Arts Alive San Antonio

BY JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

San Antonio is home to people of many cultures and backgrounds and some of those folks will come together this weekend to dance, learn from each other and have fun at the 64^th San Antonio Folk Dance Festival – and the entire community is invited to join them. After having to cancel the 2020 fest due to COVID, and a hybrid event last year, the 2022 version is going to be mostly live and in-person, though a ZOOM connection will also be available for people from around the country who cannot attend in person.

The fest consists of two parts: dance workshops that will take place at the International Folk Culture Center on the campus of Our Lady of the Lake University, and a dance showcase featuring a range of ethnic dance ensembles, that will perform live Sunday at the Rolling Oaks Mall.

According to one of the organizers, Mona Lisa Montgomery, who has a long history with the fest, the San Antonio festival is the only one in the nation that includes a showcase for the public. The others tend to be gatherings of folk-dance enthusiasts who come together to practice and learn from experienced teachers and improve their skills.

Lucky for San Antonio! The 2022 performance showcase on Sunday will represent the diversity of cultures in our city, by presenting dances from Mexico, Scotland, Bulgaria, Romania, Brazil, Lebanon, India, Korea, the Philippines, Spain, and others.

“We will also have this fabulous duo, Amaret. They do this Asian fusion with modern dance, and with martial arts elements! Just fabulous! And very unique,” said Montgomery. “We are also bringing T-Bow, who is an African drummer, and a Hawaiian Dance troupe.” She added that the Lebanese dancers from the St. George’s Lebanese Church are usually audience favorites, with the adults performing belly dances while the kids engage in more traditional folk dances. The San Antonio Pipe & Drums will get things moving by leading everyone in a parade around the mall.

“I try my best to cover all the continents in the world,” said Montgomery who is the coordinator of the show.

In addition to all that fun, the organizers also want to do their part to help the people of the Ukraine, by extending an invitation to Ukrainian San Antonio, a local group that is raising funds to send medical and humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian people in their embattled homeland. Originally, the Ukrainian ensemble, Veselka, was expected to perform as well, but “that fell through under the circumstances,” said Montgomery. “All their efforts right now are focused on humanitarian aid.”

So, how do the dancers feel about having a festival in a shopping mall?

“Because there haven’t been any cultural/ethnic performances in the last couple of years, everyone really, really embraced this event. The dance groups are so excited to be able to share their dances and show off their costumes and traditions to a general audience, and the general audience has missed events like this festival for more than two years. So, we were all so happy to be doing this. We are just happy to be together again.

“Of course, I love dancing in a theatrical setting where we can have special lighting and various effects on stage, but I, too, am very happy to do it at the mall this year. And we may even reach new people who don’t even know we exist.”

The workshop part of the festival starts Friday night with a social and introduction of the teachers and continues through Sunday. Teachers include Jaap Leegwater from Amsterdam, who will teach Bulgarian dances, Mihai David from Los Angeles who teaches Romanian folkloric dances, and Andy Taylor-Blenis from Boston, a highly regarded teacher who knows the folklore of many cultures. At the end of the day, dance parties, featuring live music, will give the participants a chance to unwind and show what they’ve learned.

The San Antonio Folk Dance Festival was founded in 1958 by Nelda Drury, a San Antonio College dance teacher and a folk-dance enthusiast who continued dancing well into her 90s.  She was an expert in Mexican, and Latin American folk dance, and also taught modern and ballroom dancing. In 1995, Drury received the Ford Salute to Education as one of the most prominent figures in the arts, specifically international folk dance. The 2022 SAFDF commemorates the lasting legacy of this remarkable lady. She died at age 101 in 2019.The organization she founded was recently renamed Heritage Festivals to better reflect all its goals and activities. In addition to the annual festival, it offers regular folk-dance classes in community centers, and produces special cultural events, such as the recent “Joy to the World” holiday show, featuring cultural/ethnic groups, also at the Rolling Oaks Mall.
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Rolling Oaks event, March 27 at 11:30-5 p.m.; 69009 N. Loop 1604 E.; free admission; no ticket necessary. The workshop part of the festival at OLLU, March 25-27, starts March 25 at 7 p.m. and ends March 27 at 5 p.m. for details go to https://safdf.org/schedule/  For workshops and dance parties, you can pay at the door at the International Folk Dance Center or by using the link above.