RACE: Stories from the Tenderloin
From the Super Bowl in San Francisco to the Olympics in Brazil, massive sporting events mean a good time for everyone – except the poor people that governments say get in the way. Providing artistic commentary on the disturbing trend of pushing poor and homeless people out of their cities in the name of entertainment and profit, NAKA Dance Theater was commissioned by Dancers’ Group, and worked with ABD Productions/Skywatchers to produce RACE: Stories from the Tenderloin. RACE was a multidisciplinary artistic work inspired by stories of the Skywatchers Ensemble, a group of residents of SRO hotels in the Tenderloin, and explored the violent impact massive sporting events, technology and gentrification has on poor people across the world. RACE was a tribute to the Olympic Games and civil disobedience, set against the backdrop of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and the tumultuous 1968 Mexico City Olympics and was part of NAKA Dance Theater’s ongoing investigation into racial inequity. The show explored the concept of running for your life to fit into a society that ignores the wellbeing of most of its people.
RACE featured choreography, storytelling, live music, and sculptural sets in a series of performances in and around the Tenderloin National Forest (TNF) in August and September 2016. Learn more about the TNF.
Read the September 2016 In Dance article by Robert Avila about RACE
Fri, Aug 5, 2016, 12p, City Hall Rotunda, SF
Fridays, Aug 12 & 19, 2016, 6a & 2:30p, St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church, SF
Saturdays, Aug 13 & 20, 2016, 2p, Tenderloin National Forest, SF
Sat, Aug 27, 2016, 12p, Boeddeker Park, SF
Thu, Sep 8, 2016, 2:30p, Larkin Street Youth Services, Engagement and Community Center, Sf
Wed-Sat, Sep 14-17, 2016, 8p, Tenderloin National Forest and surrounding area, SF
photos: (top) Boeddeker Park; (bottom) Tenderloin National Forest
