Page 39 - 1994
P. 39
FromPageDl
to a common Mrican beat, is be- ginning to look forced and ragged. With competition sprouting up in communities all around the bay, and with other cities experiment- ing with new ways of presenting what we've come to call, for better or worse, "ethnic dance," San Francisco's Ethnic Dance .Festival
is beginning to look almost passe. Tradition is one thing. Mori-
bund conformity is another. Skill and Beauty
This is not to say, however, that the groups in the festival have gone downhill. In Friday night's program at the Palace of Fine Arts (the first of nine shows extending through June 19), there were mo- ments of astonishing skill, beauty and artistry.
Ever seen an 8-year-old boy· dancing "Baris," the Balinese war- rior dance? Or a sailor etching a sprightly Scottish hornpipe? Or a · demonstration of Burong Talo, a martial art from Mindinao in the southern Philippines? Or a line of .. .. ............
*** San DANCE: Ethnic Festival Opens
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