Dancing the Mural Updates

Dancing the Mural Updates

Safos will host guest artist Armando Castellano in Tucson the first week of March 2015. Mr. Castellano will return again the last week of March to take the stage with Safos for the "Dancing the Mural" performance. Welcome to the Sonoran Desert Armando!

Color the Mural Updates

Color the Mural Updates

A HUGE thank you to artist Wesley Creigh for hosting a Tequila and Art fundraiser project to benefit the Safos Dance Theatre! It was a wonderful evening of fun, friends, and art. Proceeds from the event go to providing subsidized tickets to community members who painted the mural. To date, exactly 290 community members have painted the mural. Thank you everyone for creating art with us!

Dancing the Mural: Save the Date!

Dancing the Mural posters and post cards are out!!  Look for them around Tucson and we look forward to seeing you at the show in March!

Pima County Arts Project Grant

Safos fans! We are proud to announce we received a 2014-2015 Pima County Arts Project Grant from the Tucson Pima Arts Council. For this project, choreographer Yvonne Montoya will create a dance theatre piece for senior citizens from the City of South Tucson for the "Dancing the Mural" performance in March.

Come see these talented seniors perform dances about the history of their barrio at "Dancing the Mural" March 27+28, 2015 at the House of Neighborly Service! See you there!

DANCING THE MURAL: Arlene's Story

Hear what life long City of South Tucson resident Arlene Lopez has to say about "Dancing the Mural" in this video about her involvement in the project.

DANCING THE MURAL: Fun and Friendship

At the heart of “Color the Mural” is a photo of two young boys on a playground with large smiles and laughing eyes.  It is fitting that these boys are in the center of a mural depicting the history of the House of Neighborly Service. Fondly referred to as “La Escuelita” by long-time South Tucson residents, HNS is perhaps best remembered for its now defunct preschool program, which was one of the first Head Start programs in the Tuscon area. When Los Angeles-based choreographer Hugo Diaz first saw the mural, the image of the laughing young children immediately inspired him.

“There’s nothing like playing outside with your neighborhood friends,” Hugo states. “The image of the two boys took me back to a time when all I wanted to do was be with my friends outside in the sun creating new games to play.” Hugo says that to him, the image of the boys represents “the beginnings of new things and great changes.”

Hugo will perform a duet inspired by the image of the two boys along with L.A.-based dancer Andrew Palomares. The dance will also feature two elementary school age youth performers from the John Valenzuela Youth Center. Hugo says “because this is for the community, I felt it would be a wonderful idea to invite the youth from within South Tucson to celebrate with me onstage by being a part of my piece.” He adds, “Thank you Safos Dance Theatre for this exciting opportunity to be able to showcase my first out-of-state work.”

Come check out this dance March 27+28^th at Dancing the Mural!