2025 WAWDF Weekend #2 Saturday

The 2025 World Arts West Dance Festival will focus on the theme “Dance as Health and Healing,” exploring what constitutes a healthy community. It aims to showcase dance and art forms rooted in cultural traditions, including sacred, social, and contemporary. The festival will feature movement workshops, artist dialogues, and new activities like Hawaiian lei making, Kalimba music and Afro-Cuban healing rituals. Additionally, community activations will occur across the San Francisco Bay Area, emphasizing the theme of health and healing through dance. Make sure you join the mailing list and follow us on Instagram for all the latest updates at www. WorldArtsWest.org!

$15 presale/$20 in person - Single workshop/activity

$40 presale/$50 in person - Full Day Package

$5 - No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds (NOTAFLOF)

Donations accepted! (Your donation makes it possible for 1- working artists and lower-income community members to attend and 2- allows World Arts West to compensate instructors/musicians/panelists more equitably.)

This year our merch will focus on the World Arts West brand that you can wear and take with you all year long! This means t-shirts, hoodies, water bottles, tote bags, and more!Buy your merch here and wear to the festival! --> WAW Merch Store

Join our community of givers by donating to our General Fund so that we can continue to pay festival artists, speakers and staff equitably. Tap here to Donate!

The Beat is located in suite 119 of 2560 Ninth Street. It is an ADA accessible building, studio is on the first floor. It can be reached by bus (AC Transit 36, 72/72M/72R or Emery-Go-Round Hollis Bus), car, bike, and foot, with street parking available.

Info: Movement as Medicine led by J. Andrea Porras (Movimientoyaya Productions) is a workshop that braids traditional earth based rituals with grounding, gliding and meditative motion. Sharing the access of plant, flora & flower relatives and holding communal bundle making with a collective movement circle.

Info: African Kalimba Music Workshop with Carl Winters, the Kalimba King!
Join us for an interactive workshop with Carl Winters, the Kalimba King. He will demonstrate playing jazz, blues, pop, rhythm & blues, and gospel on the kalimba (African thumb piano), along with a discussion of how the kalimba is used in African cultures. Attendees will be able to try out playing the kalimba.

Info: In this class, we will explore a gentle yet grounding style of movement inspired by the teachings of the Integral Yoga Institute, where I study Hatha yoga. Our practice centers the connection between mind, body, and spirit, with meditation, healing, and conscious awareness as foundational pillars. Through breath-led movement, we will create space for presence, release, and restoration—welcoming all bodies and experiences with care. Andreína Maldonado is a performing artist, cultural worker, and certified yoga instructor with a specialization in stress management. Her practice weaves together movement, breath, and mindfulness, drawing from her roots in the arts and community healing. As a guest teacher, she brings a grounding and creative approach to well-beingness, centering accessibility, cultural relevance, and joy.

Info: Hear from our Executive Director Dr. Anne Huang about World arts West, our latest programming, artist testimonials, and our upcoming 50th Anniversary!

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Beat, 2560 Ninth Street, Berkeley, United States