About Us

The Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization where the world comes to dance.

We approach dance as a manifestation of the human spirit, rather than merely a collection of movements. Our students are encouraged to explore and celebrate their cultural differences and common humanity.

Māhealani Uchiyama - Director
Māhealani Uchiyama is an award-winning dancer, musician, composer, choreographer, recording artist, author and teacher. She is the founder and director of the Māhea Uchiyama Center for International Dance in Berkeley and is Kumu Hula of Hālau KaUaTuahine. She is the creator and director of the Kāpili Polynesian Dance and Music Workshops and the African American Mbira Project. She holds a BA in Dance Ethnology and an MA in Pacific Islands Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi. She trained in traditional hula and Tahitian ʻori under the late Kumu Hula (hula master) Joseph Kamōha’i Kahā’ulelio.

A teacher and performer of Polynesian music and dance for over 40 years, her passion and mastery of Hawaiian and Tahitian performing arts has led to numerous concert tours to Tahiti, New Zealand and the islands of Hawai’i. Major musical appearances include the Hollywood Bowl, Te Papa Tongareva National Museum of New Zealand, and the San Francisco Opera House. She has taught workshops throughout the United States and Mexico. She was professor of Hawaiian Language at Stanford University.

She has participated in and been awarded top honors in competitions in California as well as in Hawaiʻi, including the King Kamehameha Hula and Chant Competition in Honolulu, and Kū Mai Ka Hula on Maui.

In addition to awards for excellence in Hawaiian and Tahitian dance, she is the recipient of the Aloha Spirit Award and has been presented the “Ke Kanaka Poʻokela” Award by the Berkeley Hawaiian Music Festival. She has been honored by the City of Berkeley with a proclamation declaring January 22, 2019 as Māhealani Uchiyama Day.

Māhealani has contributed a chapter on the hula for the publication Dancing on the Earth, Womenʻs Stories of Healing and Dance, (McMaster and Lesho) authored the Haumāna Hula Handbook for Students of Hawaiian Dance, as well as the book The Mbira, An African Musical Instrument, (both published by North Atlantic Books / Penguin Random House).

Māhealani has produced numerous recordings of traditional Hawaiian and Tahitian music. Her CD “Tatau” has been widely used by Polynesian dance organizations worldwide. She also has two recordings of mbira, the spiritual music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, “Ndoro dze Madzinza” and “The Sky That Covers Us All”. Her CD “A Walk by the Sea” was awarded a Hawai’i Music Award for Best World Music Album. She has recently released her 8th CD, “Pasifika”.

Ms. Uchiyama has served on the panel of judges for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and the Tahiti Fete of San Jose and Hilo. She is the former President of the Board of Directors of World Arts West, and former Co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, a nationally acclaimed event recognized for making the Bay Area “the epicenter for dance from over 100 unique world cultures, resulting in the most vibrant and diverse dance community in the world.” She also serves as Vice President of Mbira The Non-Profit, an organization dedicated to the perpetuation of Shona music.

Recently, Ms. Uchiyama has been an instructor of Hawaiian Dance at Gambia Academy.

In addition to performances for MUCID, Ms. Uchiyama has produced the Mitambo Festival of Shona Music at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center and the Full series at the Berkeley Film Archive, featuring artists such as Hālau o Keikialiʻi, Miriam Peretz and Melanie DeMore.

Staff

Lori Cheatham - Administrative Assistant
Clarisse Tēhau Choy – Instructor of Hawaiian Language
Alison Hurley - Front Desk Assistant
Amy ʻIlikea Santana - Instructor of Beginning Level Hula and ʻOri Tahiti

Board of Directors

Sharada Bose

Sharada Bose is a seasoned technologist from the Silicon Valley, with a career spanning corporate leadership roles as well as entrepreneurial ventures. After 24 years in various roles/products at Hewlett-Packard (HP), she shifted her career to start-ups and is a founding member of Way.com. Her experience spans technology, operations, business development, growth strategies including securing funding across both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Sharada is passionate about social causes including empowerment of women, elimination of racism and promoting the arts. Sharada is a patron of the performing arts, a dance critic, a dance teacher and Chairs of the Board at Abhinaya Dance Company. She performed her arangetram (solo dance debut) with Mythili Kumar, Artistic Director of Abhinaya Dance Company in 1997. Sharada received her BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from Oregon State University (OSU), and a BA in English from Madras University, India. In 2017 she was inculcated into the Academy of Distinguished Engineers at OSU and in 2020 she was honored with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alumni Award. Sharada serves on the Board of Trustees of OSU’s Foundation and the Board of Directors of OSU’s Alumni Association. A resident of Silicon Valley, Sharada enjoys traveling and outdoor activities.

Edwardo Madril

Eddie Madril is a member of the Pascua Yaqui tribe of the Sonora Desert region. He is an active member of the Native American community and a representative of his culture through various aspects: as a dancer, singer, teacher, playwright and filmmaker. For over 35 years, his involvement and commitment to Native heritage has provided him with the opportunity to share a wealth of information amongst diverse communities. His work has included the presentation of assemblies and residencies in schools and universities across the United States, working with students and encouraging the development of appreciation and respect for American Indian dance, music, culture, and history. He is the founder of Sewam American Indian Dance, a performing arts organization dedicated to Native American arts, education and cultural exchange, bringing together both contemporary and traditional Native dance and music to produce inspiring and visually stunning presentations. As an individual artist, he was nominated for the prestigious Isadora Duncan Dance Award as a soloist for his Hoop dance presentation in the play "Sun Dagger Solstice" and was nominated with Sewam Dance for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for outstanding visual design for the groups’ presentation of “Origins”.

Currently, Eddie teaches American Indian studies and Native American studies at San Francisco State University, College of Marin, and Mills College at Northeastern. He's been invited to guest lecture at many universities across the country including Tufts University in Boston, Harvard University, Stanford University, and Bowling Green State University in Ohio, among others.

Patrick Makuakane

Kumu Patrick Makuakāne is the founder and director of Hālau Nā Lei Hulu I ka Wēkiu of San Francisco, California. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, Kumu Patrick studied with several of Hawaiʻiʻs most revered hula masters, John Keola Lake, Robert Uluwehi Cazimero and Mae Kamāmalu Klein. In 2003, he received the title of Kumu Hula through a traditional ʻūniki ʻailolo ceremony curated by Mrs. Klein. While passionate preserver of traditional hula, his artistry also crafts a provocative treatment of tradition that leaps forward in surprising and meaningful ways. In 2022, Kumu Patrick was given a special Lifetime Achievement Kulia I Ka Nuʻu Award from the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce of Northern California. He currently serves as the spiritual and cultural advisor for the Native Hawaiian Religious Spiritual Group at San Quentin State Prison. Recipient of numerous prestigious awards and honors for his innovative choreography, he was most recently named a 2023 MacArthur Fellow.

Mosheh Milon

Baba Mosheh Milon is a master drummer and percussionist in Oakland, California. A “Tan-Tan Jali Ba” (keeper of the traditions of African drums and culture) he shares traditional drumming and culture with at-risk youth, adults and anyone willing to learn. He is the leader of Bantaba, an organization taking its name from a Mandingo term that describes the “community circle and gathering place for all important events”: Baba Mosheh institutes this in every class he teaches and to the communities he serves.

Suhaila Salimpour

Second-generation Middle Eastern (Kurdish, Sicilian, and Greek) American belly dancer Suhaila Salimpour is best known not only for creating the first certification program in belly dance in the world, but also for the global influence of her own format on belly dance performance and instruction. Just like her mother’s belly dance step vocabulary, the Suhaila Salimpour Format has inspired thousands of dancers around the world. Her students approach belly dancing as a performing art worthy of dedication and serious study. They train with intention to responsibly represent the dance, the music, and the culture from which it originates. Suhaila’s work has been recognized by leaders in other dance forms for its depth and innovation, preserving the essence of belly dance while bringing it into the 21st century with grace and integrity.