The Silk Road Dance Hall began as an exercise space modeled after the kiva, a semi-underground temple of the Hopi Indians. Currently, it is used for concerts, dance performances, and as a small theater hall. In the future, we hope to develop it into a venue for the performing arts.
In 1981, a dance hall framed with red wood and glass-walled, allowing glimpses into the street, was born in a corner of Chinatown. As the cityscape, lifestyles, and the people who frequented it changed, it was forced to close in 1993, but it reopened in April 2001 next to the site of the old dance hall.
The new dance hall, built on the first basement floor, is modeled after the "kiva," a sacred place of Native Americans. Local Native Americans seclude themselves in the semi-underground "kiva," accessed from the roof, and embrace the earth, composing festival lyrics, singing songs, learning dances, listening to stories, weaving cloth, meditating, and purifying their bodies. In short, it is a place where a new soul is reborn, a space of creation. We would like to consider the activities of this Silk Road Dance Hall with the understanding that it takes a long journey of 10 or 20 years for a single idea to sprout, bloom, and plant its seeds.
