International dance festival return to San Mateo

Festival curator Gregory Amato said this event invites dance companies to share their culture on the big stage. With companies intentionally selected by Amato and a team at PBT, they vary in style, ranging from exuberant spectacles to intimate solos.

“It has a thread and flow, and it ebbs and peaks,” Amato said. “It’s sometimes something sacred, touches your heart, sometimes it makes you laugh, sometimes it makes you want to dance.”

Performances will feature traditional Filipino dance, ballet folklórico, flamenco, hip hop, hula, Bollywood and more. New this year include Congolese ballet, a Japanese Taiko ensemble, Chinese ballet and traditional Armenian folk dance. The Peninsula Ballet Theatre will also perform an Americana western piece.

Though each dance group was chosen to share their distinctiveness, the festival demonstrates the common thread of cultural storytelling through dance, said Amato who is also the artistic director for Peninsula Ballet Theatre.

“It’s a human body moving through space with music, trying to express whatever it is, whether it’s your culture or rhythms or joy,” Amato said. “We all do that as performers. It doesn’t matter where we’re from.

The festival goes beyond celebrating the companies and their dancers. Many of the dances tell stories of legacy and tradition passed down through generations, Amato said.

“It’s not just the performers now. It’s their ancestors that taught them,” Amato said. “Some of these dances go back hundreds of years. Those ancestors taught their children and their children, and those children are on the stage in San Mateo next weekend.”

Performing a solo on Saturday, Lena Dakessian finds a lot of pride in representing Armenia through the company ARAX Dance, which has played a significant role in her life.

As a part of the Armenian diaspora, Dakessian said “being raised in this company” allowed her to connect to her cultural identity despite being physically disconnected from her ancestral homeland. After a brief hiatus, the dance company is preparing for its relaunch this fall with Dakessian as the new artistic director.

Though showcasing a newer art form established around 70 years ago, Taiko SOBA is a drumming ensemble that will perform on Saturday engaging the audience with thunderous rhythms and highlighting Japanese American culture.

Performing member Chris Wong said the young adult semiprofessional group practices at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple have already seen generations of drum players come through and share their stories.

“It’s a nice way to connect with past and current identities,” Wong said. “In today’s society, it always seems so busy, and it’s nice to carve out time to this really important connection.”

As a multicultural exchange of experience and history, Dakessian said the festival showcases how political joy and existence can be.

“It has to be political because that is what’s going on,” she said. “Certain places in the world are resisting aggression. Art is resistance. Dance is resistance.”

By sharing these dances that are rooted in tradition, she said the culture is sustained.

“It’s a way of showing we’re here and you can’t erase us,” Dakessian said. “We will continue to pass things on. Standing alongside other cultures, we resist.”

The festival serves a reminder of unity, Amato said, by focusing on the beauty of our differences.

“In our political makeup of the world right now, it’s kind of in chaos,” Amato said. “This performance is unity with bliss, with joy, with positivity, with inclusivity, diversity. It’s all the things that humanity is trying to get to. It transcends on the stage.”

“I hope people come and they see that we’re all one, we really are,” he said.

The festival includes two days of different programs at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, one at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 20, and another at 2 p.m. Sunday July 21.

Visit www.peninsulalivelyarts.org for tickets or more information.