New Traditionalists featuring Hearan Chung's The Call to Invocation ; Colette Eloi's Prayers for ...

Contemporary dance makers creating work within centuries-old living cultural traditions are featured in the final festival weekend. Hearan Chung, Artistic Director of the Northern California Korean Dance Association, is a master of court, folk and creative dances and a contemporary choreographer in her own right, having begun extensive training at age five. Ms. Chung?s dance is characterized by elegance and her choreography incorporates symbolic elements of water, wind and soil to demonstrate her interpretation of the spirit of Korea. Throughout the span of her career, she has choreographed over 40 works of dance and published four theses and was featured twice as part of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. Ms. Chung?s work will be accompanied by live music. Colette Eloi has dedicated her life to sharing with the world the rich traditions and cultural history of her parents? native Haiti. She studied dance in Haiti with the famed Madame Bauthier and Fofo Alexandre and in the Bay Area at UC Berkeley and The Malonga Casquelourd Center for Performing Arts. Colette's vision as a choreographer is to dance a through-line of the African experience as it manifests in the traditional movements of the Diaspora. She choreographed the first off-Broadway production of Tim Rice and Elton John's Aida, for which she was nominated for a Shellie Theatre Award. Ms. Eloi and company will perform with live music. Vishnu Tattva Das has devoted himself to perfecting the art of Odissi, one of India?s most elegant and beautiful classical dance forms. Vishnu is recognized as one of India's prominent male Odissi dancers and choreographers, and has received acclaim for his performances throughout India, Italy, Canada and the US. He is the founder-director of Odissi Vilas: Sacred Dance of India, and a founding member of Kala Sri Sangha. This performance is part of ODC's Festival 2; a post-show reception and informal artist discussion follows each show.