Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/23/2022
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Location
Eastridge Center Mall
Category(ies)
- Ballet
- Dance
- Folk
- Hip Hop
- All Ages
- Modern
- Anniversary
- World
- Children
- Culture
- Festival
- Free Event
- Jazz
- Youth
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Over sixty Bay Area dance organizations (from young children to professional companies and everything in between) present many styles of dance on the Eastridge festival stage during a free non-stop 7-hour program each day. All events are free. The professional dance portions of the show are from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Free dance classes will be offered at 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM. The celebration is part of Bay Area Dance Week and National Dance Week (April 15-24, 2022) and showcases the diversity of the Bay Area dance community.
Saturday, April 23 and Sunday, April 24, 2022 from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Eastridge Center Mall, San Jose, California, off Capitol Expressway and Tully Road. The festival stage is located on the main level of the mall.
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sjDANCEco’s mission is to nurture the creative spirit of professional and emerging dance artists and to inspire audiences to discover dance. We achieve this through groundbreaking performances, community festivals, workshops and outreach.
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If you can get there early, the Opening Ceremonies look really good. Calpulli Tonalehqueh of San Jose will be presenting the Art of Ancient Aztec Dance to open the festival on Saturday from 11:00am to 11:30am. The opening ceremony is a ritual with drums which calls the four elements (wind, water, fire, earth) and the four cardinal directions…North (Tezcatlipoca), East (Quetzalcoatl), South (Huitzilopochtli), and West (Xipe Totec) along with the Great Cosmos, Mother Earth, and the Center – Our Hearts. Traditionally, dancers carry the elements in the form of the atecocolli (a conch shell) which is played to call in the winds, popoxcommi (which carries fire), and copal (a sacred incense) is burnt which carries scented prayers on white smoke to the ancestors. The ritual is a ceremonial way to ask permission to be present and to call the gods of the directions to help guide and protect the space.
This ritual is in deep respect of Mother Earth and the Cosmos, recognizing that we walk the Red Road (living life with purpose) and are of the elements. It is profoundly deep and important work in reconnecting us to our home – this planet.
Two traditional Aztec Dances will then be performed.