The JCC East Bay series starts Sunday with Qadim Ensemble and dancing led by Miriam Peretz, artists who’ve long engaged with the deep connections running through the Jewish and Islamic cultures of North Africa and the Near and Middle East.
Dance
West Berkeley dance party will kick off new African diaspora performance series
The ‘Sacred Turn Up’ on Saturday will transform West Berkeley’s Ciel Creative Space into “an immersive Black art experience and party.” For organizers Tiffany Austin and Kenya Moses, it’s just the beginning.
Remembering Maria Curtis, who taught dance for nearly half a century
Raised in Italy, she moved to Berkeley after marrying an American engineer. She taught ballet locally from 1972 until the Bellevue Club closed in 2020 at the start of the pandemic.
Angel Island detainees’ experiences explored through dance in Berkeley performance
‘Within These Walls’ — which reflects the experiences of the 170,000 Chinese immigrants held on the island — will be performed Feb. 23-26 in Zellerbach Playhouse.
Long-planned Berkeley dance tribute to Burt Bacharach is now suddenly a memorial
The iconic composer died Feb. 8, at age 94. A Cal Performances dance show, scheduled for this weekend and set to Bacharach’s music, has taken on a retrospective aura.
Berkeley festival honors legacy of Conceição Damasceno, local champion of Brazilian culture
Damasceno, who died in April, organized near-constant festivals and parties at West Berkeley’s Casa De Cultura and beyond. BrasArte’s Lavagem festival this Sunday is dedicated to her memory.
Remembering Marilyn Naparst, 86, dancer, artist, activist, free spirit
Naparst, 86, moved to Berkeley in 1957 and was a potter and a painter, a Greek folkdancer and a theater-lover, a daycare provider and a secretary, a storyteller and a kibitzer.
AileyCamp back in motion after 2-year gap in Berkeley
The camp taught dozens of 11-14-year olds dance moves created by the legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey.
At Berkeley’s queer tango class, it takes 2 but it doesn’t matter who
“Queer tango is Argentine tango without the homophobia, transphobia and rigid heteronormative rules,” says a co-founder of Abrazo Queer Tango, open in Berkeley since 2012
Gamelan Sekar Jaya, haven for Indonesian music and dance, gets home of its own in South Berkeley
The 43-year-old Balinese cultural group purchased its Shattuck Avenue headquarters from its landlord for $1.5 million.
Kamala Harris’ Berkeley ballet teacher fled the Russian Revolution and danced for royalty
Madame Bovie was a world-famous ballerina before teaching in Berkeley for 30 years.
Shape-shifting dance company Pilobolus will blow minds in Berkeley this week
Pilobolus comes to Zellerbach Hall Oct. 21-22 for the dance company’s first Cal Performances engagement in more than three decades.