33rd San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Opens June 3 in SF June 3, 2011

Building on its past success as the most extensive and highly regarded festival of its kind, and responding to both dance community and public demand, the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival is excited to offer new performances, events and venues for the 33rd season, scheduled in San Francisco and, for the first time, in Berkeley, from June 3-July 3, 2011.

The June 3 opening at 12 pm at San Francisco's City Hall Rotunda features the Rumsen Ohlone Tribe in an Opening Ceremony that includes Native American tribal song and dance and the presentation of the Festival's annual Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award to Tribal Chief Tony Cerda. Beginning in 1776 with the Europeans' building of Mission Dolores, Ohlone populations were decimated and scattered, giving rise to the notion that the Ohlone peoples did not survive this genocide and displacement. Celebrating the return of the native Ohlone peoples to San Francisco and honoring its mission of taking an active role in helping to keep cultural traditions alive via dance and music, the Festival is particularly pleased to partner with the Ohlone Profiles Project (www.ohloneprofiles.org) to present the most in-depth and sustained Ohlone Native American presence in San Francisco in more than 200 years.

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