Starchild Dance takes urban style on tour

Oakland, CA’s Starchild Dance has launched its summer season of performances and workshops with appearances at the 37th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and Camp Jitterbug in Seattle, WA. Soon Starchild Dance will tour to Montreal, Quebec for its Canadian debut before heading to New York.

As a Frankie Manning Ambassador of Lindy Hop, Traci Bartlow, the founder of Starchild Dance, will be teaching and performing at the Montreal Swing Riot on July 3-5 during the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the largest festival of its kind. Bartlow will conduct her Hip-Hop B-Love’s dance workshop at this festival, as well as at Illadelph Legends Dance Festival on June 25-28 on her home turf, Oakland, CA. Dancers will be trained in hip-hop’s roots, including traditional African dance, 1920s jazz, and social dances of the funk and soul music eras.

The excitement surrounding Starchild Dance is over its rare, immersive “dance-through-time” experience, showcasing African roots and nearly 100 years of urban dances coming together. From Lindy Hop to Hip-Hop, audiences are enlightened to the authentic jazz and social dances that rose from the African American experience of the 1920s and gave birth to today’s urban dance styles.

Don’t miss Starchild Dance’s 2015 summer line-up, with Illadelph Legends Dance Festival next in Oakland on June 26, the Montreal Swing Riot on July 3-5, and NYC’s Summer Stage on July 17-23. For more information on Starchild Dance or Traci Bartlow, visit www.facebook.com/starchildenterprise.

Photo: Traci Bartlow in a recent performance at Camp Jitterbug in Seattle. Photo by Jessica Keener Photography, courtesy of Starchild Dance.