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The logistics obviously were formidable. This first exposure to Mikaya’s organizational skills also displayed more constant adolescent rapid fire bumps and grinds than probably marked San Francisco’s entire burlesque history. A five performance weekend with BART to Walnut Creek in four days stretches the energies, rivaling a ballet competition marathon; fellow colleague Rita Felciano does it regularly.

Before both programs the performers horsed around on stage in full view of the audience, warming up, showing off their skills to the audience, revving up the response. The performers also made absolutely clear the multi-cultural spread of the hip-hop phenomenon, in San Francisco and across the continent.

For Program A I counted 168 joyfully gyrating bodies, including San Jose’s DS Players; Mop Top from New York; Elements of Motion from Colorado, Lux Aeterna Dance Company, Los Angeles and Chicago’s Chicago Footwork KINGSz.

Future Shock displayed a remarkable fusion of groups from Oakland, San Jose and Marin, young, simply dressed with a sky blue dash somewhere, moving on and off stage with amazing cohesion, managing a united expression and setting the program off with a positive high. They made me glad I came. Followed by the DS Players, this trio sported three piece pinstripe suits, almost zoot suit in vintage, sustaining syncopated and broken movement with great skill. A four person ensemble from Vancouver, B.C., Over The Influence manipulated work-related equipment as props for their number, with a straw boss to punctuate the action.

Mop Top, a New York Quartet, spun off the Wizard of Oz. Titled the Wizzle of Izzle with the movie soundtrack augmented, the four jerked, halted, bounced in great style. Rita Felciano said the year before their take centered around America’s Founding Fathers, complete with wigs.

Lux Aeterna from Los Angeles was a futuristic themed sextette, front, center, lunging , their collective self-conscious frontal focus straight from Marvel Comics.

Two diverse groups finished the program before intermission and ended the evening: San Francisco’s Mind Over Matter and the Chicago Footwork KINGz. Both dealt with the theme of prisons; where Mind Over Matter's mini-skirted police girls waved batons like cheer leaders before receiving their come uppance, the seven young men from Chicago struck reality notes with prison fatigues and realistic confrontations supported by their musical background.

Program A included Soul Force Dance Company, F.B.C Funk Beyond Control) and Neopolitan, all from the Bay Area.

Program B numbered 178 performers with two New York-based ensembles - the duo Kenichi and Takahiro and the House Dance Project; Live in Color Dance Collective from Miami and Nobolus from Austria. The Bay Area ensembles were: Sunset, Soul Sector, Funkanometry and Loose Change from San Francisco, Diamond/Sparkle plus U.F. O. Movement from Oakland and Soul Conspiracy Dance Company from Hayward.

Kenichi and Takahiro’s The Mirror exploited the theme of who’s on which side of the mirror; despite disparate personal sizes, facial and body modes of projection, they worked together like a well-fit glove. The diversely costumed Live in Color Dance Collective from Miami brought a projection for their backdrop; simulation of humping, grinding and bumping evidenced plenty of strong abs, if lacking in invention and taste.

Ending Program B, Nobulus from Austria used parts of Katchaturian’s Gayne Suite and Rossini’s La Donna Mobile for effective images of human conflict, swirling on their backs, one man twirling on his head, one man holding another’s body like a machine gun and a white costumed man, veiled in the beginning, intoning maxims about conflict, corporate greed and the futility of war. Their finish and level of excellence demonstrated graphically that nothing succeeds better than good choreography and well-rehearsed delivery.

Abundantly clear between performance one and performance four was that the presentations comprise two ends of the spectrum: groups which keep tots and teenagers revved up and diverted and ensembles selecting material carefully, honing it to a professional caliber performance.

Micaya, the mastermind behind this ninth phenomenon, graced the stage following each performance in heels which accented long legs below tunic-length garments, also displaying well-shaped arms and shoulders. She both revved up audience appreciation, hollers and prolonged applause while adroitly pitching fund raising schemes which everyone hopes will add to the Festival’s budget for its tenth anniversary. Despite the uneven qualities in some numbers and groups,the Festival is mighty impressive.