Wanda's Picks Radio Show: Dimensions Rites of Passage @20

We speak this morning to Latanya d. Tigner who has been with Dimensions since 1986, studying and performing traditional West and South African dance, modern, contemporary, jazz, Haitian, Cuban, and Congolese dance. She has traveled to Cuba, Guinea, Brazil, Jordan, Germany, and throughout the U.S. Latanya was selected as one of three emerging artists for the first annual Black Choreographers Here and Now Festival in 2005. This past summer she participated in Urban Bush Women’s acclaimed Summer Leadership Institute in New Orleans, where she worked with dancers and other social activists to serve the New Orleans community. She also did a residency with Shaka Zulu to study the traditions of mask dance in New Orleans. Latanya is the artistic diector and choreographer for Dimensions‘ youth ensemble, Dimensions Extensions Performing Ensemble (DEPE). She joins us to talk about the 20th Anniversary performance of Rites of Passage, Sunday, Dec. 5, 3 p.m. in Oakland. Visit www.dimensionsdance.org

We close with two archival interviews, the first with director, Haifa Al Mansour. Her film Wadjda is the first film by a Saudi woman (2013). We close with an interview with the former director of the Museum of the African Diaspora, Grace C. Stanislaus. Our conversation with Ms. Stanilaus is about the exhibit Desert Jewels.

Music: Gina Breedlove's  "Breathe" and "Wind."