarily involve dance, but often also include live music, theater or other performing art disciplines. 
 About Diamano Coura West African Dance Company (diamanocoura.org) Diamano Coura West African Dance Company is a nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to the preservation, education, and appreciation of traditional West African music, dance, theater, and culture. Since its inception in 1975, Diamano Coura, under the direction of Emmy Award-winner Dr. Zak Diouf and Artistic Director Naomi Diouf, has implemented its mission through ongoing workshops, performances, youth programs, national and international touring engagements, lecture demonstrations, community outreach, and creative partnership programs with renowned artists and performing companies. Diamano Coura in the Senegalese Wolof language means “those who bring the message.”

About Thamsanqa Hlatywayo, artistic director of Jikelele Dance Theater (jikelele.com) Thamsanqa Hlatywayo was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he began learning traditional songs and dances of many different ethnic groups at an early age. Later, he studied with Gibson Kente, considered the father of township theater, a storytelling tradition involving music and dance. After moving to the US, Thamsanqa joined the Tony-nominated Broadway show Sarafina! He founded Jikelele Dance Theater when he was the Laney College dance department’s township theater guest artist in 2011.

About CK Ladzekpo CK Ladzekpo is the director of the African music program at the University of California, Berkeley. His is a distinguished career as a performer, choreographer, composer, teacher and published scholar in the African performing arts. He is a member of a renowned family of African musicians and dancers who traditionally serve as lead drummers and composers among the Anlo-Ewe people of southeastern Ghana in West Africa. He has been a lead drummer and instructor with the Ghana National Dance Ensemble, the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies and the Arts Council of Ghana. He joined the music faculty of the University of California Berkeley in 1973 and continues to be an influential catalyst of the African perspective in the performing arts.

About World Arts West (worldartswest.org) For over three and a half decades, World Arts West has supported and presented world dance artists throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The main presenting program of the organization is the nationally acclaimed San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, which presents over 100 distinct dance forms and thousands of local dancers who are sustaining and innovating within those forms. The organization works year round to advance cultural literacy and build bridges of cultural understanding.

About Dancers’ Group (dancersgroup.org) Dancers’ Group promotes the visibility and viability of dance. Founded in 1982, we serve San Francisco Bay Area artists, the dance community and audiences through programs and services that are as collaborative and innovative as the creative process. As the primary dance service organization for the second largest dance community in the country, Dancers’ Group’s many programs help artists produce work, build audiences, and connect with their peers and the community.

The 2014 Rotunda Dance Series will continue with the following schedule:
August 1: Dohee Lee
September 5: Garrett + Moulton Productions
October 3: Dimensions Dance Theater
November 7: Fall Festival Feature Performance with Bal Anat and Karavansaray Dance Company
December 5: Sean Dorsey Dance

Calendar Editors please note: 
Who: A Tribute to Nelson Mandela, the closing event of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Season
What: The Rotunda Dance Series, free monthly dance performance, presented by Dancers’ Group and World Arts West, in partnership with San Francisco Grants for the Arts and San Francisco City Hall.

Cost: Free
Where: City Hall, San Francisco
When: Friday, July 18, 2014, Noon
Info: Terry Conway, (415) 474-3914, terry@worldartswest.org

Images available for download: CK Ladzekpo, co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, photo by RJ Muna: Download photos

Naomi Diouf, Artistic Director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, photo by RJ Muna: Download photos

Thamsanqa Hlatywayo, Artistic Director of Jikelele Dance Theater, photo by RJ Muna: Download photos

Anthony Turney – OBIT
December 23, 1937 – July 4, 2014

Surrounded by family and friends, the Venerable Anthony Turney died peacefully on July 4, 2014 at Coming Home Hospice in San Francisco following three years living with cancer. He was 76 years old. His death came on the 38th anniversary of his becoming a United States citizen.

Throughout his esteemed and varied career, and most recently as Archdeacon for the Arts at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, Anthony epitomized what it was to be a servant minister, both in the church and in the wider community. He was a profoundly gifted man, a lover of the arts, a gardener, a Brit, and a committed leader in non-profit endeavors. His career included positions as Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC; Executive Director of the Dance Theater of Harlem; Administrative Director of the San Francisco Opera; and CEO of the NAMES Project Foundation. He was ordained to the Episcopal diaconate in 1996 and continued to serve through his work at Grace Cathedral and in the Diocese of California.

Anthony was born in Sutton, England, on December 23, 1937, second oldest of three children within a family that soon broke up. His first years were spent in a Church of England children’s home for ‘waifs and strays,’ although he claimed he was never certain which of those he truly was. At the age of four, he was adopted by the Turney family who lived in Aylesbury, about 40 miles northeast of London. That same year marked the beginning of the Blitz, thus defining his childhood in wartime England. In his mid teens, he served as a police cadet and thought of joining the force. Then at the age of 17, Anthony joined the Grenadier Guards, an infantry regiment of the British Army and the most senior regiment of the Guards Division. Besides serving in the Guards’ iconic ceremonial duties outside of Buckingham Palace, Anthony also saw distinguished service under fire during the Suez Crisis. Afterwards, he spent his 20s at various jobs in London, “lost in the wilderness,” as he put it.

Anthony spoke often of the defining moments in his life, and the most significant of these was his move to the United States in 1968. He jumped right in to the non-profit world, discovering his talent for leadership in the arts. First establishing himself in New York City, Anthony made a name for himself as an independent event producer, especially proud to have once presented Buckminster Fuller at Carnegie Hall. Over the years he also lived in St. Louis, Atlanta, Washington, DC, and finally, San Francisco. He became a United States citizen on July 4, 1976, the bicentennial of his adopted country.

With the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, Anthony’s life changed course once again. In mid 1991, he quit his work to care for his partner, James Brumbaugh, who was dying from AIDS-related complications. It was a devastating loss. In 1992, after completing Jimmy’s AIDS Memorial quilt panel, he asked, “What would you have me do now, God?” Within months, he moved permanently to San Francisco, was appointed CEO of the NAMES Project Foundation, and after only three years, would bring more than 42,000 panels of the Quilt to Washington, DC for display on the National Mall. It was viewed by 1.2 million people.

In 1996, Anthony was appointed to the San Francisco Arts Commission. In 2000, he was a consultant to the United States Agency for International Development, assisting in the agency’s efforts to partner with faith-based organizations in responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.

In San Francisco, Anthony found his spiritual home at Grace Cathedral, where he served as parishioner, as Canon for Development, and then, through his vocational calling, as clergy. Several years before his retirement, Anthony was appointed Archdeacon of the Diocese of California, as such serving the whole community of deacons, administratively and pastorally, and was very much a person on whom the Bishop relied centrally and heavily. Afterwards, Anthony was named Archdeacon for the Arts at Grace Cathedral. He also served as Chaplain to the Dean’s Search Committee for Grace Cathedral. As an openly gay member of the clergy and a vocal advocate for marriage equality and other social justice issues, Anthony was a tireless champion of the LGBT community. An energetic volunteer and traveler, Anthony spent a month walking across Spain along the Camino de Santiago and successfully biked, three times, from San Francisco to Los Angeles as part of the AIDS LifeCycle. After Hurricane Katrina, he volunteered with a group from Grace Cathedral to assist in rebuilding a home for a young woman who had lost her home.

As accomplished as he was, his friends and family will remember Anthony most fondly for his commanding personality. He filled a room with grace and dignity – and then used his keen humor to destroy any remaining decorum. Anthony was an extraordinary friend and companion, always caring for those around him. He listened intensely and valued each person who came into his life. His friends and colleagues were blessed by his giving nature. Those who loved and admired Anthony continue to do so with passion and loyalty.

A final gift that Anthony bestowed on his friends and family was the way in which he lived out his dying. He did so with integrity, dignity and humor. Those who witnessed his journey learned with him. Dying often reveals a great many things about a person, especially those who are in the public arena. We watched him from a distance as he made his private journey, and, when invited, we walked part of that pilgrimage alongside him. We are grateful for both the public and the private blessings.

Anthony is survived by his San Francisco, St. Louis and Los Angeles family; his Episcopal Church friends and colleagues; beloved friends from across the world; his canine companion, Drew; and his newly found – and greatly loved – biological family in England and in Canada. His, truly, was a life well lived: in love, friendship and grace.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Anthony’s memory may be made to one of the following: The Sacred Dying Foundation (www.sacreddying.org), The Rainbow Honor Walk (www.rainbowhonorwalk.org), the Ghiberti Foundation, the arts and culture foundation at Grace Cathedral (www.gracecathedral.org) or the San Francisco Opera Archive (www.sfopera.com)

A funeral and celebration of Anthony’s life will be held at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral (1100 California Street) on Monday, July 14 at 11am.

Anthony’s body in closed coffin will lay in the Cathedral’s AIDS Interfaith Chapel beginning at 7am for all those wishing to pay their respects prior to the funeral.

Ten Percent – TV Listing. June – July 2014

Ten Percent — LGBT-TV for Northern California

Mondays – Fridays, 11:30am & 10:30pm and Saturdays & Sundays at 10:30pm on Comcast Hometown Network Channel 104 in Northern California.

www.comcasthometown.com

Episode # 229
Monday — Friday, June 23 – 27, 11:30am & 10:30pm
Saturday & Sunday, June 28 – 29, 10:30pm

David Perry speaks with filmmaker Jennifer M. Kroot about her documentary chronicle of Star Trek legend George Takei: To Be Takei. Perry also chats with Oakland filmmaker Cheryl Dunye about her short film Black is Blue, chronicling a day in the life of a transgender security guard.

Episode # 230
Monday — Friday, June 30 – July 4, 11:30am & 10:30pm
Saturday & Sunday, July 5 – 6, 10:30pm

David Perry interviews Brendon North, one of the performers in Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon, celebrating its 40th anniversary. David Perry also speaks with actor Keiko Shimosato Carreiro from SF Mime Troupe’s production of Ripple Effect.

Episode # 231
Monday — July 7 – 11, 11:30am & 10:30pm
Saturday & Sunday, July 12 – 13, 10:30pm

David Perry chats with author, raconteur and legendary San Francisco host, John Newmeyer. Perry also interviews attorney Elizabeth Kristen about the current legal landscape vis-a-vis LGBT issues and gender equity.

Episode # 232
Monday — Friday, July 14 – 18, 11:30 am & 10:30pm
Saturday & Sunday, July 19 – 20, 10:30pm

David Perry talks to Lillian Phan about her dream same-sex wedding contest Love For All. Perry also speaks with internationally acclaimed landscape designer, Stephen Suzman.

Episode # 233
Monday — Friday, July 21 – 25, 11:30 am & 10:30pm
Saturday & Sunday, July 26 – 27, 10:30pm

David Perry chats with Xavier Caylor, producer of Flagging in the Park. Perry also talks to Harry Lit and Jack Sugrue about the annual Lazy Bear Weekend in Guerneville, California and the entire “bear landscape” of Northern California.

Ten Percent is also available 24/7 through the “On Demand” Feature through your Comcast Cable Network. Choose “Get Local” and “Comcast Hometown” to access Ten Percent. Past shows may also be viewed online at www.comcasthometown.com.

Become a fan on Facebook: 10 Percent on Facebook

About 10 Percent

Comcast Hometown Network (CHN), Comcast’s regional cable network covering Northern and Central California, continues its commitment to quality original programming with Ten Percent, a weekly interview series that focuses on lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender (LGBT) issues. The half-hour show, created and hosted by long-time San Francisco media professional David Perry, airs on Channel 104, Mondays – Thursdays at 11:30am & 8pm and is available to all Comcast digital cable customers throughout Northern and Central California. Each episode will then be available online at www.comcasthometown.com as well as on Comcast’s popular ON DEMAND platform, which is free to Comcast digital customers. To view Ten Percent ON DEMAND, Comcast Digital Cable customers can tune to Channel 1 on their Digital Cable lineup or press the ON DEMAND button on their remote control, then click on the “Get Local” section, then click on “Comcast Hometown.”

“I jokingly call the show ‘Charlie Rose for the LGBT world,” said David Perry, Producer/Host of Ten Percent. “We may be only ten percent of the general population, in round numbers, but our issues are one hundred percent front-and-center in today’s world. Whether it’s the fight for marriage equality or debates about gay clergy or the right to serve openly in uniform, our issues are reflective of the world at large.”

“David has a well-known and unique voice that bridges many communities,” said Jason Holmes, Executive Producer at Comcast Hometown Network. “David’s talents and the launch of Ten Percent further enhance Comcast’s commitment to our communities and Comcast Hometown Network’s compelling, community-based regional programming,”

KP Kunhiraman Dies Three Days Before SF Ethnic Dance Festival Performance

Was to have received lifetime achievement award Saturday evening, June 14

www.sfethnicdancefestival.org

Media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc / (415) 693-0583 / news@davidperry.com

11 June 2014 — San Francisco, CA: K.P. Kunhiraman, one of the world’s foremost artists of Indian Kathakali dance, has died in his home city of Chennai, India. He was 83. In three days, on Saturday, June 14, he and his wife Katherine were to have been honored by Indian Consul General Nagesh Parthasarathi with the Festival’s annual Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award. Kunhiraman first performed at the Festival 36 years ago, in the very first San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival program in May 1978.

“We are heartbroken to hear that K.P. Kunhiraman has just passed away,” said Julie Mushet, Executive Director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. “He was so excited for his travels to San Francisco to dance kathakali and to receive his award with Katherine. He was the only male Kathakali dancer in America that we know of, and one of the highest regarded kathakali masters in the whole world. With his passing, this transcendent cultural tradition is greatly diminished. Our condolences go out to his family and dear ones.”

This year’s Festival was to mark K.P. Kunhiraman’s final U.S. appearance. Of all of the classical Indian dance forms, kathakali is the most stylized and is often compared to the kabuki tradition of Japan, especially in regards to the elaborate make-up worn by the performers. This year’s Festival was to have been the cap to an illustrious 67-year career for Kunhiraman. He had been rehearsing daily in preparation for the weekend’s festivities.

While the Festival has often featured four of the classical Indian forms—bharatanatyam, kathak, kuchipudi, and odissi—rarer are the remaining four: kathakali, manipuri, mohiniyattam, and sattriya. This weekend of Indian classical dance performances is presented in partnership with Sangam Arts, a Bay-Area non-profit dedicated to connecting cultures through Indian classical arts.

According to his wife, Kunhiraman came down with an infection that quickly spread to his blood (septicemia) and he died today in a Chennai hospital. Per Hindu tradition, Kunhiraman’s body was cremated shortly after his death.

“Katherine flew to Chennai immediately upon word of the infection, and was at his side for his final hours and as he took his last breath,” said Mushet. “I know that she brought a copy of the SF Chronicle ‘Pink Section’ article about Kunhiraman with her, so he saw that in the hospital before he passed. It must have brought him some joy to know that he was being recognized for his life’s work here in America!”

World Arts West is dedicating the Festival to him, and people are encouraged to bring notes and flowers to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater this weekend to add to an altar in his memory.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS:

June 14 & 15 – Festival Weekend Two: Eight classical Indian dance forms presented in partnership with Sangam Arts: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard Street, San Francisco

This is a rare presentation of all eight classical Indian dance forms on one stage. Performances by Chitresh Das Dance Company (Kathak), Guru Shradha (Odissi), Kalanjali: Dances of India (Bharatanatyam), Bhavajan Kumar (Bharatanatyam) , K.P. Kunhiraman (Kathakali), Sujata Mohapatra (Odissi), Sunanda Nair (Kathakali and Mohiniyattam), Natyalaya (Kuchipudi), Nava Dance Theatre (Bharatanatyam), Sohini Ray (Manipuri), Sattriya Dance Company (Sattriya).

Saturday, June 14, 1pm & 7pm*
Sunday, June 15, 1pm 


*The June 14, 7pm performance includes the presentation of the Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award to Katherine and the recently deceased K.P. Kunhiraman, founders of Kalanjali: Dances of India, of Berkeley.

June 14 & 15 Sees Classical Indian Dance Center Stage at SF Ethnic Dance Festival

www.sfethnicdancefestival.org

Media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc / (415) 693-0583 / news@davidperry.com

2 June 2014 — San Francisco, CA: The incredible depth and breadth of classical Indian dance is in the spotlight during the second weekend of the 36th annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival (www.sfethnicdancefestival.org ), June 14 – 15, where audiences can see a rare presentation of all eight styles of Indian classical dance on the same stage.

While the Festival has often featured four of the classical Indian forms—bharatanatyam, kathak, kuchipudi, and odissi—rarer are the remaining four: kathakali, manipuri, mohiniyattam, and sattriya. This weekend of Indian classical dance performances is presented in partnership with Sangam Arts, a Bay-Area non-profit dedicated to connecting cultures through Indian classical arts.

This will be the first time that sattriya dance will be seen on the Festival stage. Kathakali dance was featured only once in the Festival’s 36 year history, in the very first San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival program in June 1978. The performers were Katherine and K.P. Kunhiraman of Berkeley, CA.

Indian Consul General Nagesh Parthasarathi will present Katherine and K.P. Kunhiraman with the Festival’s annual Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award at the June 14 evening performance. “Kathakali dance is at risk of being lost forever and K.P. Kunhiraman is one of the few people alive who are sustaining this transcendent cultural tradition,” said Julie Mushet, Executive Director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, noting that this year’s Festival will mark K.P. Kunhiraman’s final U.S. appearance. “K.P. Kunhiraman’s departure raises many questions about the future of dance and how, and even if, cultural traditions will be passed to the next generation, as they have been for millennia.”

Of all of the classical Indian dance forms, kathakali is the most stylized and is often compared to the kabuki tradition of Japan, especially in regards to the elaborate make-up worn by the performers. After this year’s Festival, K.P. Kunhiraman will be returning to India at the end of June after an illustrious 67-year career to live out his final years in his homeland.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS:

June 14 & 15 – Festival Weekend Two: Eight classical Indian dance forms presented in partnership with Sangam Arts: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard Street, San Francisco This is a rare presentation of all eight classical Indian dance forms on one stage. Performances by Chitresh Das Dance Company (Kathak), Guru Shradha (Odissi), Kalanjali: Dances of India (Bharatanatyam), Bhavajan Kumar (Bharatanatyam) , K.P. Kunhiraman (Kathakali), Sujata Mohapatra (Odissi), Sunanda Nair (Kathakali and Mohiniyattam), Natyalaya (Kuchipudi), Nava Dance Theatre (Bharatanatyam), Sohini Ray (Manipuri), Sattriya Dance Company (Sattriya). Saturday, June 14, 1pm & 7pm *
Sunday, June 15, 1pm 
*The June 14, 7pm performance includes the presentation of the Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award to Katherine and K.P. Kunhiraman, founders of Kalanjali: Dances of India, of Berkeley. High resolution photos and broadcast quality video are available by request by contacting David Perry & Associates, Inc.: news@davidperry.com / (415) 693-0583. Images can be downloaded at www.sfethnicdancefestival.org/about/press/photos.html in late April.