Festival Schedule:

Sunday:
Afro-Cuban Drum & Song 1:30-3:00 Sandy Perez/ Jesus Diaz
Afro-Cuban Dance 3:00-4:30 Silfredo La O Vigo

Anatomy for Dancers 6:00-7:00 Ineke Rush

Monday:
Congolese Dance/drum/song 4:30-6:00 Muisi Kongo

Tuesday:
Congolese dance/drum/song: 4:30-6:00 Muisi Kongo
Afro-Haitian Dance 6:00-7:30 Colette Eloi
Afro-Haitian drum/song 7:30-9:00 Colette Eloi

Wednesday:
Hula 4:30-6:00 Mahea Uchiyama
Tahitian 6:00-7:30 Mahea Uchiyama
Modern 7:30-9:00 Silfredo La O Vigo

Thursday:
Modern 4:30-6:00 Sillfredo La O Vigo
Cuban Salsa 6:00-7:30 Silfredo La O Vigo

Friday: Master Performance doors: 5:30 Show: 6pm

Saturday:
Argentine Tango 10:00am Olivia Levitt

West-African Drum/song 11:00-12:30 Alseny Soumah

West-African Dance 12:30-2pm Alseny Soumah

Teacher Bio's

Collette Eloi

Colette Eloi, has dedicated her life to sharing with the world the rich traditions and
cultural history of her parent’s native Haiti. She is a touring artist/lecturer and Artistic
Director of El Wah Movement Dance Theatre. She has performed professionally,
nationally and internationally as a dancer/singer/choreographer. She performed
with various groups including Petit Le Croix, Reconnect, Chouconne Haitian
Dance Troupe-NY, Emese (Messengers of the African Diaspora), Dimensions
Dance Theatre, and Nuba. She is also a board member of the Northern California
Katherine Dunham Project. She received her formal foundational dance training
at UC Berkeley where she received a BA in Development Studies. She also calls
the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Performing Arts, formerly the Alice Art
Center, her home. She has studied many styles including; jazz, ballet, modern,
Dunham Technique and many traditional and folkloric styles. She has traveled to
Haiti to study dance with master teachers. To complement her understanding of the
intricacies of Haitian Dance, Colette studied Haitian drumming as well. Ms. Eloi is a
celebrated artist having earned awards for her artistic endeavors including several
exemplary choreography commissions, such as the West Coast premiere of the Tim
Rice and Elton John’s “Aida” for which she received an award for choreography. She
was also commissioned to choreograph a piece in Tribute of Ms. Katherine Dunham
with Ms. Ruth Beckford. Having done dance research in Africa and several locales
in the African Diaspora, Ms. Eloi offers a thorough glimpse into the world of Haitian
Folkloric Dance. Ms. Eloi received her MFA from the California Institute of Integral
Studies in San Francisco California. She is currently teaching dance at Laney

 

Mahealani Uchiyama

Mahealani Uchiyama is a dancer, musician, composer and teacher. She is the founder of
the Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance (MUCID) of Berkeley, California.

Mahealani holds a BA in Dance Ethnology and an MA in Pacific Island Studies, both from
the University of Hawai’i, and was trained in traditional hula and Tahitian ori in Hawai’i
and Tahiti. Her hula lineage is through her Kumu, Joseph Kamoha’i Kaha’ulelio. She has
been a teacher and performer of Polynesian dance for 29 years, and is the Kumu Hula of
Halau Ka Ua Tuahine of Berkeley.

Her passion for, and mastery of Hawaiian and Tahitian performing arts has led to
numerous performance tours to Tahiti, New Zealand and the islands of Hawai’i. She has
taught workshops and led seminars throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada.

She has also produced numerous recordings of traditional Hawaiian and Tahitian music.
Of her numerous recordings, her CD, “A Walk by the Sea”, is a compilation of the sounds
of her cultural and spiritual heritage and has been awarded the Hawai’i Music Award for
Best World Music Album of 2007.

More information, and videos of Mahealani and her dancers in performance may be
found at www.mahea.com

 

Muisi-kongo S. Malonga:

Muisi-kongo S. Malonga is an accomplished dancer, instructor and choreographer
whose apprenticeship in traditional Congolese (Central African) art forms began at
birth. The eldest daughter of Malonga Casquelourd, cultural arts pioneer, master artist
and founder of Fua Dia Congo (Fua) performing arts company, Muisi-kongo trained
closely with her father and was mentored, for over a decade, by a number of world-
renowned master artists from the famed ‘Ballet National du Congo’, the Republic
of Congo’s national dance company. A principle dancer with Fua for 18 years and
Assistant Director of Ballet Kizingu Youth Ensemble (A Fua Dia Congo Project) for four
years, she assumed the role of Artistic Director/Choreographer of Fua Dia Congo upon
her father’s passing in 2003 and has since been pivotal in safeguarding and advancing
the company’s mission of preserving, presenting and promoting Congolese cultural
traditions.
 
As a dancer, Muisi-kongo has garnered much acclaim, both locally and abroad, for
the fluidity, grace and soulful energy inherent in her movement style. In 2006, she was
a featured performer, receiving rave reviews for her participation in ‘Mabina Danse
Festival,’ a celebrated traditional and contemporary dance festival in the Republic
of Congo. Her ability to make Congolese movement styles accessible to all levels
of experience has made her a highly sought after instructor and earned her several
teaching posts, including, most notably, a recurring guest lecturer position at Stanford
University since 2005. As a choreographer, Muisi-kongo’s unique perspective and ability
to innovate within a classical art form have likewise been praised. Three works that
capture her visionary approach to the presentation of Congolese cultural traditions are:
(1) Fua Dia Congo’s 2010 production of “Malaki Matanga…The Truth Is In The Water,”
a coming of age saga inspired by the popular traditional folk song ‘Nawo Tsetsa; (2)
“Nzobi,” a collaborative work commissioned by World Arts West and performed by Fua
Dia Congo and Linda Tillery’s Cultural Heritage Choir in the 2010 San Francisco Ethnic
Dance Festival, and (3) Fua Dia Congo’s 2007 30th anniversary celebration, “Kongo
Odyssey: Tales Unearthed”, a cutting edge dance-theatre production that celebrated
three decades of excellence in music and dance through multimedia, documentary
footage and live stage performance.
 
Muisi-kongo Malonga has earned several awards in recognition of her artistic merits,
including the James Irvine Foundation’s ‘Dance Creation to Performance Award’
and the Peninsula Community Foundation’s1 Artist Residency Award among others.
However, her greatest honor is that of being chosen to be a purveyor of the cultural arts
traditions that were passed down to her, because, as she so eloquently puts it, “sharing
cultural knowledge is the most powerful change agent and unifying force in the world.”

 

Silfredo La O Vigo
Silfredo La O Vigo is a Professional dancer in the Afro-Cuban and Haitian tradition,
Popular Latin dances and Modern dance. Silfredo graduated from the National School of
the Arts in Havana Cuba in 1994 where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree as a
certified Dance Professor and Professional dancer. In 1993, he trained and performed for
one year with the Cuban National Folkloric Company and Danza Contemporanea de
Cuba. He was also a soloist for five years with the professional touring company
Cutumba: Ballet Folklorico Afro-Cubano, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba Following, Silfredo’s
professional performing experience later included dancing with the Modern dance
Company OCD/San Francisco from 2001 to 2003. Along with this company, Silfredo
toured places such as The Joyce Theater in New York, NY, The Getty Museum Concert
Series, Lose Angeles, CA, Cal State LA, Cal State Monterey Bay and Kentucky Center
for the Arts.. In addition, Silfredo’s list of guest performances includes being a principal
dancer and guest artist for the Warner Brothers film The Matrix Reloaded. In 1999,
Silfredo was a guest soloist in the Retrospective of Cuban dance Performance, La Pena,
Berkeley, CA and Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA. Also, Silfredo was a
guest dancer for “Bravura!” with The Blankenship Ballet Company, Riverside,
California, in 2003. Silfredo is skilled in teaching modern dance, folkloric dance,
popular dance, and percussion and has shared his knowledge during master classes at
Portland State University, University of Hawaii, University of Florida, and Santa Clara
University. He also has choreographed for Stanford University. Silfredo La O Vigo is
also known as a Visual Artist. He presented an art exhibition in ODC Gallery and Palace
of Fine Arts, both located in San Francisco. Silfredo resides in San Diego and currently
teaches at the University of California, San Diego and at Palomar College. He also has
classes at The Time to Dance Performing Art Studio in North Park, San Diego.

Olivia Levitt

Olivia's dancing is exquisite. With over 25 years of classical ballet training, she was a principal dancer in the New York Theater Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet Theater and the Oakland Ballet. Olivia has toured and performed in Russia, Venezuela, Aruba, Australia, and Canada. Her classical training gives her an astute insight into technique that allows her to create beautiful adornments and express delicacy in movement.

Olivia is a certified Pilates and Gyrotonic practitioner who teaches others to utilize their body mechanics in a way that delights the eyes with sensuality and intimacy in movement and response. Olivia began her initial tango training in San Francisco with Nora Denzelbacher and Roberto Riobo. She has learned the Gavito style from Yamauchi and has also studied with Marcela Duran, Maria Plazzolla, Marianna Dragone, Oscar Mandagaran, George Garcia, Pulpo and Luiza, and Claudia and Esteban. Together, Jonathan and Olivia focus on teaching the physiology and fundamental technique behind their sensual and intimate movements in the Gavito's salon milonguero apilado style of intimate close embrace, sharing with their students the key that will allow them to fully express their internal sensuality through the external form -- tango.