Dancer, musician, kumu hula (hula teacher), scholar, spiritual seeker, innovative artist, generous soul — Mahea Uchiyama is all those and more. And as a longtime performer and new co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, she has helped shepherd ethnic dance and music to a place of esteem in American culture. Uchiyama founded her eponymous Center for International Dance 25 years ago, and its silver-anniversary celebration is sure to be a vibrant and joyous set of events. On Friday, Sept. 21, Uchiyama’s cozy Berkeley studio hosts a free open house, with a behind-the-scenes look at rehearsals of Tahitian and hula dances by her company, Halau Ka Ua Tuahine. The dance company will premiere the works at a gala performance on Sept. 29, alongside a panoply of artists: Chinyakare Ensemble doing Zimbabwean music and dance, Miriam Peretz’s Sufi devotionals, belly dance by Salimpour Collective, Seibi Lee’s classical Indian kathak, and musicians Zena Carlota, Ka Nalu and Val Serrant.

— Claudia Bauer