WORLD PREMIERE
QAF (Queer Athletic Futurity)

QAF (Queer Athletic Futurity) is a multi-faceted project about sports and LGBTQ+ people.

It includes:

• Two original dance works, fluid forms and Half Time, Full Out

• Fantastic Field Day as an all-ages, all-abilities, intentionally queer and inclusive day of athletic activities

• fluid forms Premiere (Presidio Tunnel Tops, San Francisco, CA)

  • June 4, 2023 at 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, & 3pm

  • June 11, 2023 at 12pm & 1pm

• Fantastic Field Day (Presidio Tunnel Tops, San Francisco, CA)

  • June 11, 2023 from 2pm-4:30pm

• Half Time, Full Outside Premiere (Outdoor performances at historic LGBTQ+ locations in San Francisco)

  • July 27, 2024 Around Town

• Half Time, Full Out Premiere (ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA)

  • August 16 & 17, 2024 at 8pm

  • August 18, 2024 at 3pm

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QAF (Queer Athletic Futurity) is an ambitious and timely contemporary dance project about queer people and sports. QAF considers deeply personal experiences of LGBTQ+ athletes alongside broader social and political concerns relating to LGBTQ+ inclusion in civic life. QAF is created in response to recent upticks of “concern” about transgender athletes participating in sports, the ‘don’t say gay’ laws currently making their way through state legislatures across the country, and the continued lack of visible, public representation of LGBTQ+ athletes.

The project is multi-faceted, including 6 outdoor performances and an inclusive sports day at Presidio Tunnel Tops (June 2023), 6 outdoor performances at historic LGBTQ+ locations in San Francisco (July 2024), and three indoor performances at ODC Theater (August 2024)

Directed by Charlie Slender-White, QAF is partly informed by his personal experience of isolation as one of just two openly queer athletes at UC Berkeley, where he dove on the Men’s Diving Team from 2002-2004. Our creative process is also inspired by interviews with current and retired queer athletes, essays on queer futurity, queer aesthetics, and gender performance, the personal experiences of the collaborators, and current events at the intersection of sports and LGBTQ+ rights. QAF seeks to honor the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in athletics while simultaneously being open and welcoming to audiences of all orientations and identities.

Like all of FACT/SF’s work, QAF is conceived via a cultural equity and social justice lens. For us, this means cast and crew that is at least 50% LGBTQ+ and at least 50% BIPOC, economic access for all members of the public wishing to attend, ADA accessible venues, and a range of accessibility services available on-site for anyone who needs them. Of our 31 artists and arts workers on QAF, 90% are LGBTQ+ and 55% are BIPOC.

QAF is made possible with support from:

• California Arts Council

• SF Arts Commission

• SF Grants for the Arts

• Presidio Trust

• Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy

• National Parks Service

• CHEER SF

• QAF Co-Producers

  • Richard Royse & Rocky Blumhagen

  • Jesse Dill & Patrick Metz

  • Tom Pack & Matt Mansh

  • Rune Stromsness

  • The Charlotte Maillaird Schultz Fund

• QAF Supporting Partners

  • Triston Cossette & Stephen Knighten

  • Margaret Lourenço & Rich Blaska

  • Beth Kuenstler & Shawn Reifsteck

  • Blaze Stancampiano

Interested in supporting QAF? Email us.