sbrobert
By Robert Bernstein
Yulia Maluta is a versatile dance star in our community. She is also a choreographer and event creator. She recently staged her “Colors of Love” event at the Center Stage Theater as she has done many times before.
Beth Amine is a local artist, famed for her whale painting on Stearns Wharf, as well as being a dancer, choreographer and event organizer. Beth was Emcee for the event.
Here Yulia (L) and Beth (R) posed together.
Here are my photos! Here are my many videos!
The event kicked off with a powerful series of rapid fire performances:
- Breath of Passion
- Nan Sun Dancers
- Sleeve Dance (Chinese Classical)
- “Belly Dancers in Da House” with Cris! Basimah
Not everything at the show was dancing in the usual sense. Mariano Silva led his “Ancestral Language” drumming performance.
You will recognize Mariano from his annual appearance with his Brazilian dancers ensemble in Solstice. Notice Caterina in the leopard outfit near the center. She returned to dance later.
Cris! Basimah (yes, her name officially contains an exclamation point!) has boundless energy and creativity, so she was back for multiple dance creations.
Here she was with her Belly Dance Land ensemble with a Latin-Arabic Belly Dance Fusion.
Ruslan Maliev and Ellen Chang performed their Dancehall Fusion piece “Mona Lisa”.
Vasily Golovin and Jatila Van Der Veen are also versatile star dance performers in our community. Here they performed the Legend Of Boba Fett And Fennec Shand from “Star Wars”.
I have to include April Rai performing “Golden Times” (Classical Belly Dance) in my set here because this video received hundreds of views before I even wrote anything up about this show!
The dance was choreographed by Alexandra Starodubova.
Choreographer Nan Sun created several dances for this show. Including this solo performance by Chelsea Miao.
Chelsea entered the theater with Merlie and me and we wondered how that tall hairdo would work in the audience! She thoughtfully sat in the back row!
As noted above, drummer Caterina Malinowski was back for several dance performances. Including this “Tango Of Two Roses” with Yulia Maluta. This also already has had hundreds of views!
Krischana is a belly dancer and choreographer and a dance teacher based in Santa Ynez. She is also an extraordinary costume designer.
Here is her “Myth Of A Goddess” Tribal Belly Dance, which shows off all of her skills and talents. This has already received nearly a thousand views.
This Contemporary Soul piece was called “It’s Complicated”
Hector Sanchez choreographed this dance and performed it with Carolina Villa, Alejandro Navarro and Ava Lara. This Afro Cuban Contemporary Salsa is called “Agua”.
Nilay Engin has received numerous awards for her belly dancing. She came all the way from Bakersfield to perform her Modern Turkish Romani dance “Saksuka”.
Did I mention she is also an engineer and project manager?
But there is more! Terrill Carter did some singing performances.
I cannot include all of my videos and photos here, so please look at the others from the list above. But I will end with this video of Beth Amine calling out the various performers for a finale.
For more details about this wonderful event, here is the full program: https://swt.org/events/colorsoflove-2023-0826/program/ColorsOfLoveProgram-2023-0826.pdf
This event was a fundraiser for Transform Through Arts.
For more information: https://www.transformthrougharts.org/
