First we went to Seattle Center to see the Philipine Festival (part of an ongoing Festal weekend series at Seattle Center).
I always like colorful costumes.
Saturday turned out to be a fairly nice day, at least in Seattle. Not much rain. 5pm, we walked to Art Love Salon for a talk on Beethoven's 9th Symphony by Kunal Taravade. I really enjoyed it. Taravade is not even in music industry. He uses images and videos to talk about music. Dissecting the aspiration and structure of the 4 movements of this symphony: breaking new grounds. Before the lecture, there was even a small reception.
8pm Opening night of the 2026 Seattle International Dance Festival.
I've heard of this festival, but today is the first time I attended a performance.
This event is organized by Cyrus Khambatta, artistic director and founder of the 6 dancer company Khambatta Dance.
This is a week-long event with 2 weekends. Many local small dance groups, and some come far away.
The first work tonight is by Khambatta Dance, titled "404 - Human not found". According to Cyrus, the speech used in the dance is generated by AI. An AI robot dances with human. She's later replaced by a better model.
Second work is a 2-dancer work presented by a Korean group, MYOWNMOVE, titled "Constructed Selves". A strange piece. These two acted like with broken limbs, one dancer uses the other's limb for his/her pose. Interesting.
The last piece is a short work combining the two companies in a new choreography.
I enjoyed these dances. Afterwards, 2 dancers and the choreographers of of each team sat on stage for an Q&A. Needed an interpreter.
