The Elements: Fire

to improve the skate infrastructure of Orlando. The team has created and installed handmade skatepark architecture, but also taught local skaters about the intangibles of skate culture –norms, folk history, stewardship, and creative placemaking – to not just teach young people how to skate, but how to belong in the folk group called “skaters”.

Mundillo is the Puerto Rican folk art of handmade bobbin lace. Spanish for “little world”, the mudillo artist winds thread across wooden bobbins, crossing and twisting them until they create a patter. Orlando residents Julia Belen Alverio and Annie Garcia have been working together for the last year in the Florida Folklife Apprenticeship Program. The two of them, along with several other members of “Damas del Mundillo Orlando” (who you will see on stage with them), practice their craft every week in Julia Belen’s home workshop.

Traditional Music & Dance

2023 Folk Heritage Award winner Myriam Eli is a South Florida based dancer, percussionist and tradition bearer who practices and preserves Sephardic and Middle Eastern Music and Dance. She is a master of the Danse Orientale, a folk-based dance from the Middle East and North Africa characterized by circular motions of the torso and rhythmic movements of the hips. She is joined on stage by oud player Joe Zeytoonian, who won a Florida Folk Heritage Award in 2000.

Skateboards and skate culture are intrinsically tied to the folk culture of Florida. From the tricks, the terms, and even the shape of the boards itself, Florida is essential to what we picture when we imagine skate culture. During the duration of their apprenticeship program, skateboarder Zach Moldof and quad skater (roller skater) Dorsa Vaziri have been working

In 1985, they moved to South Florida and founded Harmonic Motion, a nonprofit arts organization focusing on cross-cultural and folkloric music and dance. In 2022, Harmonic Motion were Florida Folklife’s 2022 Artist-inResidence, where they played and performed at Florida State University School, School for Arts and Innovative Learning, Florida State University, and Mission San Luis.