Idyllwild Arts Summer Program’s Native American Arts Festival week concludes with a public dance event on Cargill Commons. At 7 p.m. Friday, July 8, on the plaza between Lowman Concert Hall and the IAF Theatre, three dancers from very different traditional backgrounds will perform a collaborative piece and then perform their own distinctive dance styles.
Yakima/Tulalip hoop dancer Terry Goedel is a five-time world hoop dance champion. He uses 21 hoops in his dance to illustrate his Native American story.
Educated at Brigham Young University and Chapman College, Goedel is by profession a math teacher. But he has performed all over the world since 1973, teaching audiences in such disparate locations as Australia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway about hoop dancing as part of the Native American tradition. He performed at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dancing with Goedel will be his son Michael, who placed third in the youth division at the world championships in 2015.
Texas-born Miguel Montana will perform Flamenco. He is a graduate of the University of Texas and the Escuela Superior de Danza, and is currently starting a Latin America dance program for the Palos Verdes Art Center where he is employed. Montana also is a film actor.
Cuba native Wilfredo Guilbiac Rodriguez will perform Afro-Cuban dance. Rodriguez, a choreographer and dancer, has represented Cuba internationally as a dancer and has danced in some of Cuba’s most prestigious companies.
At the end of the dance performances, audience members will be invited to participate and learn some new dance moves.
The dance program is open to the public and is free of charge.
Prior to the Friday dance performance will be an episode of a premier of a PBS program “Craft in America: Teachers” at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 7, in the Krone Library. The episode airs in September. This is a neak preview at which the director/producer Carol Sauvion will be present to introduce the episode, also open to the public.
Finally, Writers Week public readings begin on Sunday, July 10. All readings are at 7 p.m. in the Westin Room in the Krone Library except the first event, which will be held at 4 p.m. on the deck of Café Aroma as part of the Idyllwild Authors Series hosted by Eduardo Santiago. The guest author is Nana-Ama Danquah (see story in last week’s edition.)
On Monday, July 11, Shanna Mahin, Victoria Chang and Ed Skoog will read. On Tuesday, July 12, Bruce Bauman, Tonaya Craft and Amy Friedman read. On Wednesday, July 13, Ben Loory, Jaswinder Bolina and Samantha Dunn read. And finally, on Thursday, July 14, Danquah will join David Ulin.