The Lindy on Sproul folks put on a free dance every Saturday afternoon (12 to 2ish) and three…read moreFriday nights a semester (9 to midnight). They have a decent portable outdoor sound system, and play a great variety of very danceable music. The crowd is mostly young (a lot of Berkeley students and recent graduates), and pretty friendly; people don't always ask newcomers to dance, but always cheerfully oblige when I do the asking. The only thing I don't like, though unavoidable for an outside dance, is dancing on the pavement, which makes pivots and spins hard for someone who is used to dancing on a wood floor. Overall, though, Lindy on Sproul is a lot of fun, and one of only a few good regular places to swing dance in the East Bay. And it's free! I kind of wish I'd gotten into dancing while I was a student and spent more time on that side of town, but I'm still hoping to make it part of my weekend routine...

Lindy on Sproul is a popular almost-weekly swing dance event in the heart of the Berkeley UC…read morecampus. The dance happens on Fridays and Saturdays. The Friday event is not weekly, consult the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/LindyonSproul/ for the dates. The Saturday event apparently happens "rain or shine". I have attended both, so this review consists of two parts. Attendance is free, so are the lessons. Review for the Saturday event: Dance lessons start at 11:45AM (not precisely) and go on until approximately 12:30PM. Typically (not always!) two lessons are held: one for absolute beginners, one for intermediate dancers (the latter assumes that the regular swingouts are not an issue for the participants). After 12:30PM, the dance party starts. The general dance ends at approximately 2:30PM. The logistics: dance area is asphalt: keep your good shoes at home and be easy on your and your partner's knees. The dance happens on the "Upper Sproul". The shaded area is minimal, so sunscreen is a must on sunny days. This is not the best time for parking in the downtown Berkeley; I try to use the Telegraph-Channing garage (about $6), but expect that better deals might be available. There is no water, so bring your own water bottle. The music came from a single speaker, sufficient for a small group. The crowd is small: about 15-30 dancers, with significant imbalance between leads and follows (I have seen imbalance going both ways, recently there were way too many leads). Coupled with a high socialization element (read: ladies chatting in the shade), this creates an issue for an outsider lead, like me; bringing your own partner is recommended. Most dancers are intermediate to quite advanced, few are absolute beginners. This being Berkeley, there were few female leads and male follows, so be sure to check the preference when inviting a new person for the first time. The fun: like the Lindy in the Park (Golden Gate), this is a very public event, as it happens in the middle of a thoroughfare of the Berkeley campus . Your moves are thus frequently immortalized by multiple people taping the dance on their cell phones. I have also invited the onlookers to dance (with a mixed success). Small size of the group provides an opportunity to dance with few truly outstanding follows. Overall: the four stars are an average between close to five stars for a regular hailing from UCB and at most three stars for an outsider. For the latter, the event is not worth attending if any significant driving time is involved. Review for the Friday event: Dance lessons start at 8PM, dance floor opens at 9PM, pretty much on time. Berkeley is known for endorsing all sorts of questionable things but waging a war on car transportation, so allow 15-20 minutes for parking: the Friday evening in Berkeley is exactly the wrong time for this activity. Note that some of the garages close early and are thus unsuitable. Your best bet is the Telegraph-Channing garage ($4 flat fee) if it is not full. Once parked in this garage, exit toward Durant street, and you will be less than two blocks from the event. The dancing happens outdoors in the Upper Sproul area, literally on the street pavement. The pavement of the dance area consists of somewhat smooth bricks interspersed with bands of stone that provide very good friction - and make the turns hard. I generally preferred to stay on the bricks, which made some of the more complex moves possible. Still, this surface is hard on your shoes - and even harder on your knees. Keep your good shoes at home and limit your pivots. DJ music sound is pretty good for an outdoor venue. On the night I visited three DJs provided a good variety of music. There are two lessons, one for absolute beginners (at the bottom of the stairs in the future dance area), and one for more advanced dancers (at the top of the stairs on an even more atrocious surface). Both lessons are going at a quite slow pace, so dress warm on the cold nights. The crowd of about 100 dancers consists primarily of Berkeley students with a fairly large proportion of the beginners yet included few truly great follows (and, presumably, leads). The ratio of leads and follows is about even; with some leads abstaining from many dances this makes for a slightly more follows actually willing to dance in the beginning. By the end of the dance the situation evens out. Note for the beginner follows: do not sit on the stone steps in a 60-degree night, as you can get quite cold: more than one follow was very obviously freezing by the time I invited them to dance. There is no water provided, so bring your own water bottle.

The Street School Artist Collective, or SSAC, is creating some of the best original,…read morethought-provoking stage art that San Francisco has seen in years. With a talented cast of various artists, from writers, actors, and musicians to technicians, and chapters in both SF and LA, the SSAC is poised for a breakout in the near future. Check their website for upcoming shows; you won't be disappointed!

Ben is such a talented musician, we were really spoilt to have him MC'ing and DJ'ing our Son's Bar…read moreMitzvah. Not only did Ben, play and sing beautifully, but we also really enjoyed working with and getting to know Ben. Ben made our event so special and the whole family fell in love with him.

Ben's band played (wonderfully) at our wedding 9 years ago. When our son, now 8, decided he wanted…read moreto learn how to play Mandolin (he got the idea after having been to a Dan Zanes show), we contacted Ben to see if he gives lessons. He does. Very good ones. He has been an enthusiastic and creative teacher; he takes his work seriously and is a real professional, but he is fun and patient enough to deal with an 8-year-old boy. Our son's music is a real joy for us to hear (getting him to practice regularly: not always such a joy...) and I recommend Ben very highly.

After seeing the one women show on the evolution of a kiss I'm hooked on this underground, artsy…read moreand rootsy little gem of a place. I pledged that 2010 is the year I support all types of local artists from music to acting and everything above, below and in between. I will be back soon. This studio is so small and cozy you can hear the person next to you breathe... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/13/NSU01BFN5U.DTL&type=performance followed by the

Reviewing the dance studio as opposed to the performances that happen here. I came here for some…read moredance-based classes (dance/yoga/martial arts mix class). The studio itself is quite nice. Beautiful wood floors, full length mirrors. And the studio also has an airy feel with large windows on one end, and a window with a view to downtown on the other. It's a unique feel - it's not the best of neighborhoods outside - you find this almost random door in the warehouse-y district, go up a narrow flight of stairs, and through a door that's right onto the dance floor (no counter or anything here - you enter right into the dance studio itself). Bathroom is a door right off the dance area, pretty much. Medium size dance floor (maybe 1000 sq foot or so). So a small-time feel. Some problems with the sound system, but once it was resolved all was fine. So perhaps an anomaly. Not a bad place to take a class.

MISSION IN THE MIX HIP HOP PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP - A LESSON IN DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS…read more The first time I encountered Micaya was about 8 years ago. I never took her class before. The piece she was doing for her class was Black Sheep's "The Choice is Yours", a song I remembered from my high school days. I really got into the choreography of the piece in class. I didn't know at that time she was doing the piece in preparation for the Mission in the Mix Performance Workshop. I eventually saw the showcase. During the 10 minute piece one of the songs was that Black Sheep song with the same choreography I learned in class. After watching that performance in the showcase I knew I wanted to participate in the performance workshop. After the showcase I was taking Micaya's intermediate hip hop class weekly for the next 3 years, but I never participated in the workshop due to scheduling conflicts. I finally was able to participate in the workshop in 2011. I ended up participating in the workshop two more times in 2013 and 2015. Each year there's a different theme. In 2011 the theme was basketball. In 2013 there was a wedding theme, which was fitting as my sister was getting married that year. This past year the theme was a professional kitchen, which was my favorite theme of all three. The theme was fitting as most of my Yelp reviews are on food eateries. For a costume I bought myself a black chalk line apron at a thrift store. I envisioned my character as a chef. Being into character when I performed I would try to seduce the females in the audience with an intent to show that if a man can't cook and dance he doesn't know how to make love to a woman. LOL. What I love about this workshop is the repetition of rehearsals and performances. The length of this workshop is 8 weeks from May to June. You get 6 weekends of rehearsal where you learn choreography that you'll perform in the showcase in a 10 minute piece. The last two weeks of the workshop you perform 6 times in front of the audience at the Dance Mission. I can't reiterate how the number of performances are vital. I participated in other hip hop performance workshops where you get to only perform once. You can't do anything well if you do it just once. The more you perform the more you get better. The price of other workshops is about the same as this one. Ask yourself would you perform just once or 6 times for almost the same price? For those who are aspiring to become dancers who need to gain experience I can't think of another workshop besides Mission in the Mix where you'll get a lot of experience in performing. For those who aren't aspiring to become dancers but want to have fun performing participate in this workshop as you'll definitely get your money's worth. If there were 6 stars I would give 6 stars for performing 6 times.

"STRONGER BETTER FASTER STRONGER"…read more I saw them last night at Yerba Buena cente rfor the Art's Yelp Holiday party - and was BLOWN away. Super innovative, fresh, and inspiring. SoulForce Dance Company was created in 2001 by choreographer, teacher and SF Hip Hop DanceFest producer Micaya. Not your average hip hop dance company, SoulForce is a company not afraid to take artistic risks and fuse other dance styles and theatre into their repertoire. I mean - they got some FREAKY SHIT goin' on. Micayas' choreography and SoulForce dancers have been featured in music videos, touring productions, nightclubs,cabarets, festivals, corporate events, colleges, theatres and commercials. Described as "witty, dramatic and emotionally nuanced" by Dance Magazine, this dynamic group brings together dancers of diverse backgrounds to create inspiring works on stage. Wanna take classes? BEGINNING: Thursdays, 6:00-7:15pm, Dance Mission, San Francisco Saturdays, 12:00-1:15pm, ODC Dance Commons, San Francisco INTERMEDIATE: Tuesdays, 8:00-9:15pm, Dance Mission, San Francisco Thursdays, 8:00-9:15pm, ODC Dance Commons, San Francisco For more info about SoulForce, Micaya's classes; her website at: www.micaya.com

This symphonic orchestra "provides a safe and supportive environment for musicians of all sexual…read moreorientations, gender identities, and gender expressions." Tonight they had their first performance. It was fun! Most pieces were things I had heard before (beside the one that as premiered!) - and liked. I think the orchestra has room for improvement, but I am impressed how far they have come in a short time! I am looking forward to a coming season with concerts! I am happy to have been part of a night where the ranks of LGBT music has a new spiring branch!

So I have to say this first, the symphony itself was great and I really enjoyed everything…read more This complaint is more about the marketing department. I won the the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony Sweepstakes sponsored by Pebble Beach Food and Wine. I was really excited and could not wait to go. However, the marketing department did not give me any information and never contacted, as they said they would do, until the day before the event. On top of that they lied about sending me this information, which they did not, I search my email spam and everything. Just very disappointing that I could not go since I had no time to give my employer a notice about taking the next two days off from work.

"Alicia has been my guide on several healing journeys, each one travelled different ground; each…read moreone required different "tools"; each one resonated with the issue at hand. Alicia has the magical gift to be completely present with me, to ask me questions and she has the willingness & compassion to hold the space for me as I connect to my higher self and take my next steps. She has the highest integrity and can also help me laugh and cry. I am so grateful to have found Alicia and look forward to working with her again."

Oh wow! Just emerged from an intensive three-day workshop led by Alicia Dattner on how to develop a…read moresolo show. A gifted performer and teacher, Alicia knows how to share her abundant knowledge and her skills in a non-threatening way, all in a safe space that encourages creativity. If you are interested in learning how to put together a solo show, allow this talented, warm-hearted veteran of the stage to show you the way.

Imagine "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" updated, with a wicked sense of humor. The "urban twang",…read morefantastic lyrics, and a top-notch stage presence make this mostly female group a favorite of mine. They play around the Bay Area on a regular basis, and if you go to their website and join their email list, sometimes you can catch a low-cost or even free show. They're excellent musicians, but if you listen to the lyrics, you'll find these women are poets, too.