Celebrating ODC’s 50+ Anniversary

Five decades of virtuosic, exuberant, and fearless dance

Dance Downtown features two seminal works by ODC Founder and Artistic Director Brenda Way that exemplify the company’s emotional and virtuosic choreographic style: Investigating Grace and Speaking Volumes.

The season will also feature world premieres by Guest Choreographers Amy Seiwert and Dexandro Montalvo, two innovative artistic voices who have long histories with ODC. Seiwert, a former ODC Theater Artist in Residence, most recently directed Sacramento Ballet and continues to direct Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, the company she founded in 2011; Montalvo is a choreographer, dancer, and educator, and the former director of Dance Theatre of San Francisco.

Tickets start at $25. Proof of up-to-date vaccination (with booster, if eligible) and masks are required.

Brenda Way received her early training at the School of American Ballet and Ballet Arts in New York City. She is the founder and artistic director of ODC/Dance and creator of the ODC Theater and ODC Dance Commons, community performance and training venues in San Francisco’s Mission District. She launched ODC and helped create an inter-arts department at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in the late 1960’s before relocating to the Bay Area in 1976.

Born and raised in New York, Dexandro Montalvo is a San Francisco based director, choreographer, dancer, and dance educator. A professional dancer with Robert Moses Kin and various other companies for over 6 seasons, his choreographic commissions include works for RMK, Liss Fain Dance Company, LINES Ballet Training Program/Summer Program, The Black Eyed Peas, DanceWorks Chicago, MINI (USA), Mini Amp Live, SF Ballet School, Concept o4, Dance Mission’s Dance Brigade, Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center, Cardinal Ballet, University of SF Dance Ensemble, Marin School of the Arts, & the ODC Dance Jam.

Amy Seiwert serves as the Artistic Director of the San Francisco contemporary ballet company, Imagery. She enjoyed a nineteen-year performing career with Smuin, LA Chamber, and Sacramento Ballets. As a dancer with Smuin Contemporary Ballet she was mentored under the wing of the late Michael Smuin and was the company’s Choreographer in Residence from 2008-2018.