G.S. Sachdev studied North Indian classical bansuri (bamboo flute)  with Vijay Raghav Rao for twelve years in Delhi, India and with Pandit Ravi Shankar for eight years in Bombay, India.  In 2007, Sachdev taught apprentice, Sheela Bringi as part of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program.
Joti Singh studied Guinean dance with master artist Alseny Soumah as part of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2007. Soumah’s family taught him to dance when he was a small child in Conakry, Guinea, and he performed with a neighborhood group before dancing professionally with Ballets Merveilles and Les…
South Indian Classical Carnatic music is one of the oldest systems of music in the world. The violin found position in the Carnatic form within the last 300 years. The Lalgudi system of playing the violin is very advanced and is popular for its ability to mimic vocal music. Largely…
Ruth Yafonne Chen (San Francisco) will study Chinese Wushu (sword dance) with Ling Mei Zhang (San Francisco).  Zhang studied with masters Liu Yuhua and Lee Wenjin in Tian Jinh and became the double straight sword Wushu champion for all of China in 1975.  She has taught martial arts for over…
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Cheza Nami

African and African diaspora Arts and Culture
Musician and ethnographic researcher, Zina Bozzay founded the Hungarian Folk Singing Circle (‘Népdalkör’ in Hungarian) in 2010. An avid practitioner, she is dedicated to keeping the oral tradition alive. The Hungarian American communities in the Bay Area are active in an annual…
Filipino/Filipino-American arts and culture
The Croatian bagpipe or gajde is a common instrument in Croatian traditional music in Hungary. It is an ancient instrument with a large repertoire and several distinctive styles of playing, determined largely by the geographical/regional location of the musician. The instrument is constructed by various parts, the bag, which is…
Katsuko Teruya began studying kutuu (Okinawan koto) at the age of 18 under Nae Kochi the Senior Headmaster of the Naha Koyokai in Japan. After earning a junior teaching certificate in 1954, Katsuko moved Hawai’i but continued to study with Nae Kochi until earning the Senior Teaching Certificate in 1965. …
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David Chen

David Chen is a former choreographer and dance instructor of the Shanghai Opera and Dance Theatre. In his forty-year dance career, he performed numerous dances, as well as choreographed over thirty dances including such notable pieces as “Pantheon of Chinese Gods”, “Heroine Hua Mulan”, “Armor of the King” and “Peach-Flower…