Free sacred dance workshop offered

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Sept. 30, 2016) The public is invited to participate in a free sacred dance workshop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at California Lutheran University.

The Fall Sacred Dance Celebration will be held in the dance studio inside Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center on the Thousand Oaks campus.

Alleluia Dance Theater, a nonprofit corporation that has spent nearly four decades encouraging people in their spiritual journeys through movement, will lead the workshop. It will cover sacred drumming in addition to contemporary Christian liturgical dance.

Cal Lutheran’s Theatre Arts Department is sponsoring the event with the help of an experiential learning grant from the university’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship. Students in Cal Lutheran’s Introduction to Dance class, which covers the history of dance, will attend the workshop alongside community members.

Participants can bring lunch or purchase one on campus to eat during the break from noon to 1 p.m.

Donations to Alleluia Dance Theater will be accepted. Founded in 1977, the Christian nonprofit corporation provides dance retreats and classes for people of all faiths. Company members also perform in concerts, worship services and celebrations.

Alleluia Dance Theater’s founding director and current administrative director, Stella Shizuka Matsuda, earned her master’s degree in education from Cal Lutheran and retired as the director of dance at Moorpark College in 1997. She was principal dancer with Gloria Newman Dance Theatre for 15 years, is the former president of the International Sacred Dance Guild and has taught and performed throughout the United States and Canada for various churches, organizations and festivals. She currently teaches dance and tai chi in the Conejo Valley.

Reservations are requested by Oct. 7. To RSVP or for more information, contact Barbara Wegher-Thompson at wegher@callutheran.edu or 805-241-8515.