THE CALDERÓN DANCE Festival, now in its fifth year, was born out of heartbreak. It was 2014 and Shannon Calderón-Primeau, the wildly talented, vivacious forty-five-year-old seasoned performer and founder of the Everything Goes Dance Studio in Oklahoma City, was dying of cancer. Armed with a list of plans she knew she would never complete herself, Calderón-Primeau called upon family and friends and began handing out assignments. Two people, Calderón-Primeau’s niece Erika Vasquez and the choreographer Hui Cha Poos, had been paired off by Calderón-Primeau for the same task, they just didn’t know it—yet.
Poos recalls a visit to Calderón-Primeau during her illness. “I don’t know what made me say it, but I said, ‘Hey, what do you feel like you haven’t gotten to do?’ And she said, ‘A community-wide free dance festival for this city.’”
Years later Poos and Vasquez were serving together on the Plaza District board. Poos, remembering that fateful conversation, called Vasquez, wondering if it was the right time to launch the dance festival. “And she’s like, what are you talking about?” Poos says. “And I said, ‘I had a conversation with your aunt seven years ago about a dance festival, and I think this is the time to do it.’”
Soon after, Vasquez, who had just moved into a new house, was unpacking her office and happened upon a notebook she and Calderón-Primeau had shared. “I was scrolling through the pages, just kind of really loving to see her handwriting. Toward the end, I had a lot of things circled and one of the things was ‘talk to Hui Cha about the dance festival.’” Cue the goosebumps.
With that, the pair got busy. They cleared the idea with the rest of Calderón-Primeau’s family and pitched the dance festival idea to the Plaza District board. The inaugural Calderón Dance Festival was staged in 2022. Today, the Calderón Dance Festival, funded in part by OK Let’s Dance, an initiative of the Kirkpatrick Family Fund, is a daylong adventure for anyone and everyone: non-dancers, the dance-curious, professional dancers, kids, and adults.
There are free classes in many genres, dance studio showcases, and an evening street dance battle. Music performances include local guitarist extraordinaire Edgar Cruz and renowned flamenco artists ReVoSo.
Andrea Lodico, co-founder of OK Let’s Dance, has been a part of the festival for two years and applauds its celebratory, inclusive energy, which aligns with that of OK Let’s Dance. “Our aim is to fuel the efforts of local dance programs and organizations in their vital work to engage more Oklahomans in the art form and support a vibrant, dynamic dance landscape,” Lodico says. “Calderón Dance Festival embodies and advances this vision.”
The Calderón Dance Festival will take place on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at the Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City. calderondancefestival.org
