Bridging Borders: Nina Haft & Co. in the Middle East

Nina Haft visited the Middle East in 2007 to experience the culture and see firsthand how people there use dance to address the immense challenges in their lives, from restricted […]

Welcome, May 2010

Community — A complex notion? Or as simple and essential as breathing? Our community can be represented by those we are born into, or those we choose for consistent needs […]

Bay Area Ballet Makes a Comeback

SAN FRANCISCO HAS ALWAYS BEEN A DANCE TOWN. The mother of modern dance, Isadora Duncan, was born here; dozens of choreographers and dancers have gotten their start here or decided […]

Keep the Reels Rolling; Why the Bay Area Should Fight to Keep Dance/Screen

San Francisco Performances has pulled the plug on its Dance/Screen series of film and video presentations, curated for the last 9 years by Charlotte Shoemaker. “It was a matter of […]

In Tribute to Transformation

House/Full of BlackWomen has been built in episodes over a five-year period, sustaining a question posed by Ellen Sebastian Chang and Amara Tabor Smith

Why the Hella Hyphy Ball is more than just a Ball

Oakland to All began in June 2021 as a meeting of the minds. Three ballroom participants wanted to create a safe space for queer youth during the pandemic—at a time when ballroom had begun to wane in the Bay Area.

Carmen Román and Son de Los Diablos

Y FUE a esa edad… Llegó la poesía/ a buscarme. No sé, no sé de dónde/ salió, de invierno o río./ No sé cómo ni cuándo,/ no, no eran voces, […]

SPEAK: Invaluable Lessons

Photo by Keith Sutter My first week as Artistic Director of Sacramento Ballet, I learned we had lost our warehouse space and would need to deeply consolidate our sets and […]

Programming Growth at Chitresh Das Institute

Think about the different studios that have been part of your dance training. What kinds of programs did they offer? Ballet, modern, jazz, “world dance” forms…perhaps there were also classes […]

Going Bicoastal: RAWdance Does a Triple Take

Photo by Hillary Goidell For fifteen years, under the banner of RAWdance, Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith have been teaching and producing work in San Francisco. Their leadership in […]