So last Friday, I went to the 10th Annual San Francisco Hip Hop DanceFest. I had heard that the show was off the hook, plus the company Mind Over Matter (who I profiled in an earlier post) was going to be there. I arrived to find many of the dance companies already on stage in an impromptu battle. There were poppers, lockers, and breakers young and old already impressing the sold-out crowd. I clapped my hands together and settled in for an unbelievable night full of surprises (including a run-in with an old friend, and a hip-hop legend).

Care to know what happened? Read on after the jump!

The 7th Annual Living Word Festival takes place this week in San Francisco, where artists will discuss the theme "Race is Fiction" in a variety of workshops, panels, music and dance performances, as well as a live graffiti battle.

The festival features such artists as rapper and actor Mos Def, tap star Jason Samuels-Smith, and contemporary choreographer Jacinta Vlach. Since its inception in 2001, the Living Word Festival has hosted several hundred future-thinking, urban-centered performers, and presented its topics to more than 25,000 viewers.

Vlach will be performing this Friday at the Theater ArtAud at 7pm. She's presenting a "first draft" of a new dance theater work called "Animal Farm."

Vlach's flyer says, "Inspired by George Orwell's classic late 19th century novel of the same title, Animal Farm explores the infrastructure of contemporary politics and propaganda. In collaboration with cinematographer Bruce Francis Cole and beat composer Willie Adams, choreographer Jacinta Vlach will parallel the Orwellian vision of communist contradictions to present day corporate elections and how a Utopian society is made impossible by the corrupting nature of the very power necessary to create it. Using various dance forms including Step, Dancehall, Modern, and Ballet, Animal Farm brings together an eclectic fusion of fine art and working class sensibilities. At its essence Animal Farm poses the question: Is it possible to maintain one's
intrinsic values while rising to power?"

If you're in the San Fran area, check out the show at 450 Florida Street.

My little family of three just returned from our summer vacation. Aside from a short trip to the Big Apple in 2006, my husband and I have not indulged in a true holiday for several years now, instead spending time off visiting with family.  Now that we have an infant son, vacations come with additional challenges (and rewards), so for our first attempt we chose somewhat familiar territory and a family-friendly destination - Massachusetts.  

Due to the success of last year's festival, the Beantown Tapfest returns for a second year, expanding to a week-long schedule of classes and tripling the number of faculty.

Unlike a jazz or film festival, a tap festival's main ingredient is instruction, continuing the long-standing tradition of handing tap dance down from one generation to the next. And since tap is a theatrical art, you can't have a festival without a show.

The Beantown Tapfest sold out last year's show, delivering what is unique to tap: the performer as both dancer and musician, where the exciting rhythmic complexity of tap is seen and heard. This year, six tap soloists, two tap companies and three jazz musicians make up the cast of On Tap!, the festival's annual review.