Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership (AYPAL)
Noni Gunarsa and Kompiang Metri Davies, Artistic Mentors in Traditional Balinese Dance
Charya Burt, Artistic Mentor in Classical Cambodian Dance
Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership (AYPAL), Oakland, received $9,500 for an artistic mentorship which pairs youth dancers with Balinese and Cambodian traditional dance teachers. AYPAL’s Talking Root Arts Collective develops youths’ artistic skills and cultural knowledge to help them recover cultural identity, build community and gain cross-cultural understanding. AYPAL works with Cambodian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Mien, Korean, Filipino, and Pacific Islander youth in six different Oakland communities. Youth dancers will have the opportunity to perform at several different venues including the 7th Annual AYPAL Arts Festival.
The artistic mentors are Noni Gunarsa and Kompiang Metri Davies, traditional Balinese dancers who perform with the local group Gamelan Sekar Jaya, and Charya Burt, a classical Cambodian dance teacher, choreographer, and performer. Noni Gunarsa began studying Balinese dance as a young girl and performed with the local gamelan ensemble in her village of Banda. She has been performing and teaching dance workshops with Gamelan Sekar Jaya since she came to the United States in 1995. Kompiang Metri Davies began learning dance at the age of five in her village Ngis, in eastern Bali. She currently dances and performs music with Gamelan Sekar Jaya and the Indonesian American Friendship Association of the Bay Area.
Charya Burt, a former Master Artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program, studied and taught dance at the University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She performed with Cambodia’s royal dance troupe and has performed throughout the United States, winning the prestigious Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement in Individual Performance in 2001. She currently teaches Cambodian dance to students in the Cambodian Community Cultural center in Santa Rosa.
Contact Information
AYPAL
1212 Broadway Street, Suite 400
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 834-9455 x211
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