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Folk Dance Federation of California, South, Inc.
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THIS IS HISTORICAL INFORMATION ONLY
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Anthony Shay was the artistic director of a folk dance performance group at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) called the Village Dancers. According to Dr. Shay, "The transition to the AMAN Folk Ensemble was actually only a name change. The same dancers who were in the Village Dancers in the summer of 1963 were performing under the AMAN name in late summer 1963." The newly named group was headed by Dr. Shay and Leona Wood as artistic directors and Philip Harland as music director. Shay held the position from 1963 until 1977, when he left the company to form AVAZ International Dance Theatre. The legacy was continued under the forceful but superb artistic direction of Barry Glass.
From its auspicious beginning to its demise, AMAN was home to more than five hundred dancers, singers, musicians, and administrative staff. During much of its time AMAN gave workshops and performances throughout Southern California to more than fifty-thousand young people, their teachers, and their parents each year.
In their May-June 2004 issue of FolkWorks magazine, Leda and Steve Shapiro wrote, "AMAN Folk Ensemble has officially announced it is closing its doors," and quoted former Artistic Director Rosina Didyk as saying, "We thought about dancing with recorded music to cut costs, but that's not who we are or what we do. None of AMAN's performers or staff were willing to sacrifice the quality of performances just to make it through economic times like this."
AMAN decided to complete its Spring 2004 season with its "Building Family Bonds Through Dance" workshops on the final financial dregs of a grant from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. In April, 2004, the company closed its doors.
AMAN's vast collection of original recordings, videos, photos, and press clippings are now part of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive Collection and UCLA's University Archives.
The AMAN Folk Ensemble Orchestra produced 7 long-play albums of folk dance music and songs.
AMAN LP-101 |
AMAN LP-102 |
AMAN LP-103 |
AMAN LP-104 |
AMAN LP-105 |
AMAN LP-106 |
AMAN LP-34 |