About UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures (WAC)

This department was created in 1995 by the merger of the World Arts and Cultures program and UCLA’s Dance Department, the first university-based dance department in the country. The department is home to a diverse faculty of artists and scholars, drawn from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, folklore, dance, theater and performance studies. The department’s lively interdisciplinary curriculum is unified around a set of shared concerns: the significance of cultural and aesthetic diversity, both locally and worldwide; the meaning of tradition in contemporary societies; and the changing roles and responsibilities of artists.

World Arts and Cultures is an ideal environment for artists, scholars and activists interested in exploring the meaning of creative expression in the contemporary world and for dancers and choreographers seeking to expand and challenge the cultural, intellectual and political horizons of their own practice.

Faculty Bios

This program is being designed and led by WAC Department Chairperson, Angelia Leung, and faculty member, Kevin Kane. The instructors for the 2008 summer program will include:

Kevin Kane -- Knowing how essential the arts were to his own education, Kevin Kane has dedicated his career to making opportunities available and accessible to all kids.  He has worked extensively as a classroom teacher, theater and film director, choreographer, and author. Kevin holds a MFA in dance choreography from UCLA and is a Ph.D. candidate at Claremont University in the Cultural Studies Department with an emphasis in Arts in the Community.  He is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Flourish Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that funds arts and educational programs for teens in the Los Angeles area. In addition, he has been the director of the UCLA WAC Summer High School Dance Theater program  from 2006 - 08 and will return again this summer 2009.

Nehara Kalev-- creates and performs dance theater and madcap reality performance with her company, Catch Me Bird.  Nehara has harnessed her aerial dance expertise with Airealistic, has performed featured roles while touring with Diavolo, and is touring David Rousseve/Reality's 2009 premiere performances.   She attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York and has a B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. from UCLA.  Her background encompasses spoken theater, improvisation, gymnastics and aerial choreography. Nehara offers a physically rigorous class and enjoys teaching people how to live and breathe upside down.   Nehara is a word for the light that shines from your face when you are happy.

Jackie Lopez, a Los Angeles native, graduated in June 2004 from UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures. Jackie, in collaboration with Leigh Foaad, is the Artistic Director/ Choreographer of Versa-Style, a dance theater company based in Los Angeles. She is currently the program director for The Flourish Foundation, a non-profit private philanthropic organization created as a response to lack of funding in the arts. Presently, she is working with renowned Hip-Hop Director Rennie Harris in his new work titled “100 Naked Locks.” As a cultural educator, Jackie has worked with students and artists of all ages in schools, summer camps, community organizations, theater, and arts festivals. She has a wide range of knowledge and training in dance styles such as Salsa, Merengue, Cumbia, Afro- Cuban, Nigerian, and Hip-Hop. She has been working with Kevin Kane for 12 years and owes a lot of her good fortune to their partnership.

Carolina San Juan was the first person in her family to go to college and is now a PhD student at UCLA in the Department of World Arts and Cultures.  She researches American Popular Culture in the Philippines to better understand how the world understands Americans.  She has performed for over ten years and taught various classes including, Filipino Folk Dance, Tinikling Hip Hop, and classes on arts and activism.  Carolina continues to perform and teach about performance because she firmly believes that performances are the passages of peoples' lives.

Tittus Mendez was born in Coban, Guatemala and raised in Los Angeles, the middle child from a family of six.  Tittus is the first to attend a university in his family and is a World Arts and Cultures major with an emphasis in dance (salsa).  Tittus has performed at Highways (Santa Monica), The Redcat (Los Angeles), The Fringe Festival (New York), and Tecate and Mexicali (Mexico) as a member of a Los Angeles based salsa group, Contra-Tiempo. Tittus is now focusing on mastering the technique of video editing as well as other forms of dance. Having both law enforcement knowledge and street knowledge, Tittus hopes to one day create his own film based on the similarities of the Project System and the Prison System using dance and theater as a tool of expression.

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