FALLING FORWARD INTO NEW SPACES: In Conversation with Mary Armentrout

Why, What, When, Who and Where – life is full of these five ‘w’ questions. And that last ‘w’ (the where), seems of particular concern these days. From the prosaic to the logistic to the life altering, the question of where is constant: where will you eat, where will you park, where will you shop, where will you work, where will you […]

Dancers’ Group History: Celebrating 30 Years

To help celebrate Dancers’ Group’s 30th anniversary this year, we have reached out to people to share a special remembrance. Throughout 2012 this publication has been carrying three pieces per month, each telling a unique story of the impact our work has had on a variety of artists, educators, writers, and funders. These remembrances paint […]

The Abundant Season: Fall Performance Preview

The Bay Area welcomes a bounty of shows this fall, from outdoor aerials to free festivals and avant-garde dance-theater – this preview offers just a taste of what’s to come. If your favorites don’t appear here, it was not a deliberate exclusion; please look them up online. Shows are in San Francisco unless otherwise noted. […]

A SOTA Love Letter: Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts

Photo by Brittany Ceres We immersed ourselves in our art. The San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA) dance program director, Elvia Marta was our maestro, our inspiration, our modern/jazz dance goddess from Panama. In 1986, she taught a warm-up the entire class adored, I was one of those dancers. The slow fluid movement set […]

The Call: San Francisco Native Margaret Jenkins Always Moves Forward

Margaret Jenkins, known to the dance world as Margy, has been making dances for most of her 75-years. She trained at the leading edge of performance with Judy Job, Welland Lathrop and Gloria Unti in the Bay Area and with Twyla Tharp, James Dunn, Gus Solomons, Merce Cunningham, Viola Farber and others in New York. […]

Dancing in the Museum

When you look at a white-walled cube or empty courtyard, do you see a performance space? If you knew the history of every hundred- or thousand-year-old painting, sculpture, and anthropological record in a museum, would you envision bodies in motion, following their own energetic impulses and trajectories, among them? This September, Dance Discourse Project #13, […]

Museum of Performance and Design: The Next Chapter

Adjacent to the opulence and grandeur of the War Memorial Opera House and Davies Symphony Hall lies a quiet, hidden jewel in San Francisco’s performing arts crown–the Museum of Performance and Design. Housed in the Veterans Building, this one-of-a-kind institution features permanent collections and a diverse research library along with interactive exhibitions, artist conversations and […]

Kathy Mata Ballet to Perform at the SF Conservatory of Music

By David B. Feldman What does Kathy Mata Ballet, a small San-Francisco-based community dance company, have in common with the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma and world-renown operatic tenor Placido Domingo? Soon, all three will be able to boast appearances at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. That’s because, in late September, the dancers of Kathy […]

SPEAK

I’d like to think I have become a mature dancer. After a 12-year professional career, I don’t get nervous anymore. As I perform, I enjoy the clarity of being on stage and the hyper-meditative awareness I experience. I can feel my skin prickle when the audience’s attention perks as they cross the fourth wall of […]

The Shifting Cornerstone: WestWave Splashes into the Streets, July/ Aug 2008

Joanna Haigood, the Artistic Director of San Francisco based Zaccho Dance Theater, is a well-known creator of site specific apparatus based dance. She has been creating work world-wide on various buildings, terrain and stages. Dancers’ Group and YBCA commissioned Haigood to create a new work that will premiere in August amidst the lively activity of […]