Kinesthetic Aesthetic: On Explaining Dance to Your Friends & the Outside World

I joke with dancer friends about it all the time. Inevitably we face the pervasive question. You know what it is, it haunts you at parties, lurks behind the wine […]

Riding the Panel Process

The panel-based selection process frequently used by arts funders, residency programs and award committees has always felt on par with how dodge ball teams were picked in PE class—elitist, superficial […]

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 […]

What’s On For Fall: Season Performance Preview

AFTER THE ALWAYS-HECTIC spring performance season, summer is a pleasantly quiet time in Bay Area dance. Outside of a few visiting artists, student recitals and small-company shows, it’s three whole […]

1519’s Curtain Call: Pivotal Queer Art Performance Space Closes

THE LONG-RUNNING PERFORMANCE SPACE at 1519 Mission, in San Francisco, went dark at the beginning of August. Like many alternative art spaces, 1519 never held permits to accommodate larger audiences, […]

Being Blurred: Ralph Lemon Interviewed

Ariel Osterweis Scott (AS): The last time I saw you was at a Miguel Gutierrez performance. I remember you said something provocative regarding an explicit performance art piece I hadn’t […]

Sailing Away: Joanna Haigood Choreographs San Francisco History

Flooded with Gold Rush lucre and teeming with the adventurers who hunted for it, San Francisco in the 1850s was a rootin’-tootin’, quick-shootin’, prostitutin’ Wild West boomtown. Halloween in the […]

2010 Highlight

THE LAST FIVE MINUTES at the end of an exhilarating yoga class have always been my favorite experience in the yoga practice. These last moments are devoted to the Shavasana […]

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 […]

2010 Highlight

AS A READER, discovering an especially evocative and compelling turn of phrase can be transformative. I sit down with certain books and authors repeatedly because I am offered the promise […]