The Asia Pacific Dance Festival offers a dynamic lineup of events over two immersive weeks. From classes and conferences to captivating performances, our thoughtfully curated programs provide something for everyone. Click here for Asia Pacific Dance Festival Intensive

Schedule of Events

May 19, 2025

9:00am - Intensive: Check-in & Welcome Breakfast
UHM Dance Building

9:30am - Intensive: Arzoo Dance Theatre
UHM Dance Building

11:00am - Intensive: Pua Ali'i 'Ilima
UHM Dance Building

2:00pm - Intensive: Rako Pasefika
UHM Dance Building

May 20, 2025

9:30am - Intensive: Arzoo Dance Theatre
UHM Dance Building

11:00am - Intensive: Pua Ali'i 'Ilima
UHM Dance Building

2:00pm - Intensive: Rako Pasefika
UHM Dance Building

May 21, 2025

9:30am - Intensive: Arzoo Dance Theatre
UHM Dance Building

11:00am - Intensive: Pua Ali'i 'Ilima
UHM Dance Building

2:00pm - Intensive: Rako Pasefika
UHM Dance Building

May 22, 2025

9:30am - Intensive: Arzoo Dance Theatre
UHM Dance Building

11:00am - Intensive: Pua Ali'i 'Ilima
UHM Dance Building

2:00pm - Intensive: Rako Pasefika
UHM Dance Building

7:30pm - Living the Art of Hula
John F. Kennedy Theatre, Main Stage

May 23, 2025

10:00am - Intensive: Field Trip

The Asia Pacific Dance Festival Intensive is a unique two-week experience that gives participants an opportunity to expand their awareness and understanding by learning about specific cultures in Hawai'i, Asia, and Pacific through an embodied approach directly from renowned artists and cultural practitioners.

Students will experience hula and Hawaiian culture as a way of life through place-based learning, as Na Mokupuni o Hawai'i Nei (the Hawaiian Islands) is the home of the Kanaka '?iwi (Native Hawaiians). The 2025 APDF Intensive will also feature teachers from Fiji and India. Since the Hawaiian Islands host Fijian and Indian diasporas, participants will have the opportunity to engage with local Fijian and Indian communities through field trips and community events.

The Intensive aims to provide a comprehensive learning experience for participants that includes movement, music, history, language, and cultural elements rooted in the places and lands from which these dance forms originate.

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May 25, 2025

2:00pm - Local Motion!
John F. Kennedy Theatre, Main Stage

May 27, 2025

9:30am - Intensive: Arzoo Dance Theatre
UHM Dance Building

11:00am - Intensive: Pua Ali'i 'Ilima
UHM Dance Building

2:00pm - Intensive: Rako Pasefika
UHM Dance Building

May 28, 2025

9:30am - Intensive: Arzoo Dance Theatre
UHM Dance Building

11:00am - Intensive: Pua Ali'i 'Ilima
UHM Dance Building

2:00pm - Intensive: Rako Pasefika
UHM Dance Building

May 29, 2025

9:30am - Intensive: Arzoo Dance Theatre
UHM Dance Building

11:00am - Intensive: Pua Ali'i 'Ilima
UHM Dance Building

2:00pm - Intensive: Rako Pasefika
UHM Dance Building

May 30, 2025

9:30am - Intensive: Arzoo Dance Theatre
UHM Dance Building

11:00am - Intensive: Pua Ali'i 'Ilima
UHM Dance Building

2:00pm - Intensive: Rako Pasefika
UHM Dance Building

4:00pm - Conference Registration Open
John F. Kennedy Theatre, Outside

5:00pm - APDF Keynote
John F. Kennedy Theatre, Main Stage

6:00pm - Welcoming Ceremony
Friendship Circle

May 31, 2025

8:45am
Conference: Welcome Breakfast & Coffee at Burns Hall
Conference Registration Open at Burns Hall

9:20am - Paper Session 1 - Performing Precarity: Labor, Identity, and Structures in Asia
Burns Hall 2125

10:30am - Panel Discussion: "Identities and Passages"
Burns Hall 2063

11:40am - Paper Session 2 - Performing In-Between: Negotiating Identity, Memory, and Change
Burns Hall 2125

12:40pm - Conference: Lunch
Burns Hall

1:30pm
- Paper Session 3 - From Silence to Resonance: Sounding and Dancing Ancestral Memory
Burns Hall 2063
- Workshop Performances atEarle Ernst Lab Theatre

3:15pm: Paper Session 4 - Embodied Revolutions: Dance, Decolonization, and Societal Shifts
Burns Hall 2125

7:30pm - 'Ike Hana I Concert
John F. Kennedy Theatre, Main Stage

June 1, 2025

9:00am - Conference Registration Open
John F. Kennedy Theatre, Outside

10:00am - Roundtable Discourse: "Hulihia," Community, and Reflections
Earle Ernst Lab Theatre

2:00pm - 'Ike Hana II Concert
John F. Kennedy Theatre, Main Stage

3:30pm - 'Talk Story' Panel Discussion with Artistic Directors & Guests
John F. Kennedy Theatre, Main Stage

Date: May 19-June 1, 2025

Location: Various Venues in Honolulu, HI 96822.

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