Pepperdine to Host FAMILY ARTS FEST, Featuring Versa-Style Dance

The Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine presents its second-ever Family Arts Fest, a community event featuring arts activities and performances for children and adults, as well as museum tours and some of Los Angeles' most popular food trucks, on Saturday, March 4 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre and Gregg G. Juarez Palm Courtyard. The day will include a free performance by L.A.-based Versa-Style Dance Company.

All Family Arts Fest performances and activities are free and open to the public. Free seats for the Versa-Style performance can be reserved in advance (highly encouraged) at arts.pepperdine.edu. Food will be available for purchase from food trucks in the main parking lot. A full schedule of activities and artists will be available prior to the event at arts.pepperdine.edu.

Music and theatre performances will be presented on an outdoor main stage adjacent to the Gregg G. Juarez Palm Courtyard. Performances and participatory arts activities will also take place in the Lindhurst Theatre and Raitt Recital Hall. Children can create art projects or enjoy face painting in the courtyard.

Guided tours will be available for the exhibit of Larry Bell: Pacific Red in the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. Tours will also be available of the Center for the Arts backstage areas, including the scene shop, where construction is underway for the Fine Arts Division production of The Interference.

"We consider Family Arts Fest to be our open house for the community. We're excited to share interactive, participatory performances and arts experiences with children and families of all ages. This is a great opportunity to come to the Center for the Arts and learn more about the many ways we can all be touched, be moved, be inspired, and be transformed by the arts," said Rebecca Carson, managing director of the Center for the Arts.

The main event of the afternoon will be a performance by L.A.-based Versa-Style Dance Company, as well as an interactive dance party led by the group. Versa-Style Dance Company has some of the most committed and conscientious young artists in town, representing the diversity and beautiful complexity of Los Angeles.Their work fuses hip-hop styles such as 90s hip-hop, house, popping, locking, whacking and boogaloo, and Afro-Latin styles such as salsa, merengue, cumbia and Afro-Cuban. As a reaction to the widespread media misrepresentation of these dance forms, Versa-Style specifically performs for the youth of Los Angeles to instill the roots, history, and social and political issues surrounding the art of their generation; they aim to break down barriers of race and socio-economic backgrounds using dance to promote the freedom of expression, freedom of individuality, hard work, and self-discipline.

Check out a preview below!

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Performers and food trucks are subject to change.

IF YOU GO:

Family Arts Fest

WHEN: Saturday, March 4, 2017, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

WHERE: Smothers Theatre and Gregg G. Juarez Palm Courtyard, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA

INFORMATION: (310) 506-4522 or arts.pepperdine.edu

PRICE: Free

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