these forms including a rich reper- toire rooted in Hindu spirituality and mythology, curating presenta- tions featuring multiple Indian classi- cal dance forms was straightforward. In 2014, Sangam Arts presented a ground-breaking showcase of all eight classical Indian dance forms at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival.
come here from all over the world may have little to no knowledge of the indigenous populations who still live among us, and struggle to preserve and promote their cultural traditions. We believe that culturally rooted art forms can be used to tell these hidden stories and to connect the many peo- ple and cultures in our community. Merely living in a community and sharing roads, schools and munici- pal services does not create a sense of belonging. It takes meaningful and repeated interactions in community settings and an accurate, shared under- standing of history of the community and its peoples to cultivate belonging and foster a common vision for the future. Mosaic’s approach is to draw on the rich artistic and cultural assets of communities to create collaborative, intercultural performances that priori- tize authenticity and co-creation. It is encouraging to see that we are not alone in this approach. The Long Time Project believes in building our capacity to think and plan for long term futures (beyond a lifetime) and sees arts and culture as uniquely posi- tioned to inspire transformative shifts in people’s attitudes and behaviors. The five long-term paths identified by the Long Time Project align with our work and include deep time, multi- generational emotions, legacy stance, mortality consciousness, and inter- connected worldviews. These path- ways speak to our goals of connect- ing audiences with place and history, moving beyond diversity to inclusion and belonging, and developing shared visions for the future. MAKING THE MOSAIC
(Artistic Director of Ensamble Folclórico Colibrí). This was a com- missioned piece with the goal to con- nect these traditions authentically. Mosaic sought to build a bridge between the audiences, to connect the communities, and to reflect the con- nection onstage. RaasLorico would showcase both Raas and Folklorico separately, then bring the two together with all dancers on stage. There was some trepidation at first about safely intertwining two traditions, one that required bare feet and the other, hard- soled boots. Once the dancers got together, however, the fear subsided with the common rhythms of Raas and Folklorico emerging together as a heartbeat for their collaboration. Once the commonality was found, trust in each other grew, and safety was felt in a number of ways—not just for danc- ers’ feet, but safety to share cultural traditions as well. Audience members would feel the same sense of cohesion and the performance brought neigh- bors together in a way they had never connected before. After the success of RaasLorico , Srividya and Arturo have continued working together, offering workshops in cross-cultural dance, and producing more performances for a new shared audience. Notably, since the authenticity of the traditions was maintained, every- body felt empowered to claim their whole identity. This was not a work of fusion, where each participant was forced to compromise or contort their practice in a hurried attempt to meet perceived audience preferences. Rather, this was a true coming together of dis- tinct parts which retained their iden- tities while creating a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts and quintessentially American. Though it is easy to assume that suc- cesses like this will continue to grow, it is not without potential for conflict. Arturo’s Ensemble Folklorico Colibri sits at the intersection of LatinX and LGBTQ+ identities and promotes the pride of both through Mexican folklor- ico dance. Knowing that anti-LGBTQ+
sentiment exists for many in the dias- pora, there was great potential for tension in RaasLorico and subsequent collaborations. We exist within that sort of risk all the time, and believe it is important to confront it. In a sense, it is this tension that drives us to cre- ate in the way that we do. We want to break down barriers to find a shared humanity with an underlying deep understanding and respect for all cul- tures and their histories while work- ing toward a future where we all sup- port each other. Mosaic continues to meet crises of identity in whatever forms they appear. We are now working with Cambodian dancer Charya Burt to create Beauti- ful Dark , a collaborative dance piece with live original music that explores the social and psychological impact of colorism including the social phenome- non of skin lightening and the physical, emotional, and cultural implications it has for persons of color. This work is informed by Charya’s personal experiences growing up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, when she was derisively labeled srey k’mau (black girl) and how that colored her own perceptions of beauty and self- worth. Her collaborative partners, Vietnamese composer and musician Van Anh Vo, poet Shikha Malaviya, and Odissi dancer Niharika Mohanty all provide accounts of colorism within their communities as explora- tions within the piece. These women’s unique voices and experiences will come together onstage in the inten- tionally racially stereotyped beauty salon to directly illustrate how color- ism, influenced by institutional prac- tices, colonialism, popular culture, and relentless advertisements of skin treatments, impacts personal and cul- tural ideals of beauty and the forma- tion of identity. We are now living through one of the largest racial justice uprisings in recorded history, reckoning with prej- udices and oppressions that are rooted in anti-blackness. Colorism is just one of many expressions of anti-blackness
that affect people from all cultures. As this piece is specific to perspectives of women from South and Southeast Asia, we hope Beautiful Dark will have broader implications for addressing anti-blackness within non-Black com- munities of color. We want those who have experienced the pain of colorism to see themselves in this work, and we want to contribute to healing that pain. While the Bay Area is at the cutting edge of the demographic shifts that have resulted simultaneously in rapid diversification and segregation, other parts of America are sure to experi- ence the trend. We believe our work in Silicon Valley can offer a template for other communities facing simi- lar trends. We have chosen to meet this moment by relaunching Sangam Arts as Mosaic America. It has been an incredible journey from being a dance-based organization focused on expanding audiences for artists, to a movement for moving communi- ties across America from diversity to belonging. We welcome you to join our movement at mosaicamerica.org USHA SRINIVASAN Usha Srinivasan is the co-founder and president of Mosaic America. Usha has served on the Santa Clara City Cultural Com- mission and on the Board of World Arts West, the producer of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Fes- tival. An alumna of Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute, she was selected by Knight Foundation as a Creative Community Fellow in 2016. Prior to founding Sangam Arts, Usha worked in the hi-tech industry for nearly fifteen years. She holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. PRIYA DAS is co-founder and Vice President of Programming Strategy for Mosaic America. She sets the creative direction for Mosaic programming and is responsible for artist relations, and commu- nity outreach.. A trained Bharatanatyam dancer, Priya is also an arts critic and columnist. She is an alumna of Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute (MALI) and SVCreates’ MindShare program. Priya works as a Consultant at an international eCommerce compa- ny in Silicon Valley and holds degrees in Business and Computer Science. The authors would like to thank Mosaic volunteers Kris Bifulco and Karpagam Rajagopal for their contributions.
fabric of our nation. Hateful, racist rhetoric, aimed at exploiting xeno- phobia for political gain, highlighted the ugly reality that the all-American identity was bestowed on Whites by default while all others were hyphen- ated-Americans, forced to reckon with the question “Where are you really from?’’ We felt a sense of urgency to use the power of the arts to foster cul- tural cohesion. So we wondered, what if we expanded the scope of Sangam’s work to include all cultures that have made their home in Silicon Valley and all the art forms on which each cul- ture thrived? Suddenly, the potential for wider appeal, for one-ness, and for meaningful interaction between cultures, seemed more attainable. We trusted in the power of the arts to stem the tide of divisiveness and began a new grassroots initiative under Sangam Arts called Mosaic. A mosaic is a pattern made of stone, tile or glass produced by arrang- ing together small pieces of material called tesserae. The absence of even a single tessera, either by error or omis- sion leaves a mosaic unmanifested. We believe that in the gloriously diverse and culture-rich Bay Area, sig- nificant cohesion is possible through deliberately commissioned intercul- tural works of art: works that do not aim to erase nor exclude distinctions, but instead, allow them to softly grow and gain familiarity together, to fill an otherwise yawning gap, and forming a mosaic that is greater than the sum of its parts. Mosaic programming uses the arts to help create a sense of belong- ing for all who live, work, play, and pray in our community. While all of us appreciate the diversity in Silicon Valley, there remain huge pockets of segregated lives. Not everybody is included in the same way. Economic opportunity has made us disregard histories and has even contributed to the displacement of several communi- ties. For example, residents who have
OUR EVOLUTION FROM SANGAM TO MOSAIC
he Ethnic Dance Festi- val showcase experience brought two important realizations – 1) The richness and beauty of dance wasn’t unique to the Terpsicho-
rean talents of the Indian diaspora. The Bay Area was home to many culturally distinct communities with vibrant dance forms being practiced at the highest levels – albeit within their cultural silos. 2) Festivals are a wonderful plat- form for acknowledgement and rep- resentation of cultures. However, creating collaborative works that tell meaningful stories for audiences with varying degrees of familiarity with the art forms and fostering a lasting connection between the communities they represent requires greater invest- ment of time, money and purposeful curation. This awareness led us to our foray into intercultural presentation Dances of Devotion featuring traditional Cambodian classical-dance master artist Charya Burt and renowned Indian-Bharatanatyam exponent Lavanya Ananth. Then came Confer- ence of the Birds in 2016, in partner- ship with Enacte Arts, which brought together over 60 dancers and actors from 12 traditions ranging from Folklorico and Kathak to Hula and Aztec dance in a multicultural, multi- disciplinary rendition of the Sufi alle- gory scripted by the legendary Jean- Claude Carrière. The lead-up to the 2016 elections laid bare the tatters in the social
o what does this look like in practice? One of our first productions under the Mosaic Sili- con Valley umbrella was RaasLorico , a collabora-
tive work between Indian folk-dance (Raas) artist Srividya Eashwar, (Artis- tic Director of Xpressions) and Mex- ican Folklorico artist Arturo Magana
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In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
u n i f y s t r e n g t h e n amp l i f y u n i f y s t r e n g t h e n a p l i f y
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