2025 SF International Arts Festival Explores the Unconventional
April 21, 2025—In an effort to to connect with a wider audience in the Mission District, this year's San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) departs from the conventional by staging innovative performing arts, many in non-traditional venues.
One non-traditional venue is Folk Yoga Studio in San Francisco, where dance group PULP, led by Artistic Director Jenna Valez, will premiere their work Pulp and it's completely different but also still pulp. A remix of a show the company performed in 2019, the work is described as "a dance show full of personality, attitude, vulnerability, and juicy oranges."
On Wednesday April 30 one of the opening night concerts features Eric Kupers of Dandelion Dance Theater performing Lost & Found at El Rio with his hybrid group The Wandering Ensemble.
Other innovative contemporary works include Helen Wicks Works with Radio Vision, an ode to Juliette Nadia Boulanger, a French music teacher, conductor, and composer who taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century. Helen Wicks shares the bill with Alive & Well Productions, under Artistic Director Annie Kahane, who present The Four Seasons of Hamadan, a duet described as interweaving traditions to express intercultural harmony.
In keeping with intercultural harmony, SFAIF and the U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network, Inc. (CTN) present the United States debut of Japanese dance group Suichu-megane∞ at Dance Mission Theater. Led by Ayane Nakagawa, the group will perform two works: my choice, my body and Anchor. Known for theatrical dance, Suichu-megane∞ explores freedom above and beyond contemporary Japanese society. Their work my choice, my body incorporates the physicality of Japanese classical dance and Noh masks. Nakagawa states, "It celebrates the right to make every choice in your life and mine, as well as the destiny we have been given." Anchor explores societal norms surrounding sexuality and gender.
From Finland, Anneli Kanninen's work-in-progress HOMEing explores, through different languages and contemporary dance, the meaning of growing roots in a new place, in a new country, culture, and language. HOMEing will be performed at The Marsh Studio on Valencia Street.
More familiar to local audiences is Sha Sha Higby in the world premiere of Feathered Fox at Theatre of Yugen's NOH Space. Known for using sculptures and costumes, mobiles, and puppets, Sha Sha Higby appears with projection collaborator Keith Evans.
Other genres on this year's SFIAF bill include Sweta Ravisankar using Bharatanatyam and yoga-inspired movements, the Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose, Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco, Agathe and Adrien of Canada in a circus show, Melissa Cruz Flamenco, and Samudra Dance Creations in a Bharatanatyam piece.
For more information see SFIAF.