Free festival showcases vim of S.F. dance
The Bay Area dance scene is one of the most vital in the country because it’s constantly renewing itself, as the next generation learns from dance masters who call our region home. Picnickers and parkgoers can see this on glorious display at the annual Dancing in the Park festival at Golden Gate Park’s Music Concourse.
Performing at this free 3½-hour showcase are leading troupes like ODC/ Dance, Robert Moses’ Kin, and Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu, whose founder and director Patrick Makuakane won a MacArthur Fellowship genius grant last year. Right alongside these established powerhouses, young dancers from the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program will take the stage, along with the ODC Dance Jam for teenage artists and the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts Conservatory Dance Department.
Plenty of small companies and community troupes well worth discovering are also on the lineup, including SJDanceCo, Soul Force Dance Company, and Cuicacalli Ballet Folklorico. San Francisco’s Mark Foehringer Dance Project, the organizer of this array, will dance two short ballets as well.
Dancing in the Park: 1-4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27. Free. The Music Concourse at Golden Gate Park, S.F. mfdpsf.org/dancing-in-the-park-sf