Explore Cultures Around the World Through the Center
At Segerstrom Center, you don’t have to travel far to find music and dance from around the world. From our Summer Sounds concert series to Tuesday Night Dance classes, the Center is a cultural hub dedicated to educating and entertaining audiences through a wide array of cultural influences. The month of July will bring our audiences numerous genres of music and dance including mariachi, Hula, Karnatic music and African diasporic dance.
Tuesday Night Dance: Hula
Continuing our Tuesday Night Dance tradition, July will mark our first time hosting hula classes on the Plaza! Every Tuesday of the month, learn the roots and rhythms of this Indigenous Hawaiian dance practice with master teacher Toni M. Kemehana Pasion. Toni is an Inland Empire-based dancer, educator, and community organizer who specializes in these dance practices. She has extensive performance experience across Hawaii, Southern California, and throughout the Pacific Islands. Toni's work intentionalizes how indigenous worldviews, dance, and storytelling can serve as tools for connection amongst diverse groups of people.
Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles
Led by director Carlos Samaniego, Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles treats audiences to the highest level of musicality in mariachi and Mexican folklore. When they perform, they wear rainbow bowties, a symbol for what they stand for as the world’s first LGBTQ+ mariachi band. They not only create incredibly powerful mariachi music, they also tackle the issue of gay rights, especially in communities that haven’t traditionally accepted them.
Extra Ancestral
Those who witness a performance from Extra Ancestral experience a wide range of genres such as Afrobeat, Reggae, Jazz, Salsa, and many traditional African musical forms of the Diaspora. For them, music and dance is more than entertainment, they are tools for healing and empowerment in hopes of reducing the trans-generational trauma that exists in communities of color. They provide an in-depth education of temporal and geographic borders from Africa to the Americas and back, providing lessons from the past to hone tools for the future.
Aditya Prakash
Last year, Prakash’s concert at our Samueli Theater was a hit, leaving the audience entranced by his ability to modernize traditional South Indian music while staying true to its roots. A Los Angeles native, Prakash has been performing for over 20 years on some of the nation’s most prestigious stages including Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Time and time again, Prakash never fails to illuminate the unique style of Karnatic music and its emotive melodies and lyrics. Viewers leave greatly appreciating the art form whether they knew it beforehand or not.