By Hayley Gibson
Reporter
“Art connects people together,” festival producer Doreen Ravencroft said. “I hope at the festival we can be creative together.”
The ninth annual Waco Cultural Arts Festival will be held Friday through Sunday at Indian Spring Park as a celebration of artists, musicians and dancers coming together.
Ravencroft, who is also president of the festival board of directors, expects 18,000 people to head to Waco for the festival over the course of the weekend.
The festival is free and open to the public from the support of the non profit Cultural Arts of Waco and the White Linen Night Party fundraiser that will be held from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. today at the Brazos Ballroom of the Waco Convention Center. Tickets to the fundraiser are $35 and available at www.wacoartsfest.org.
A wide variety of artists will arrive in Waco for the three days to both sell and display their work, in addition to clay potter and muralist live demonstrations. Types of art that will be shown include painting, photography, glasswork, ceramics, two-dimensional and three-dimensional art, jewelry and digital art.
Dance and music performances will bring band Vitera to perform Saturday and popular Texas artists Sarah Hickman and Los Texas Wranglers to headline on Sunday. The music performances will begin at 6 p.m. Friday with scheduled performances of local Waco musicians. Poetry and spoken word will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Some of the most anticipated events of the festival are the many dance performances, which will include the inaugural Dance-Festival, which will be facilitated through the Waco Cultural Arts Festival and Out on a Limb Dance Co.
Brooke Schlecte, founder and artistic director of Out On a Limb Dance Co., said the Dance-Festival will be the first professional modern dance festival held in Waco.
“There’s a modern dance scene that hasn’t made it to Waco, but Wacoans will be able to see some new up-and-coming, cutting-edge dance,” Schlecte said.
Out On a Limb Dance Co. is composed of dancers from all over the country, which makes the unique company work hard to integrate their work without physically rehearsing together on a regular basis. The group primarily rehearses through videos online and receives feedback from Schlecte.
The organization of the company is not the only quality that Schlecte believes sets them apart from others.
“The movements and dances are unique because they are something different than we’ve ever seen before,” Schlecte said. “There’s a lot of connection to the dance because of the emotions and experiences that people can connect to.”
Out On a Limb Dance Co. will be joined at the festival by various other dance companies from throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Indiana.
On Sunday there will also be an open class from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the public to come and learn how to dance from professionals.
The festival will be open Friday evening, and all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Full schedules can be seen at www.wacoartsfest.org.
