San Francisco Dance Community Comes Out for AIDS-Fighting Benefit

On April 28, the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation of San Francisco will present the second annual dance benefit for Bay Area AIDS organizations called, “Dances from the Heart 2.” The event will feature 10 local dance troupes: Chitresh Das Dance Company, Ballet San Jose, Diablo Ballet, Company C Contemporary Ballet, Post: Ballet, ODC/Dance, Robert Moses’ Kin, Smuin Ballet, Salsamania, and Te Mana O Te Ra.

Dancer-choreographer Robert Dekkers, a member of the event’s planning committee, who also helped organize the 2012 event, noted, “Most other big cities have pretty big all-dance AIDS benefits, and San Francisco oddly didn’t.” Dekkers commented on the diversity of the dance companies and how broad the range of the work is, adding, “The City has big ballet companies, modern companies and small, off-the-wall project-based things, and everything in between.” Dekkers founded the troupe Post: Ballet, which will present his solo piece, “Sixes and Seven,” to be performed by Christian Squires. Dekker declared, “What’s really interesting about dance as an art is that each performance is different. It’s about the ‘now.’ With music you have sheet music. When a painting is done, it’s finished. With a play there’s a script. With dance, once it’s done in a place and time, you can never have that particular performance again.”

The show’s beneficiaries include Bay Area Young Positives, Larkin Street Youth Services, and the Dancers’ Groups’ Parachute Fund. The event will take place at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3301 Lyon St., San Francisco, at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, April 28. Tickets are $40 to $60 for the show only; $100 to $1,000 includes receptions. For more information, contact (415) 273-1620 or visit www.palaceoffinearts.org.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!