Close to 50 years is a long time to wait for a reunion tour, but this long period of time hasn’t fazed UCLA’s former dance department and current World Arts and Cultures department.
Both today and Saturday, 18 alumni will come together in the Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater in the first alumni reunion concert since the inception of the department: “Any One Home ““ The Reunion Tour.”
The evening will feature performances by seven prolific alumni, including Linda Gold, I Made Bandem, Li Chiao-Ping, Banafsheh Sayyad, Tamica Washington-Miller, Jackie Lopez, and Amrapali Ambegaokar. An exhibit featuring the works of 11 other alumni will also take place.
The assorted group of individuals represented over the course of the evening received their UCLA degrees throughout the last 34 years and are recognized leaders in their fields.
“We call (the concert) “˜Any One Home’ because there have been so many people that have come to our department,” said Judy Mitoma, a World Arts and Cultures professor and the curator and producer of the show. “The diversity of our students is what we’re proud of.”
In fact, diversity is arguably the most fitting word to describe this group of dancers and choreographers.
Ranging in age from their early 60s to more recent graduates, the dancers come from a variety of cultural backgrounds and dance styles.
“Any One Home” will have the likes of a former Cirque du Soleil principal dancer sharing the stage with performers of contemporary mystical Persian dance, hip-hop, contemporary dance, salsa, Indian Kathak, flamenco, Balinese dance and a slew of other infusions and combinations of dance forms.
The reunion tour will also honor alumni authors, artistic directors, founders of spaces for the arts, founders of dance companies, and activists in various artistic fields.
“It’s quite a privilege to be in this show because so many people have graduated from the dance department and WAC. I’m happy to do anything to showcase this department,” said performer and choreographer Linda Gold.
“Any One Home” aims to not only showcase the multiplicity of talent that has walked through the halls of UCLA, but to inspire current students with the rich history of the department.
“You have on the stage senior artists and younger artists, you have Western and Eastern aesthetics, postmodern aesthetics as well as popular dance forms,” Mitoma said.
The concert will also be a celebration of the dance education and those that have gone through it at UCLA.
“(Any One Home) is an affirmation of dance at the university,” Gold said. “It is a wonderful education on many levels and it does provide future careers to people.”
Though the concert is well overdue, as the department of dance was established in the ’60s and the WAC department in 1995, it seems that now is an appropriate time to pay tribute to the past of both.
“Our department is in a time of renewal,” Mitoma said. “We are getting lots of new hires, we are having new blood come in, and lots of people will be retiring.”
“I’m soon to retire too, and I feel responsibility to do my part to reconnect with alumni and create this event,” she added.
Though many of the performers are now scattered all over the world, everyone Mitoma approached wanted to be part of the show, she said.
“I got a call from (Mitoma). She said she had hoped to do this for some time, to share some of the work they have been a part of,” Gold said. “I thought, “˜Wow, this could be very fun.'”
Mitoma said, “It’s one of those things we’ve always wanted to do. We want our students to attend and experience this.”