sjDANCEco presents Spring Dance Festival

sjDANCEco presents Spring Dance Festival at Eastridge Center Mall in San Jose, Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28, 2024 from 12 Noon to 5:00pm. The festival stage is located on the main level of the mall.

Over 60 choreographers and 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 5-hour program each day. The professional dance portions of the show are at 12:30pm, 1:30pm and on the half-hour all day long. Free dance classes will be offered at 1:00pm, 2:00pm, and on-the-hour throughout the day. The celebration is part of Bay Area Dance Week and National Dance Week (April 26- May 5, 2024) and showcases the diversity of the Bay Area dance community. 

Some of the featured professional dance groups are: sjDANCEco, N’fungola Dance Company, Tachiria Flamenco, Monsoon Dance Company, Hermosura Dance Productions, Agua Doce Dance, and Noorani Dance. Other groups included are: Los Gatos Ballet, Flying Colors Dance & Fitness, Yerba Buena High School, Lin HH School of Dance, Concept o4, independence, The Ruby Slippers, and Ace Dance.

Free classes will be offered in West African, Flamenco, Classical, KPop, Salsa, Symbology of the Orixas, and Hip Hop.   

Calpulli Tonalehqueh of San Jose will be presenting the Art of Ancient Aztec Dance to open the festival on Saturday from 12:00 noon to 12:30pm. 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.  

sjDANCEco is a year-round contemporary dance company based in San Jose, California that produces world premieres by its core and guest choreographers, and presents the very best of Contemporary and Classic Modern Dance and Masterpieces of the American Modern Dance Repertory. In addition to a full season of dance concerts, sjDANCEco also is a major participant each Spring in free outdoor dance presentations during National Dance Week, international dance festivals, and has a full schedule of contemporary dance classes for the advanced and professional dancer. sjDANCEco ignites the spirit of dance.

For more information, visit https://www.sjdanceco.org/

Hermosura Dance Productions, photo credit Fred Corpuz, courtesy of sjDANCEco