OKC's Plaza District brings back Calderon Dance Festival in memory of beloved teacher
The Plaza District is continuing to honor the legacy of beloved teacher Shannon Calderón Primeau.
From noon to 8 p.m. May 7, the Oklahoma City arts district is hosting its second annual Calderón Dance Festival, a free, family-friendly celebration of dance, music and community.
"Part of Shannon's mission in life was to create access for anyone and everyone who wanted to dance to be able to do so. She was a very big proponent of letting folks take their dance classes, sometimes not knowing how they were going to pay, but that wasn't going to stop her from teaching them dance," Festival Director Juliana Lopez told The Oklahoman.
"Truly, the Calderón Dance Festival is a dream of Shannon's and to be able to put it on for her and in honor of her and in her name is probably one of the most special things we've all been able to do."
Who was Shannon Calderón Primeau?
Calderón Primeau was the owner and director of the Plaza District's Everything Goes Dance Studio from 1995 until her death 2015. In her two decades of teaching, she shared her love of dance with thousands of students.
"Everything she did was ahead of her time," fellow OKC dancer, teacher and choreographer Hui Cha Poos, who co-founded the festival, told The Oklahoman in a 2022 interview.
"She was bringing diversity into dance before it was cool. She was giving kids that didn't look like everybody else opportunities. She was (giving) scholarships to children that couldn't afford to go to dance."
More: Family-friendly Calderón Dance Festival in Plaza district honors beloved teacher's legacy
In fall 2014, Calderón Primeau was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive type of uterine cancer. She died May 12, 2015, at the age of 45. Her niece, Erika Vasquez, who co-founded the Calderón Dance Festival with Poos, took over the helm of Everything Goes Dance.
At her studio, Calderón Primeau passed on her passion for all forms of dance, reflecting her successful professional career as a dancer of many genres, from ballet and tap to jazz and flamenco.
She was the founder and artistic director of Flamenco Fantastico!, an official Oklahoma Artist in Residence and an instructor with the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Communities Program. She performed with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Oklahoma City Ballet and Canterbury Voices and appeared across the country with renowned OKC classical guitarist Edgar Cruz, who is performing on the festival's main stage for the second year.
What can people expect from the second Calderón Dance Festival?
The second annual Calderón Dance Festival will spotlight dance groups, dance teachers and musical acts on three stages in the Plaza District, which is on the 1700 block of NW 16th Street. A vendor market and children's area also are planned.
An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people attended the inaugural Calderón Dance Festival last year, despite unseasonably chilly May weather.
"I think by word of mouth and then also when you have someone's reputation who was as influential as Shannon, the festival drew in that many just because people knew who she was," said Plaza District Executive Director Rachael Leonhart.
"This year, we moved it from a Saturday to a Sunday, and we shortened it. ... And I really do think word has spread, and we're estimating 8,000 to 10,000 (attendees) this year."
The event will feature opportunities to both watch and learn several forms of dance.
"There are over 20 genres of dance and classes offered from Memphis Jookin to ballet to Indigenous dance to flamenco ... and they're all different levels from open for anyone to beginner, intermediate and advanced," Leonhart said.
To put on the event, the Plaza District Association is partnering with Everything Goes Dance, RACE Dance Collective, Classen SAS Dance, Capitol Hill High School Dance, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Arts Council Oklahoma City and The Groovemeant Community, an OKC hip-hop and street dance group.
The festival also will be the first partner for the new initiative OK Let’s Dance, which aims to increase public access to dance thanks to funding by the Kirkpatrick Family Fund.
“Bringing the community together is more important than ever in this moment. ... OK Let’s Dance will augment the efforts of already established and successful dance nonprofits in Oklahoma City. We could not be more excited to begin a new era for Oklahoma through the power of dance," said Larry Keigwin, a respected choreographer and Kirkpatrick Family Fund Trustee, in an email.
What dance and musical acts are performing at this year's festival?
Dance performers for this year's festival will include OKC's Ballet Folklorico Xochipilli, San Francisco-based HumanCreature DanceTheatre and Dallas street dancer Michael J. Garcia.
ReVóZo, a flamenco group from New Mexico, will be one of the event's headliners.
"They're world travelers, internationally known. They are going to be bringing a group of four — it'll be a singer, two dancers and a guitarist — to perform for us, and they're also teaching a class for flamenco earlier in the day," Lopez said.
Also among the headliners is BHdos, a company within Ballet Hispanico, the largest Latin dance cultural organization in America.
"They are a modern dance company who have traveled nationally and internationally and are quite a big deal out of New York," Lopez said.
Festivalgoers can look forward to the return of the street dance battle that was a hit last year.
"We have three guest judges from all across the region, and what we're doing is a bracket style for cash prizes. So, we're pulling in dancers from Tulsa, from Texas from here in Oklahoma City," Leonhart said. "We're also doing for first time ever a youth cypher battle. That's at 3 o'clock in the Plaza Walls courtyard, and apparently there are young dancers who have been waiting to battle each other from different cities. So, that's really cool."
The event also will feature an expanded music lineup, including Oklahoma acts Olivia Kay, Challo and headliner Aranda.
"What we heard was (people) loved the classes, loved looking at the Plaza District and seeing so many people that it's probably the first time that they've ever been to the district. But can we get a little more energy and a little more music? Sometimes when you're teaching (dance), what we learned is it can be kind of quiet ... so we're implementing that feedback," Leonhart said.
"Aranda, I think they are going to draw on more of like a rock fest crowd ... so I anticipate it's going to be quite a melting pot of Oklahomans here in the Plaza District."
Several members of Calderón Primeau's family have been involved in planning the event.
"They are with us 100% of the way on making sure that we are honoring her — their aunt, their sister, their loved one — in the right way," Lopez said.
"And I think she would be so proud."
CALDERON DANCE FESTIVAL
When: Noon to 8 p.m. May 7.
Where: Plaza District, 1700 block of NW 16th Street.
Admission: Free.
Information: https://plazadistrict.org/calderon.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC brings back Calderón Dance Festival in honor of local teacher
