A Banana Peel is Good for Headaches: Observations from the Traditional Arts Field

Between dinner and dessert one evening, Doba G., a medical doctor in her late seventies who emigrated from the Ukraine to San Francisco in 1993, gave me a tip: Lily: […]

A Conversation on Women in the Arts

Patty Berne is a co-founder and executive director of Sins Invalid (sinsinvalid.org), a disability justice based performance project centralizing disabled artists of color and queer and gender non-conforming artists with […]

Odissi Wildflower; A Modern Dancer

While working on a bachelor’s degree in American and English literature at the University of Washington, I took almost enough dance classes for a double major. Later, I moved to […]

The Choreography of Chinese Urban Spaces: A Book Review and Interview with Author, SanSan Kwan

I feel a pulsing and paradoxical sense of expanse and suppression as passersby move towards and immediately away. Every so often I am forced to veer as a meandering person […]

Outer Space to Inner Space: Universal Themes, Very Different Styles

Amara Tabor-Smith/Deep Waters Dance Theater shares a bill with Cathie Caraker and Katarina Eriksson from March 5-7 at CounterPULSE. Upon first reading the descriptions and approaches taken by the artists, […]

10 in 10 Video Series

10 questions in 10 minutes. Quick insights with the local Bay Area dance community. Prior to Covid, I had often thought of producing a “(wo)man on the street”-style series where […]

Poppin’ Fresh: The 12th Annual SF Hip Hop DanceFest

HIP HOP IS BIG BUSINESS. The genre that started with kids break dancing at New York block parties in the 1970s is now a requirement on So You Think You […]

Keeping On Keeping On

This speech was delivered on June 3, 2009 at the Opening Plenary of Dance/USA’s annual conference in Houston, Texas, the theme of which was “Sustainable Future: Reality Check.” Originally a […]

Dance History According to Drag, Jun 2007

“A dancer’s life is a realist’s life,” says the woman onstage in a weary, regal voice. Standing in a dramatically pooled spotlight that glitters off her spangled dress and causes […]

Sharing a Global Moment

Imagine yourself doing a dance on a street corner. You are with a group of performers, maybe about thirty people of all ages and backgrounds, and you’re making your way […]