A ONE NIGHT ONLY EVENT will allow you to see a host of dance companies and contribute to a good cause. The fourth annual Spring Dance Inspiration brings together San Francisco Bay Area artists who will perform with their feet and their hearts to raise awareness and funds to support brain tumor research, brain tumor patients and their families. Over the years, the event has helped raise over $110,000 for the National Brain Tumor Foundation and National Brain Tumor Society. All proceeds from this event will go to Pediatric Brain Tumor Research as well as Patient Care Services of the UCSF Brain Tumor Center.
Performers come from a variety of dance styles, including flamenco, Hawaiian hula, Philippine folk, hip hop, contemporary modern and others. In addition, research scientists, medical doctors, and a brain tumor survivor will be at the event to discuss the brain tumor health problem, including how this disease affects patients and their families.
2010 Performers:
AXIS Dance Company, Alonzo King LINES Ballet School, Bobby Bersten-Bonvin with Damon Mahoney and Jeremiah Crank, Copious Dance Theater, Dimensions Dance Theater, Four Wind, F’Risque, Loose Change Dance Company, Man Dance Company, Mambo Romero, Melissa Cruz and Flamenco School, Minoan Dancers, Nemenzo Polynesian Dance Company, Oreet, Parangal Dance Company, Presidio Dance Theatre, Project EM, Rashika Dance Company, RUGGED Dance Company, Seaon, T’s Dance Inspiration Ballet Ensemble with Kathy Mata.
History of the event: Tomoko Ozawa, M.D., Ph.D., and Kumiko Dews met in a dance class and struck up a great partnership. They formed TK Fundraising Productions in April 2006 to produce high quality cultural and artistic events to raise funds for non-profit anti-cancer organizations. Dr. Ozawa has served as a research scientist in the Brain Tumor Research Center at the University of California San Francisco. And Dews has been a dancer and designer for many years, both in Japan and the US.
In the future, in addition to Brain Tumors, the organizers hope to increase public awareness of other forms of cancer not widely recognized, through the medium, and energy, of dance.
This article appeared in the March 2010 issue of In Dance.
