Gualala Arts Global Harmony Series presents: Multi-Cultural DanceFest Sunday, February 9, 2014, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. at the Gualala Arts Center

Donations accepted

Dance and music express our cultural heritage and provide a way to connect with community. Part of Gualala Arts' Global Harmony Series, the Multi-Cultural DanceFest will introduce you to, and involve you in, dances that are unique to distinct cultures in the U.S., Mexico and other parts of the world.

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Contra

Knowledgeable teachers will provide instructions at the beginning of each dance period. We will do international folk, line dancing, ballet folklorico and swing.

You don't need to bring a partner. Come have fun with friends, neighbors and family (including children 12 and older). This is not about competition or performance, but about having a good time. Put your dancing shoes on and shake off winter!

Schedule 1:00 p.m. International Folk Dance - Jane Corey 2:00 p.m. Line Dancing (U.S.) - Amie Heath 3:00 p.m. pm Ballet Folklorico (Mexico) - Lupita Razo 4:00 p.m. pm Swing (U.S.) - Jane Corey and Mirka Knaster

About the Dance Instructors

Jane Corey has danced all her life. As an elementary school teacher, she included folk and expressive dance. She taught international folk dance to adults for College of the Redwoods and Santa Rosa Junior College. Her passion is wide-ranging -- from tango to swing, from the Balkans back to the U.S. She loves helping people find a way to get dance into their lives.

Amie Heath has been line dancing since she was knee-high to a grasshopper growing up in Colorado, where line dancing was a family activity that she enjoyed at every church social, block party, and later, as a teenager, at clubs and cowboy Hoot n' Nannys. Last year, she taught a Line Dance 101 class at Physical Gym. According to Amie, line dance is good for body, mind, and spirit and does not require former dance experience, only a willingness to learn and an appreciation of music. Because it's so versatile, she includes everything from country western music to pop, hip hop, and rock n' roll.

Mirka Knaster has always loved to dance, whether to rock n' roll, Motown, Latin American beats, Irish and Scottish tunes, Cajun and Zydeco, or Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, African and Asian music. Since childhood, she has taken classes in tap, contra, modern, line and more. Play the music and she'll get up to dance!

Lupita Razo was born in Michoacan, Mexico, where she was a member of a folkloric group. When she immigrated to the United States, she started her own dance troupe. Lupita is part of the Action Network Family Resource Center in Gualala. She formed a folkloric dance group there seven years ago which includes adults and children.

Photo courtesy of Javier Chavez

The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA,
is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information, or email info@gualalaarts.org.

Serving the coastal communities of northern Sonoma & southern Mendocino Counties.