In Laguna Beach’s colorful array of artistic offerings, the Laguna Dance Festival adds the fluid element of movement. Offering world-class dance on the intimate stage of the Laguna Playhouse and in non-traditional settings like art galleries and city parks, the idea is to bring dance to the people for greater appreciation of the art form. Now in its 11th year, Laguna Dance Festival is regarded as “one of Orange County’s major annual cultural events,” according to the Orange County Register.

Dance creation, presentation and education are supported and promoted by the Festival’s dedicated board of directors, headed by Chairwoman Karen Wilson, newly hired longtime volunteer and board member Executive Director Joy Dittberner, and Founder and Artistic Director Jodie Gates. Jodie, a former ballerina with the Joffrey Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, also serves as vice dean and director of the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Upon her retirement from the stage, Jodie established Laguna Dance Festival in 2005–as a result of her vision, Laguna Beach has played host to top dance companies from near and far: American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Parsons Dance, CorbinDances, Diavolo, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Trey McIntyre Project, Ballet West, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Backhausdance, UCI Etude Ensemble, The Groovaloos, San Francisco Ballet, Les Ballet Grandiva, BalletX, Sacramento Ballet, Breed, Los Angeles Ballet, ABT II and Hubbard Street 2.

Besides being an important showcase for new and established dance companies and artists, Laguna Dance Festival offers master classes throughout the year for area dance students. It has reached thousands and exposed new audiences to world-class professional dance in a beautiful setting through its onstage festival performances and informal dance presentations such as First Thursdays Art Walk events.

On Thursday, May 28 at 6:30 p.m., the dance floor at [seven-degrees] will sizzle as Laguna Dance Festival celebrates its 11th anniversary with the Cuban-themed gala ¡Bailamos! It will be an exciting night of mojitos, food, and dance – including red-hot salsa performed by Oksana Platero from Dancing with the Stars and her husband Jonathan Platero from So You Think You Can Dance.

Gala guests need not simply watch – they can join the fun on the dance floor when Oksana and Jonathan teach a salsa class during the party.

Also performing at the gala will be Jeremy Zapanta and Tess Lane, both of California Ballet, and Nikki and Ethan White, contemporary ballet dancers who finished as finalists on the CBS show Live to Dance.

Vocalist Candi Sosa, who grew up among the sugar fields and green plains of Central Cuba, will perform with a five-piece Cuban-style band. Candi and her two siblings were part of Operation Pedro Pan in the early 1960s, which sent more than 14,000 Cuban youths alone to the United States in an effort by Cuban parents to protect their children from Marxist-Leninist indoctrination. Dulce Maria – the name given by her parents –and her siblings lived for several months in a refugee camp, where she became the premier performer at weekly talent shows held to entertain the children. (One of these performances was captured in a film that would, many years later, take her back to Cuba for the first time.) The three children were taken into a foster home in Long Beach, and Candi began performing as a professional singer at age 13. From her Southern California home, she has had a long, successful career as a sought-after vocalist. Laguna Dance Festival is proud to present Candi Sosa as part of its Cuban-themed May 28 celebration – all are invited so, don’t miss it!

For information and tickets ($200 each) please visit www.lagunadancefestival.org.

In September, two of the world’s hottest dance companies, Malpaso Dance Company from Havana, Cuba and San Francisco’s Alonzo King LINES Ballet, will give two performances each during the Laguna Dance Festival September 10–13. Tickets for all four onstage September performances will go on sale in June.

Laguna Dance Festival 2015 Schedule

Thursday, May 28 at 6:30 p.m. ­­– ¡Bailamos! 11th Anniversary Celebration Gala at [seven-degrees]

Thursday, Sept. 3 – Free dance performance during Laguna Beach First Thursdays Art Walk; details to be announced

Sept. 5 and Sept. 6 – Master classes for intermediate to advanced dancers; details to be announced

Thursday, Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m. – Malpaso onstage performance; pre-performance talk at 6:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 11 at 7:30 p.m. – Malpaso onstage performance; pre-performance talk at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 12 – Malpaso technique class and repertory workshop; details to be announced

Saturday, Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. – Alonzo King LINES Ballet onstage performance

Saturday, Sept. 12 – Post-performance Artists’ Reception; ticketed event at Laguna Playhouse

Sept. 13 – Alonzo King LINES Ballet master class; details to be announced

Sunday, Sept. 13 at 2 p.m. – Alonzo King LINES Ballet onstage performance. Pre-performance talk at 1 p.m.

Laguna Beach resident Christine Casey, who spends part of every year in Nepal overseeing Chhahari, the orphanage she founded, is safe but facing hardship after the 7.8 earthquake on April 25 that has killed more than 7,000.

Casey established the nonprofit in 2007 with help from local attorney and LBCF Trustee Tom Davis and support from fellow parishioners at St. Catherine’s of Siena Catholic Church. She felt she had to take action after seeing ill, abandoned children begging in the streets of Nepal’s villages and cities when she visited Nepal on a trekking tour in 2004.

Chhahari provides shelter, clothes, food and education for 23 children ages 5 to 17 at a rented house in central Kathmandu.

“As you may well expect, we are having all sorts of problems: water, electricity, food, shelter and now the scare of many different illnesses,” Casey wrote.

The children at the facility are safe, as are the caretaker couple and their two young sons. A nurse from Germany was able to fly into Nepal and administered cholera medications as a precautionary measure before she went to serve at a hospital for several weeks.

“We are cutting down on all items to save what resources we have,” Casey said. “Price hikes are everywhere.”

Even with such hardship, Christine and Ongmu decided on a plan to have the Chhahari children participate in helping a few of the hardest hit villages here in the Kathmandu valley. Ongmu explained to the children the sad circumstances of some people living very close and asked each child to go to their cupboard and choose some clothes to give other children. They were all anxious and happy to run to their rooms and pick out something to put into the bag. Below is a picture of the children eagerly packing their clothes to help others in need.

The nonprofit’s primary goal is to help create the next generation of educated Nepalis who can lift the nation out of its impoverished, third-world status.

Children at Chhahari, which means “shelter” in Nepalese, are also given medical and dental care, and they participate in activities like music, dance, art, annual picnics, lunch outings and celebrations of Hindu and Buddhist festival days.

Many of you have asked how best to help. The very best way to help right now is with monetary donations. Chris uses every rupee to make sure the 23 children at Chhahari and the neighbors with whom she always shares get the food, water, medicine and other basics they need. Sadly, price gouging is rampant. The older children are helping with search and rescue operations – a difficult, horrendous task for a teenager, but they are brave and strong, and Chris is there to guide and comfort them. Some of the smaller children are paralyzed with fear but all are being lovingly cared for. As difficult as it is, Chris says they will survive this. She wishes to express her deepest thanks for your prayers and financial help.

Donations can be made by mailing or hand-delivering a check to Union Bank, Laguna Beach Office, 299 Broadway, Laguna Beach CA 92651; make the check out to Chhahari, Inc. (spelling and punctuation count!). If mailing a check, write in the memo line “Donation to account ending in 6279.” You can also donate online at www.chhahari.org

Story, photos and updates provided by Barbara McMurray.