For immediate release: April 1, 2016

Media Contact: Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe

: 415-933-5956

Brava, Precita Eyes Muralists, & Calle 24 present the 2016

BAILE EN LA CALLE:THE MURAL DANCES

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Mural Tours begin in the parking lot on 24th Street between Capp Street & Lilac Alley
Tours start at 11am, 12pm, 1pm & 2pm

Tours led by Precita Eyes Muralists Docents

Free

Featuring performances by:

Embodiment Project ● Taller Bombalele ● Cathy Arellano

● Cuicacalli Dance Company ● Dance Brigade ● Loco Bloco

& the new movable mural by Vero Majano

Brava's annual event takes over the streets and alleys of San Francisco’s Mission District for its fourth year to celebrate and preserve the living cultural heritage of the Mission. The Bay Area's most dynamic dance companies and performing artists offer an artistic interpretation of the murals with narration by Precita Eyes Muralists docents that offers an intricate look at each work of art and its relationship to the culture and life of the Mission community.

Company bios:

Embodiment Project & Nicole Klaymoon

Nicole Klaymoon is the Founder/Artistic Director of Embodiment Project, a dance company that interweaves street dance, live song, documentary theater, and spoken-word to humanize stories silenced by mainstream culture and create emotionally transparent narratives that serve as unifying political acts and vehicles for social change.EP has produced home season shows of original works to sold-out audiences for the past six years in San Francisco. The company has been awarded an artist residency at the ODC Theater, Intersection for the Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Destiny Arts Center. Dance magazine Contributing Editor Rita Felciano called Embodiment Project one of the Bay Area’s “ten companies and artists who challenged expectations and unveiled surprises.” The San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote that Nicole Klaymoon’s signature work House of Matter, “(w)as one of the most rocking and joyous dance shows to hit the town in a long time.” Klaymoon received a B.A. in Dance from UCLA and an M.F.A. from the California Institute of Integral Studies and is currently a resident choreographer at the ODC Theater.

Taller Bombalele

Taller Bombalele was founded in 2014 by Julia Cepeda (one of the heirs of the Familia Cepeda’s Bomba y Plena cultural and folkloric heritage, granddaughter of Puerto Rican Bomba Patriarch Don Rafael Cepeda Atiles) and Denise Solis (founder/director of Las Bomberas de la Bahia). Taller Bombalele teaches classes and hosts Bombazos (Bomba performed informally in community) throughout the Bay Area, Taller BombaleleEnsemble features students from the classes as well as other musicians from the Bay Area and is directed by Denise Solis. Taller Bombalele Workshops workshops are led and taught by Julia C. Cepeda,—the most visible and powerful expression of African heritage of Puerto Rico. Developed and practiced over a span of seven generations.

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Taller Bombalele Ensemble strives to promote Afro Puerto Rican roots music and dance tradition of Bomba, by teaching its history, dance, music, and songs through classes, lectures, workshops, and Bombazos to continue to preserve and expand this cultural form of expression in community. Taller Bombalele is also proud to be part of a diverse community in the SF Bay Area and is therefore committed to teaching, learning, and collaboration and in reflection of this community, welcome differing cultural experiences and intergenerational participation. Taller Bombalele Contact info: mailto: – Julia Cepeda 787-513-2108 and Denise Solis 510-224-6692

Cathy Arrelano

Just another Mexican lesbian writer from The Mission, Cathy Arellano’s has published work in print and online, including Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice that responds to Arizona’s SB 1070 law that legalized racial profiling and allowed police to stop people suspected of being in the U.S. without papers; La Bloga; Huizache; The Malpaís Review; Sinister Wisdom; Feminist Formations; The Más Tequila Review; Fourteen Hills; Cipactli; El Tecolote; Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About, and Label Me Latino. Her collection, Salvation on Mission Street, based on her family’s history in the Mission, will be published at the end of May by Kórima Press. She worked as a Guest Poet-Writer with Loco Bloco and Mission Girls; at the Mission Cultural Center, Everett Middle, and Mission High Schools through the San Francisco Art Commission’s WritersCorps program; Horace Mann Middle School with the Mexican Museum; and a number of elementary schools with the California Poets in the Schools series. Cathy later taught in the English Department at John O’Connell and Leadership High Schools. She attended Sanchez Elementary, Everett, and Mission. She has relatives from one and two generations before her who also attended Everett and Mission. Cathy lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico for seven years and found a vibrant and supportive writing community. She believes deeply in the power of community and is grateful to the artists / activists she has met, worked with, and been inspired by in the Mission, the Bay, Búrque, and beyond.

Cuicacalli Dance Company

Cuicacalli Escuela de Danza is an international, cross-cultural, dance arts educational institution with a professional dance ensemble housed at Brava Theater Center. As a collaborating partner in the Mission Academy of Performing Arts (MAPA) at Brava, Cuicacalli offers dance instruction in Mexican Ballet Folklorica and dances of the Americas, alongside modern dance and contemporary urban dance techniques. Founded and led by renowned international performer Jesus "Jacoh" Cortes, Cuicacalli builds communities through dance - expanding, exploring and celebrating the cultural traditions of the Americas.

Dance Brigade

Dance Brigade is sumptuous dancing; biting, intellectual, insightful wit; and provocative originality. Artistic Director, Krissy Keefer explores the intersection between art and social issues with fierce inventiveness and a deft comic touch. For the past 40 years, the company has created, performed, presented and produced issue-oriented dance theater exploring subjects such as violence against women, class injustice, war, racism, breast cancer, sexual abuse, homophobia and death and dying. In addition to our dance company, we operate Dance Mission Theater on the corner of 24th Street and Mission, produce a series of annual events showcasing Bay Area choreographers, and conduct an instructional dance program for both adults and youth. For more information, visit dancemission.com and dancebrigade.org.

Loco Bloco

Loco Bloco is one of San Francisco’s most popular and long-running creative programs for youth and an award winning performance ensemble. Loco Bloco’s mission is to promote San Francisco youth’s healthy transition into adulthood by engaging them in the creation and performance of music, dance, and theater rooted in Afro-Latino traditions. Loco Bloco encourages its youth to use multicultural art forms as a tool for their own empowerment and as a catalyst to help them overcome discrimination and bring about change in their communities. Loco Bloco presents an annual original performance on the Brava mainstage that gives a creative voice to issues in the Mission community and has participated in Baile en la Calle since its beginning in 2013.

Vero Majano

Vero Majano is an artist and cultural worker who was born and raised in San Francisco’s Mission district. She was a resident at the Djerassi Resident Artist program and has received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation Media Fellowship, the Puffin Foundation, and the Free History Project. In addition to her found footage work with the Caca Colectiva, Majanois a cofounder of Mission Media Archives, which collects and preserves audio and films shot in San Francisco’s Mission district during the 1970s and ’80s.

About Brava

Brava! For Women in the Arts celebrates its 30th year as a professional arts organization dedicated to cultivating the artistic expression of women, youth, LGBTQ, people of color, and other underrepresented voices. Brava’s producing history includes award-winning new work by Artists in Residence Rhodessa Jones & Cultural Odyssey, Marga Gomez, Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, and Lisa Mezzacappa; the Bay Area premieres of Solitude by Evelina Fernandez & Latino Theatre Company and the Off-Broadway hit Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical, as well as the annual events Baile en la Calle: The Mural Dances and year-end fundraiser Brava’s New Year’s Eve Comedy Fiesta. Brava’s current artistic programming includes traditional and contemporary music festivals, a variety of film festivals, contemporary and experimental theatrical productions, international comedy shows, lectures and professional dance productions—making Brava one of the most eclectic and multifaceted arts venues in the Bay Area. Brava’s resident youth programs include the long-standing SF Running Crew, pairing youth with professional mentors and hands-on opportunities for technical theater training; Cuicacalli Escuela de Danza, traditional and contemporary dance training for youth; and SF Youth Theatre, offering high quality instruction integrating drama, dance, music, and stagecraft. Brava is committed to providing affordable space for artistic development and presentation and quality professional arts training for underserved youth in the San Francisco community.

Brava Theater Center / 2781 24th Street San Francisco, CA 94110 / 415-641-7657 /