Bulgarian dance
West African dance and music
Brazilian dance and music
Site Visits with ACTA's 2019 Apprenticeship Cohort
Celebrating the Cultural Treasures of Los Angeles
Seungmu is a highly represented Korean traditional dance form that has roots that go back 500 years. The choreography that demonstrates intense expressions of joy and sorrows includes intricate yet calm movement. This reflects the journey of relieving heavy karma, leaving the secular world, and finally reaching nirvana. Performed as…
Bomba, Puerto Rico’s oldest art form, originated in the 17th century as a form of communication, rebellion, and relief by enslaved Africans on the coastal sugar cane plantations of the island. Bomba is a result from Spanish colonization, which brought African as slaves to work plantations. The resiliency of the…
Master artist Fujima Kansuma and apprentice Melody Takata participated in Round 7 of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program, conducting an apprenticeship in Japanese Nihon Buyo, or Japanese classical dance. Fujima Kansma is no ordinary figure. Surmounting a series of challenges and discouragements, her long career reflects extraordinary focus and…
Joti Singh studied Guinean dance with master artist Alseny Soumah as part of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2007. Soumah’s family taught him to dance when he was a small child in Conakry, Guinea, and he performed with a neighborhood group before dancing professionally with Ballets Merveilles and Les…
Ruth Yafonne Chen (San Francisco) will study Chinese Wushu (sword dance) with Ling Mei Zhang (San Francisco).  Zhang studied with masters Liu Yuhua and Lee Wenjin in Tian Jinh and became the double straight sword Wushu champion for all of China in 1975.  She has taught martial arts for over…