Crowdsourcing: Is it healthy?

CROWDSOURCING DANCE EMPOWERS the audience to collectively perform the roles of, at times, curator, programmer, and even funder, potentially stoking tension between arts professionals and the public. Defined by business […]

Big Dreams, Small Screen: Tuning Into Dance Reality Shows

IT’S BROUGHT US SCHEMING Survivors, sadistic restaurateurs and women intent on marrying millionaires they’ve never met. And reality TV is now dance’s biggest venue, with shows like So You Think […]

Instilling Life-Long Pasion: In Conversation with Elvia Marta and Annie Parr

When I set out to talk with local dance teachers, my aim was to bring more attention to the many great and dedicated teachers we have here in the San Francisco Bay […]

Keepers of Home: Muisi-kongo & Kiazi Malonga

Muisi-kongo Malonga and Kiazi Malonga are the children of Malonga Casquelourd, a world-renowned Congolese dancer, drummer and choreographer who built an exceptional legacy in the traditional arts in the US, and spent half his life activating Congolese culture at the Alice Arts Center (now named after him), in Oakland, California

Ms, Fs, and As, Oh My! Life After Graduate School, The Transition Awaiting

ON JUNE 13, 2010 I graduated from The Ohio State University with an M.F.A. in Dance. I moved to San Francisco on June 18. This transition has been an education […]

My Year in the Show Ring

Editor’s Note: Having danced with Chicago Moving Company, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, and Theatre of the Open Eye in New York, John R. Killacky has played several roles in the Bay […]

John Jasperse in the Bay Area: Gaps, Misuse, and the Possibility of Thick Description

John Jasperse is a choreographer known as: Cool. Brainy. Provocative. Naked. Virtuosic. Transgressive. Austere. Opaque. Difficult. Formal. Experimental. Critical. Ironic. Oblique. Pensive. Part of the witty, cerebral downtown New York […]

A View From the Trenches: Critical Losses

Art nourishes consciousness. It helps us identify who we are, what we value, and what we might become. “The function of criticism is the re-education of perception.” (Philosopher and educational […]

What’s in a Name: The Legacy of Everybody’s Creative Art Center

The 1970s were a time in America when black people awakened to their African heritage and were taking on new names more fitting their history and characters. For dancer and […]

Bringing the Message: Naomi Diouf and Diamano Coura West African Dance Company

My conversation with Naomi Diouf, who with her husband Dr. Zakayria (Zak) Diouf is artistic director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, came about because of the upcoming celebration, […]