FACT/SF's 2024 Season Announcement

As 2023 comes to a close, we’re so proud to announce FACT/SF’s 16th anniversary season! Our 2024 calendar is full of workshops & educational opportunities, performances of our new work, QAF (Queer Athletic Futurity), and premieres by eight incredible Fieldwork artists. We are so excited to share all of this work with you!

Charlie Slender-White teaching Countertechnique
Photo: Kegan Marling

January 2024

January 8
Class at ODC
San Francisco, CA

January 26-28
FACT/SF Winter Dance Lab (Weekend 1)
Joe Goode Annex
San Francisco, CA

February 2024

February 2-4
FACT/SF Winter Dance Lab (Weekend 2)
Joe Goode Annex
San Francisco, CA

February 9
California Dance Education Association - State Conference
Panel with Slender-White, Mary Carbonara, Neela Reed, and Amanda Whitehead
CSU East Bay
Hayward, CA

Maria Silk
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

March 2024

March 7-9
Maria Silk
Viewing Pleasure
CounterPulse, SF
(FACT/SF Production Support Grant)

Charlie teaching Countertechnique, summer 2022
Photo: Alina Fejzo

March 8
Open Audition/Rehearsal
San Francisco, CA

March 18-22
Countertechnique Workshop
Vancouver, BC, Canada

LizAnne Roman Roberts at the 2023 Spring Gala
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

April 2024

April 26
FACT/SF Spring Gala
Green Room, Veteran’s Building
San Francisco, CA

Melissa Lewis Wong + Joy Chenyu Lewis
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

may 2024

May 18-26
Melissa Lewis Wong + Joy Chenyu Lewis
花和霧 flowers and fog
Portsmouth Square & The Gateway Theater Chinatown, SF
(FACT/SF Production Support Grant)

Keanu Brady in fluid forms
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

JULY 2024

July 27
Half Time, Full Outside Premiere
Site-specific performances around San Francisco at historic LGBTQ+ landmarks
Part of Queer Athletic Futurity

Slender-White teaching Countertechnique
Photo: Alina Fejzo

August 2023

August 15-24
FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab
ODC Theater, SF

9 days of hands-on instruction on Countertechnique and other forms in a non-competitive, collaborative workshop environment

Keanu Brady in the Summer Dance Festival, 2023
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

August 16-18
Half Time, Full Out Premiere
FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival, Week 1
ODC Theater, SF

Part of Queer Athletic Futurity

Taylor Donofrio’s BETTY in the 2023 Summer Dance Festival
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

August 23-25
FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival, Week 2
ODC Theater, SF

A mixed bill of 6 groups, curated through our open Fieldwork Self-Nomination process. The 2024 festival will feature works by the Bay Area’s FACT/SF, Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş, Zoe Huey, & Erin Yen, and visiting artists Summation Dance / LA (Los Angeles, CA) & Sophie Allen (Chicago, IL).

REYES Dance
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

September 2023

September 6-8
REYES Dance
¡Ay Dios Mio!
ODC Theater, SF
(FACT/SF Production Support Grant)

September/October 2023

September 11 - October 16
Working Better Workshop

FACT/SF’s new 6-week online workshop, offering guidance from experts in the field about administrative skills for artists.

Shaun Keylock Company (Portland)
Photo: Jazzy Photo

October 2024

PORT: QAF in Portland, OR

FACT/SF will tour to Portland, as the second half of our PORT exchange with Shaun Keylock Company, which began when they toured to present in our Summer Dance Festival in August of 2023.

Exciting Developments and the 2023 Season

Written by Charles Slender-White

Katherine Neumann in FACT/SF’s For a (2022)
Photo by Robbie Sweeny

2023 is almost here, and I am so excited to kick off FACT/SF’s 15th anniversary season! I am feeling particularly elated to share with you that, in our upcoming season, FACT/SF employees will earn a $30/hour living wage, and receive commuter benefits alongside a 401k match.

I’m proud that we are able to center arts workers and acknowledge their labor in this way, honored to lead FACT/SF, and appreciative of the many, many people who have invested in our vision. This is a major accomplishment, especially for a dance company of our size, and it’s the result of years of persistent work. Enormous gratitude for the many people who have helped make this happen!

Alongside these exciting organizational developments, FACT/SF is launching an enormous, multi-modal dance project called QAF (Queer Athletic Futurity). QAF is about LGBTQ+ athletes in sports, and it’s produced in partnership with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, Presidio Trust, CHEER SF, SF Fog Rugby, and ODC Theater. QAF will begin with a series of interviews with retired LGTBQ+ athletes, released as a podcast in the spring.

Tunnel Tops in the Presidio
Site of FACT/SF’s QAF (Queer Athletic Futurity)

In June 2023, we will premiere site-specific work at the Tunnel Tops park in the Presidio, alongside a Fantastic Field Day of all-ages and all-abilities sports activities. In August, we’ll premiere the indoor version of QAF at ODC Theater. Later in the fall, QAF will tour to San Diego, CA and Portland, OR.

QAF Set Design
Preliminary Sketch by Glen Lakin

The California Arts Council has provided lead funding for the project, alongside community co-producers and supporting partners. If you’d like to become a QAF Co-Producer, check out this page and shoot me an email at cslender@factsf.org. Co-Producers are central to making this project happen.

Just as FACT/SF creates our own art and wants all of our artists to thrive, we also want our peers to thrive. We believe that our well-being is directly tied to the health and vitality of the larger arts ecology, so we use our Fieldwork programs to provide money, resources, and opportunity to our colleagues. Since 2018, our Fieldwork programs have directly supported more than 60 Bay Area artists, who in turn have engaged hundreds of collaborators and thousands of audience members.

Chinchin Hsu in her premiere, Time Eater
2022 FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival
Photo by Robbie Sweeny

In 2023, our Summer Dance Festival will feature works by local artists Emily Hansel, Mia J. Chong, Brianna Torres, and Héctor Jaime, alongside visiting artists Alfonso Cervera (Urbana-Champaign, IL), Taylor Donofrio (Los Angeles, CA), and Shaun Keylock (Portland, OR). Our Production Support Grants will help fund Megan Lowe’s premiere of Piece of Peace: Gathering. And, Gwen Benitez, Rafi Darrow, Elle Hong, and Conni McKenzie have each received a scholarship to attend our annual Summer Dance Lab for free.

In addition to dozens of FACT/SF performances and classes in the Bay, I’ll also be traveling to British Columbia, North Carolina, Oregon, and throughout California to teach Countertechnique workshops and master classes.

Slender-White teaching Countertechnique
Photo by Robbie Sweeny

Dates and details for all of our 2023 events can be found here.

And, as our end of year fundraising campaign wraps up, I hope you’ll consider making a tax-deductible donation as an investment in our shared vision for the future. Please visit our donation page here.

Yours,
~Charles Slender-White
Artistic Director, FACT/SF

FACT/SF's 2023 Season Announcement

As 2022 comes to a close, we’re so proud to announce FACT/SF’s 15th anniversary season! Our 2023 calendar is full of workshops & educational opportunities, numerous performances of our new multipart new work, QAF (Queer Athletic Futurity), and premieres by more than a dozen Fieldwork artists. We are so excited to share all of this work with you!

Slender-White teaching Countertechnique
Photo: Alina Fejzo

January 2023

January 9 & 26
Classes at ODC
San Francisco, CA

February 2023

February 6-8
Master classes at UC Irvine, Cal State Long Beach, and Loyola Marymount
Southern California

February 10, 13, & 20
Classes at ODC
San Francisco, CA

Slender-White teaching Countertechnique
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

February 24-26
Winter Dance Lab
San Francisco, CA

March 2023

March 13-17
Countertechnique Workshop
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Katherine Neumann at the 2022 Spring Gala
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

April 2023

April 7
FACT/SF Spring Gala
Green Room, Veteran’s Building
San Francisco, CA

Keanu Brady at ChoreoFest 2021
Photo: Jim Watkins

June 2023

June 4 & 11
FACT/SF World Premiere: fluid forms
Tunnel Tops, Presidio of San Francisco
Part of Queer Athletic Futurity

Catch site-specific outdoor performances interrogating queer belonging in the sports world & beyond, performed by a cast of 9 dancers at the beautiful new Tunnel Tops park. Part of Queer Athletic Futurity

June 11
FACT/SF Fantastic Field Day!
Tunnel Tops, Presidio of San Francisco

An all-ages, all-abilities and all-experience levels extravaganza celebrating queers in sports! Join us for performances by FACT/SF and CHEER SF, and a series of radically inclusive sports workshops.

Charlie teaching Countertechnique, summer 2022
Photo: Alina Fejzo

June/July 2023

June 20 - July 7
Countertechnique & Improv at the American Dance Festival
Durham, NC

FACT/SF at the Summer Dance Festival, 2022
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

August 2023

August 17-26
FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab
ODC Theater, SF

9 days of hands-on instruction on Countertechnique and other forms in a non-competitive, collaborative workshop environment

Drama Tops (Seattle) in the FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival, 2022
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

August 18-20
FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival, Week 1
ODC Theater, SF

The return of our touring program, PORT! FACT/SF is delighted to host the Shaun Keylock Company from Portland, OR on a split bill, during which we will premiere the concert version of Queer Athletic Futurity, Half Time, Full Out.

August 25-27
FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival, Week 2
ODC Theater, SF

A mixed bill of 6 groups, curated through our open Fieldwork Self-Nomination process. The 2023 festival will feature works by local and visiting artists: Alfonso Cervera (Columbus, OH), Mia J Chong & Emily Hansel, Taylor Donofrio (Los Angeles, CA), Héctor Jaime, Brianna Torres, and FACT/SF.

Megan Lowe Dances
Photo: Maurice Ramirez

September 2023

September 2-9
Megan Lowe Dances
Piece of Peace: Gathering
ODC Theater, SF
(FACT/SF Production Support Grant)

September/October 2023

September 11 - October 16
Working Better Workshop

FACT/SF’s new 6-week online workshop, offering guidance from experts in the field about administrative skills for artists.

DISCO RIOT (San Diego) performs at the 2022 FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

november 2023

PORT: QAF in San Diego, CA

FACT/SF will tour to San Diego, as the second half of our PORT exchange with DISCO RIOT, which began when they toured to present in our Summer Dance Festival in July of 2022.

December 2023

PORT: QAF in Portland, OR

FACT/SF will tour to Portland, as the second half of our PORT exchange with Shaun Keylock Company, which began when they toured to present in our Summer Dance Festival in August of 2023.

FACT/SF's 2020 Season Announcement

FACT/SF’s 2020 includes 23 performances, workshops, and discussions by our core team and affiliated artists. This calendar includes original creations and workshops led by Slender-White, the 5 premieres that FACT/SF is supporting via our Co-Production Grants program, and the programming of our Fiscal Sponsees. We’re thrilled that FACT/SF is able to support, engage, and create with these amazing and adventurous artists who are serving communities in the Bay Area, Seattle, New York, and Vancouver. None of this would be possible without FACT/SF’s incredible Individual Donors.

Larry Arrington
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

January 2020

January 9-11
Larry Arrington
No Quarter
ODC Theater, SF
(FACT/SF Co-Production)

January 10 & 11
Stephanie Hewett with LXS DXS
FRESH Festival
Joe Goode Annex, SF
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

January 20
Chlo & Co Dance
Tabled
ODC Theater, SF
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

January 28-31
Countertechnique Workshop
Anouk van Dijk assisted by Slender-White
Gibney Dance Center, New York

Stephanie Hewett
Photo: Lydia Daniller

February 2020

February 21-22
FACT/SF Winter Dance Lab
Joe Goode Annex, SF

February 22
Stephanie Hewett
(E)cho Queue I
Black Life Series
BAM/PFA, Berkeley
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

Slender-White teaching Countertechnique

March 2020

March 22-27
Countertechnique Workshop
Vault Movement Projects
Vancouver, BC, Canada

March 23
Chlo & Co Dance
Tabled
ODC Theater, SF
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

Dia Dear
Photo: Jenn Wong

April 2020

April 2-11
Dia Dear & Rachael Dichter
WITH
CounterPulse, SF
(FACT/SF Co-Production)

April 11
FACT/SF Spring Gala
Green Room, Veteran’s Building, SF

April 27
Chlo & Co Dance
Tabled
ODC Theater, SF
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

randy reyes
Photo: Williams College Photography

May 2020

May 6-10
FACT/SF World Premiere
Loop
Joe Goode Annex, SF

May 22 & 23
randy reyes
underground underneath the underground (prelude)
CounterPulse, SF
(FACT/SF Co-Production)

May 29 & 30
Stephanie Hewett
(E)cho Queue II
SFIAF
Fort Mason Firehouse, SF
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

Chlo & Co Dance
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

June 2020

June 19 & 20
Chlo & Co Dance
Drove VIII
Joe Goode Annex, SF 
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

July 2020

July 6
Chlo & Co Dance
Tabled
ODC Theater, SF
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

FACT/SF
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

August 2020

August 8
Chlo & Co Dance
Drove IX
Columbia City Theater, Seattle
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

August 23-29
FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab
Joe Goode Annex, SF

August 28 & 29
FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival
Premieres by Katie Faulkner, jose e abad, Rosanna Tavarez, and FACT/SF
Joe Goode Annex, SF

September 2020

September 14
Chlo & Co Dance
Tabled
ODC Theater, SF
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

Kim Ip
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

November 2020

November 5-8
Urban Jazz Dance Company
Deaf Refugees in USA
CounterPulse, SF
(FACT/SF Co-Production)

November 12-14
Kim Ip
Trilogy: ceremonious present
CounterPulse, SF
(FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee)

November 14-29
Afro Urban Society
Mi Soon Come
Dance Mission, SF
(FACT/SF Co-Production)

Recap of FACT/SF's 2018-2019 Season

FACT/SF’s 11th season was massive. We created an epic performance, death, toured to the Balkans, taught at the American Dance Festival, produced our first annual Summer Dance Festival, re-staged Platform, launched a Fiscal Sponsorship Program, began offering Co-Production Grants, and a whole lot more. Our success, the impact we have in society, and our ability to invest in the broader arts ecology is made possible by our community of donors. Here’s a month-by-month recap of all we accomplished together last season.

Slender-White teaching in the 2018 Summer Dance Lab
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

AUGUST 2018

6th Annual Summer Dance Lab, August 12-17

• 31 dance professionals and students from across the United States and Canada attend.

• Charles Slender-White, Joy Davis, and Nicole Peisl teach Countertechnique, improvisation, Forsythe Working Methods, FACT/SF Repertory, and professional development skills.

• Dance Lab is priced well below other similar workshops to ensure economic access for as many participants as possible.

• Teachers are equitably compensated.

Inaugural Summer Dance Festival, August 16 & 17

Joy Davis in Consider the Star
Photo: Robbie Sweeny

• FACT/SF invites Joy Davis, Simpson/Stulberg Collaborations, and Fog Beast to share two evenings of performance with FACT/SF.

• Unlike many dance festivals in the Bay Area, FACT/SF compensates all participating artists.

• Dance Critic Heather Desaulniers describes the Festival as “a great addition to the SF dance festival circuit” in her DanceTabs review.

• Both shows are completely sold-out, with 166 audience members in attendance.

• Fog Beast’s work, Manimal Suite, is nominated for an Izzie Award.

• Festival is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

FACT/SF’s death. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

SEPTEMBER/October 2018

Premiere of death, September 27 - October 13

• FACT/SF premieres our 2-hour, immersive epic about grief and mourning.

• Cast includes 9 FACT/SF company members and guest artists, all of whom are paid hourly for their work.

• FACT/SF Artistic Director, Charles Slender-White, and Board President, Jeanne Pfeffer, give an interview for KALW’s Open Air.

• Theater Critic John Wilkins describes death as “Stunning, sly, and filled with sorrow” in his review for The Free Audience.

• Arts Critic, Leslie Katz, selects death for her ‘2018: The best in arts’ year-end list for the SF Examiner.

• death is a co-production with our long time partner, CounterPulse.

• death is supported by a grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and contributions from FACT/SF’s many individual donors.

• 341 audience members attend.

October/November 2018

Integrated Exchange Tour in the Balkans, October 24 - November 17

• With a 9-person team, FACT/SF tours (dis)integration to Bulgaria and Serbia, and Platform to Croatia. FACT/SF creates a new work, Re: Platform, for students at the University of St Cyril and Methodius in Macedonia.

• FACT/SF leads creative workshops for Romani youth in Bulgaria and to young dancers in Bulgaria and Serbia.

• FACT/SF offers Countertechnique classes to professional dancers in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Croatia, and to students at the University of St Cyril and Methodius in Macedonia.

• Integrated Exchange Tour is made possible by grants from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the US Embassy in Bulgaria, and the US Embassy in Serbia, and partnerships with Derida Dance, Trust for Social Achievement, Station: Service for Contemporary Dance, Zagreb Dance Center, and Nomad to Nomad.

• The Integrated Exchange Tour serves hundreds of audience members and dozens of dancers.

• All collaborators are paid for their work, and all touring costs are covered by FACT/SF.

Soft Launch of FACT/SF Co-Production Grants

Urban Jazz Dance Company in performance. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

• CounterPulse approaches FACT/SF about supporting one of their affiliated artists, Antoine Hunter.

• FACT/SF agrees to provide a co-production grant to support Hunter and his company, Urban Jazz Dance Company. Their project, Deaf’s IMPRISONED, premieres at CounterPulse in San Francisco.

December 2018

• Slender-White teaches a series of 8 Countertechnique classes at ODC.

• FACT/SF launches our Fiscal Sponsorship program to provide support, guidance, and access to funding for artists who are not otherwise incorporated as a non-profit organization.

January 2019

• Chlo & Co Dance become FACT/SF’s first fiscal sponsees.

• FACT/SF formally launches our Co-Production Grants program, offering funding to 6 contemporary dance artists producing work in San Francisco in 2019.

February 2019

• FACT/SF re-stages Platform in San Francisco. Platform had previously been selected by Dance Critic Claudia Bauer for her SF Chronicle ‘Best of 2017’ list.

• FACT/SF produces the inaugural year of the Winter Dance Lab, an advanced Countertechnique workshop for experienced practitioners.

• Performances by FACT/SF Co-Production Grant recipient, James Graham Dance Theatre.

ka·nei·see | collective and Cat Call Choir’s Nevertheless. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

March 2019

• Slender-White teaches a week-long Countertechnique workshop for VAULT movement projects in Vancouver, British Columbia.

• Performances by FACT/SF Co-Production Grant recipients, ka·nei·see | collective and Cat Call Choir.

April 2019

Stina Nyberg’s Thunderstruck. Photo by Casper Hedberg.

• Performances by FACT/SF Co-Production Grant recipient, Stephanie Hewett.

• Performances by FACT/SF Co-Production Grant recipient, Stina Nyberg.

May 2019

• Performances by FACT/SF Co-Production Grant recipient, Lauren Simpson Dance.

• FACT/SF begins rehearsals for BackstitchBack, which will go on to be described as “a beautifully composed work with a fugue-like structure” in Claudia Bauer’s DanceTabs review.

• Stephanie Hewett becomes a FACT/SF fiscal sponsee.

Bhutto’s Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

June 2019

• Performances by FACT/SF Co-Production Grant recipient, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

• Performances by FACT/SF Fiscal Sponsee, Chlo & Co Dance.

• Slender-White joins the American Dance Festival faculty, teaching Countertechnique and improvisation at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

July 2019

• Slender-White continues teaching at the American Dance Festival.

• FACT/SF gives two performances of Platform at the American Dance Festival.

August 2019

• FACT/SF produces the 7th annual Summer Dance Lab, attended by 25 students from the United States, Canada, Switzerland, and Singapore.

• FACT/SF produces the 2nd annual Summer Dance Festival, with premieres by Dazaun Soleyn, Maurya Kerr, Joy Davis & Eric Mullis, and FACT/SF.

• In her DanceTabs review, Claudia Bauer describes the Festival’s works as “masterful and marvelous across the board.”

Kim Ip in performance. Photo by Hillary Goidell.

October 2019

• Kim Ip becomes a FACT/SF fiscal sponsee.

• Rehearsals begin for FACT/SF’s next evening-length piece, Loop.

November 2019

• Slender-White teaches a 3-day Countertechnique workshop in San Diego for Disco Riot.

• Rehearsals for Loop continue.

• Slender-White teaches a a series of 3 Countertechnique classes to undergraduate students at UC Berkeley.

December 2019

• Slender-White teaches a series of 6 Countertechnique classes at ODC in San Francisco.

• Rehearsals for Loop continue.

• Slender-White teaches a 5-day Countertechnique workshop in Seattle for Velocity Dance Center.

10 Years of XOs

Written by Charles Slender-White

In preparation for the premiere of death, Slender-White wrote a blog about his current project and the return of the FACT/SF XOs.

death premieres September 27 - October 13, 8p at CounterPulse in San Francisco.

TICKETS

Catherine Newman in The Consumption Series. 2010. Photo by Ariel Soto-Suver.

A Brief History of the XO
In January of 2008, I made my first XO. Or, rather, my sister made my first XO on me. The XOs (as they’re now named, pronounced like the letters “x” and “o”), are the translucent tape mannequins that have made numerous appearances in past FACT/SF productions.

Liane Burns & LizAnne Roman Roberts in Remains. 2017. Photo by Gema Galina.

Six XOs were featured in 2017’s Remains, which you might have seen in San Francisco at ODC Theater or in Los Angeles at the LA Theatre Center. In 2010, we danced with XOs in The Consumption Series (2010). Even before that, and before I moved to San Francisco, the very first XO premiered in a 2008 work called REMNANT, which I made as a commission for Acid Rain, a contemporary dance company based in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

XOs for death.

Over their 10 year history as a major design element of my work, the XOs have at different times symbolized loss, absence, presence, the presence of absence, desire, dreams, history, and time. I keep coming back to them and the love affair is far from over. The XOs will return for our upcoming premiere, death.

How We Make XOs
The XOs are made by wrapping the dancers in layers of packing tape. First with the sticky side out, and then with the sticky side in. Once the entire dancer’s body is taped, we cut them out of the form. Then, we use more tape to fix the seams. What we’re left with is a full-body, translucent cast of the dancer. We call them XOs because they are a sort of exoskeleton, but also because of the affectionate relationship each dancer develops with them. It now takes us about 45 minutes to make each XO, and we work in teams of 3 (one person being taped, two people doing the taping).

Origin of the XO

Slender-White (center) with Provincial Dances Theatre in Wings at Tea. 2006.

In early 2008, I was spending time at my family’s home in Oceanside, California, after a grueling (and beyond amazing) 18-month stint as a company member with Provincial Dances Theatre in Yekaterinburg, Russia. I had originally planned to dance in Russia for 5-7 years, but it didn’t work out. I had a nervous breakdown and needed to come home. I felt like a failure. I was grieving the career goals I had abandoned when I left the company, and thinking deeply about what would remain from that short experience. What had I left behind? What would I carry forward? What happens when someone, or something, ‘goes away’? My feelings about leaving Provincial Dances spiraled into broader feelings about other things, and people, I’d left behind. And, that expanded even more broadly into thinking and feeling about people who had left me, either because they had died, intentionally ended a relationship, or had more amorphously somehow slipped away from my life. Generally speaking, I was thinking a lot about absence and what happens when one, for whatever reason, cannot continue.

Slender-White with Provincial Dances Theatre in Post Engagement P. 1. 2007.

Even though I’d already left Provincial Dances, I still had six months left on my Russian visa and I was in conversation with three different dance groups about creating new work for them. Nothing was finalized yet, and I was stuck waiting to see what would happen. I knew, though, that I wanted to use one of these new works as a way to explore absence and loss. I had no idea how to do it, but I was eager to figure something out.

During this same period, in early 2008, I spent time reconnecting with childhood friends who were still in San Diego. One of them was dating a high school art teacher, and the three of us hung out a few times. We started talking about my upcoming project, and she told me about one of the activities she did with her students. The students would tape each other to make casts of their bodies, and then stuff those casts with newspaper and dress them with clothes. She used this project with her students as a way for them to explore art making, craft, identity, and aesthetics. It sounded cool to me. So, one day I bought a bunch of tape from Costco, asked my sister Kelsey if she was free, and had her tape me up. It worked! We created the first XO. Back then, we just called him ‘Tape Man.’

The XOs on Stage

Just a week after Kelsey and I made Tape Man, I got confirmation on all three of the commissions in Russia. I bought a plane ticket, flew to Chelyabinsk, and started working on a new piece for Acid Rain, REMNANT.

Natalia Podkovyrova in REMNANT. 2008.

REMNANT premiered just about ten years ago, in spring 2008. The 40-minute work featured an 8 dancer cast, plus one Tape Man that we made on my body. This time, the Tape Man got a new name, Lovely. Lovely featured prominently in the work as a 9th performer, as a prop and set piece, and a symbol of desire, unfulfilled hopes, loneliness, and the absence of companionship.

Shortly after REMNANT premiered, I decided to move to San Francisco and start my own dance company. We made a few works in 2008 and 2009. Then in 2010, FACT/SF premiered our first evening-length work, The Consumption Series. I was 26 years old, and very much in the throes of figuring out who I was and who I wanted to be. In The Consumption Series, each dancer had their own personal XO to perform with. In that work, the XOs functioned as extensions of ourselves, and as a way to play with and explore identity, history, and the passage of time. Whereas in REMNANT the XO stood in as a device for the exploration of one’s relationships to others, in The Consumption Series they functioned more as a way for us to explore our relationships to ourselves.

Slender-White in The Consumption Series during our Trans-Siberian Tour. Vladivostok, Russia. 2012.

We gave 6 performances of The Consumption Series in that initial run at the now-closed Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory. Then in 2011 we performed the work again in Portland, Oregon and locally in the SF International Arts Festival. In 2012 we toured The Consumption Series across Russia, making a new batch of XOs before every performance and discarding them before traveling on to the next city. It’s odd to think of the many XOs of ourselves (versions of ourselves, really), that are still buried in trash heaps across the entirety of Russia.

The XO returns

In 2016, while in the Balkans working on Platform with Liane Burns, I decided that I wanted to make a piece about death. Or, more precisely, a piece about the aggrieved...those of us who have been adjacent to the dying and the dead many times, and who accumulate more grief and more loss over time. The news cycles in fall 2016 were filled with reports of Black Americans being killed by police and thousands and thousands of people dying in the war in Syria. Just months before, in spring 2016, FACT/SF premiered (dis)integration - a work about the history of Roma Diaspora which also, sadly, is a history full of genocide and death. My family, too, has been in a perpetual state of grief since my mother was killed in 1984. So...the subject matter was both close to me personally and also everywhere I looked.

death began with these considerations and contexts in mind, and I began the exploration by creating a series of shorter works in 2017 and 2018. For Remains in 2017, I decided it was time to bring the XOs back. Now, more than anything else, they would represent the absence left behind when someone dies, the memories that live on, and the real and imagined relationships that the living have with the dead.

FACT/SF in Remains. 2017. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

As we lead into the premiere of death next week, the FACT/SF team is continuing to explore what this all means and how to share our perspectives and experiences with you. We want to create a work that is an opening for conversation and collective mourning, and to honor the dead as well as the living.

This is a big project, and one I’m thrilled and humbled to get to share with you over the upcoming weeks.

With love,
~Charlie
Artistic Director, FACT/SF

death premieres September 27 - October 13, 8p at CounterPulse in San Francisco.

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Charles Slender-White is the Artistic Director of FACT/SF. He has created dozens of original dance works, is a Certified Countertechnique Teacher, and has performed and taught across North America, Europe, Russia, and in Hong Kong and Australia. Slender-White started his career with Provincial Dances Theatre (Yekaterinburg, Russia), and received his BA in English Literature and Dance & Performance Studies from UC Berkeley.

2017 in Review, P.2: PORT

This blog is the second in Slender-White's 3-part series of reflections on his work with FACT/SF in 2017.

Written by Charles Slender-White

Just a few months ago, I wrote about the promise of PORT (Peer Organized Regional Touring). I tried to place PORT in the context of FACT/SF’s previous touring experiences, explained why the West Coast contemporary dance sector desperately needed an organized structure for regional touring, and described what I hoped PORT would do. We published that blog on August 21, 2017.

PORT launched in San Francisco from September 14-16, and in Los Angeles from September 29-30. We worked in collaboration with the LA Contemporary Dance Company and ODC Theater. And, it’s exciting for me to report two things:

1.) PORT was a massive success.

2.) Over 80% of PORT’s expenses were covered by FACT/SF’s individual donors. 

Remains for PORT 2017; Photo by Gema Galina

PORT’s Success (The Program)

From a quantitative point of view, PORT 2017 included:

• 3 performances in San Francisco
• 2 performances in Los Angeles
• 1 community meeting
• 2 master classes
• 3 world premieres
• 4 regional premieres
• Paid work for more than 20 artists

PORT deftly accomplished its main goal of creating a new way for two companies and two cities to come together. It provided FACT/SF with the opportunity to bring our work to Los Angeles, and gave us the chance to expose our Bay Area audiences to work from the LA Contemporary Dance Company. It created dialogues about the aesthetic and cultural differences of our regions, and brought artists directly together so that they could learn from each other. PORT provided significant benefit to everyone involved. Our concerts received critical praise, too. Here’s a review of the San Francisco performances by Heather Desaulniers, and here’s one of the Los Angeles performances by Jeff Slayton.

We did it!

Remains for PORT 2017; Photo by Gema Galina

PORT’s Success (The Supporters)

Whenever I imagine something new for FACT/SF - a new piece of choreography or a new initiative - I’m immediately confronted by the need to find the money. Sometimes it’s a lot of money and sometimes it’s not, but it’s always a reality that must be dealt with. Finding the money is the most persistent challenge that FACT/SF faces.

For programs that have yet to launch, finding funding is especially challenging. Private foundations and government agencies are reluctant to take a risk on a program’s pilot year because there isn’t yet a solid track record. And without initial funding, it can seem entirely unclear how to get started in the first place. Though we did not receive any grants to support the first year of PORT, I knew it was worth doing and I was determined to make it happen.

This is where the FACT/SF Family comes in.

Remains for PORT 2017; Photo by Gema Galina

Each of our Family members provides significant resources. They buy tickets to the shows and bring their friends to witness what we’ve made. They give us money throughout the year to support our work and broaden our impact.

These resources, and this Family, provide the support for me to take creative and organizational risks. As FACT/SF’s Artistic Director, I feel consistently and continuously fortified by our community. And, PORT is a perfect example of the power of working together. The FACT/SF Family underwrote 80% of PORT’s expenses - there’s no way we could have done it without you.

The FACT/SF Family offers money, and they offer confidence and encouragement, too. Confidence in my abilities and knowledge, and encouragement for me to continue imagining how things could be both different and better. Our community, our artists, and our partners are accomplishing great things together. It’s such a privilege to be working amongst such brilliant, dedicated, and generous people. Thank you for turning PORT, and all of the other FACT/SF dreams, into something real. 

Remains for PORT 2017; Photo by Gema Galina

PORT 2017 offered five performances and a whole lot more. Going forward as a model for exchange, PORT also offers a radical shift for the dance communities in Southern California, the Bay Area, Portland, and Seattle. It’s pretty thrilling to realize that we’re developing an important and unique model, and creating new touring capacity for the entire field. We’ll start rolling out PORT up and down the West Coast in 2018.

Get excited, and stay tuned.

Charles Slender-White is the Artistic Director of FACT/SF. He has created dozens of original dance works, is a Certified Countertechnique Teacher, and has performed and taught across North America, Europe, Russia, and in Hong Kong and Australia. Slender-White started his career with Provincial Dances Theatre (Yekaterinburg, Russia), and received his BA in English Literature and Dance & Performance Studies from UC Berkeley.

2017 in Review, P.1: Dance Advocacy Conference in Belgrade, Serbia

This blog is the first in Slender-White's 3-part series of reflections on his work with FACT/SF in 2017.

A wee bit of dancing at the dance conference.

Written by Charles Slender-White

I first got to go to the Balkans in 2015 to conduct research for my project, (dis)integration. This was funded by Movement Research and the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and made possible by the insightful Julie Phelps, CounterPulse’s Artistic Director. Julie connected me to the funds, and to artists and arts workers in Serbia and Bulgaria. That first trip in 2015 went well, and FACT/SF was invited to return in 2016. This time, Liane Burns and I went together for five weeks to teach, make choreography with the local dancers, and develop our own duet, Platform.

And then, earlier this year, I was encouraged to return to the region yet again. Arts organizers from Belgrade’s Station: Service for Contemporary Dance invited me and a dozen other Americans to attend their Nomad Dance Advocates conference. As in 2015 and 2016, this trip was also funded by Movement Research and the Trust for Mutual Understanding, in collaboration with local partners.

Sit, listen, learn. Mid-way back, L to R: Barbara Bryan (Movement Research), Tania Gordeeva (Vaganova Academy), Jeanne Pfeffer (CounterPulse), me (FACT/SF), and Marya Wethers (Movement Research)

The Nomad Dance Advocates conference brought together about 50 arts workers from the US and Europe to address one question: how can the artists in Belgrade and throughout the Balkans build sustainable, accessible, equitable, and well-funded spaces for contemporary dance? The Germans, Swedes, and French shared models from their respective countries, the Eastern Europeans explained the economic, political, and cultural situations they were dealing with, and the Americans talked about the fundamental role individual donors and private foundations play in our ability to create work and engage with our communities. We all listened attentively to each other, took notes, and spoke up when we thought we might have something to contribute.

During breakfast in the morning, we would convene over coffee and omelettes and talk about the previous day’s discussions. Throughout our lunch break, we would get to know each other more personally. And, after the conference ended each day, we’d go together to a local theatre to watch a performance. We’d talk more on our walk back to the hotel. In between all of this, we’d gather in a more formal and organized ways for discussions, lectures, debates, presentations, etc. The conference was just four days long, but jam-packed full of revelations, proposals, counter-proposals, radical transparency, and real solutions to very complex problems. This was perhaps the most impactful experience I’ve ever had where talking led to action, where conversations were well-balanced between learning and sharing, and where imaginative thinking lent itself to practical solutions.

Sharing thoughts about existing power structures and proposing how we can work to change them.

We covered many topics in those 96 hours, including:

• the role of dance in society,
• the relationship between the government, its people, and art as a public good, and
• the importance of aligning dance education and community outreach with both the values of the arts sector and the needs of a local population.

Big stuff. Heady stuff. Necessary stuff.

Jeanne Pfeffer was there, too, representing CounterPulse. Jeanne and I worked arm-in-arm from 2009-2014 to build FACT/SF in those early years, and she’s currently on our Board of Directors. On a personal level, it was fulfilling to get to spend time together in a far away place. On a professional level, it was incredibly rewarding to get to witness each other as the arts professionals we have become - literally at the table with dozens of experts and feeling like we, too, had valuable insights to share.

Me and Jeanne getting situated on our first day in Belgrade, Serbia

Throughout the conference, we did all we could to adequately represent the Bay Area and the many different types of work (and ways of working) found in our region. People had heaps of questions for us, and we’d toggle between sharing anecdotes and strategies from our own organizations, and providing insight about how the contemporary performance field more generally functions in Northern California. We received a lot of new information, too, and we're currently in the process of reflecting on all that we learned and are writing down some of the major take-aways. Our ultimate aim is to start new local conversations and make positive change in the Bay Area dance ecology. You’ll be hearing a lot from us about this throughout 2018 - stay tuned!

This trip was significantly different than the others I’ve gotten to take. I didn’t teach or perform, and I wasn’t there to convince anyone that my choreographic vision was superlative in some way. Instead, this conference afforded an open and inquisitive type of field-wide exchange that seems both rare and necessary. It was inspiring to learn how others are thriving and struggling. It was reifying to realize that I had a set of knowledge and experiences that others wanted to know about. It was empowering to gain a palpable sense of community and inclusion, and to reinvest yet again in the importance of taking action.

All the 2017 Nomad Dance Advocates 

Charles Slender-White is the Artistic Director of FACT/SF. He has created dozens of original dance works, is a Certified Countertechnique Teacher, and has performed and taught across North America, Europe, Russia, and in Hong Kong and Australia. Slender-White started his career with Provincial Dances Theatre (Yekaterinburg, Russia), and received his BA in English Literature and Dance & Performance Studies from UC Berkeley.

On PORT & FACT/SF's Touring History

Written by Charles Slender-White

FACT/SF, Photo by Kegan Marling

PORT (Peer Organized Regional Touring) is an initiative by FACT/SF and the LA Contemporary Dance Company aimed at increasing exchange and touring opportunities for contemporary dance companies throughout the West Coast. We’ve been working on PORT for over two years, and we’re thrilled that its launch is finally here!

PORT is a significant program and a major part of FACT/SF’s 10th season. I've been reflecting on why touring and exchange became important to me, how FACT/SF has pursued different opportunities over the years, and what I hope PORT will change about how the contemporary dance field operates.

I started FACT/SF back in 2008, after working in Russia for two years with a touring contemporary dance company, Provincial Dances Theatre. Through my work with Provincial Dances, I got to travel all over Russia, and perform in cities throughout France, Poland, and Latvia. During that same period, my best friend and dear colleague, Emily Woo Zeller, was working in Hong Kong – so I got to perform there with her, too. And, prior to my 2006 move to Russia, I had wonderful opportunities outside of my native California to study, perform, and audition in Durham, Seattle, New York City, Pittsburgh, London, and Brussels.

LA Contemporary Dance Company, Photo by Taso Papadakis

These varied experiences instilled in me a deep desire to travel and exchange with others – essentially, to be in a community that values continued, comprehensive learning and sharing. FACT/SF was born out of this desire for exchange and community.  Over the past nine years, FACT/SF has benefitted from a variety of  touring engagements. Some were funded, some were supported in-kind, and all were worth the effort.

For FACT/SF’s first tour, in 2009, we performed at every WalMart in California. In 21 days we drove nearly 10,000 miles in a Board Member’s donated car, visited 173 stores in 150 cities, and found sleeping accommodations in the homes of generous friends and family throughout the state. It was our most boot-strapped tour, a grueling effort, and an experience that challenged many of my preconceived ideas about my home state.

In 2011, Danielle Ross (a fellow Berkeley grad) invited FACT/SF to share an evening with her in Portland, Oregon at Performance Works NW. We received a small performance stipend, got a discounted rental car through a cousin who worked at Enterprise, and slept in three different homes that Danielle’s community opened up to us.

FACT/SF at Lake Baikal, Russia

In 2012, with massive support from the US State Department and the Trust for Mutual Understanding, we spent 7 weeks touring 8 cities across Russia. We made two new works on local companies, taught 32 master classes, and gave 9 performances.

Slender-White & Burns in Bulgaria

And, just last year, Liane Burns and I spent 5 weeks in Bulgaria and Serbia (with support from Movement Research), creating a new work on dancers at Derida Dance in Sofia, teaching at Station in Belgrade, and sharing excerpts from our duet, Platform.

In 2015, while attending APAP in New York (a massive and unwieldy annual dance conference), Christy Bolingbroke connected me to the artistic and administrative leaders of the LA Contemporary Dance Company. We shared our frustrations at the heavy-lift that tours require, and our surprise that the major cities on the West Coast aren’t better connected.

While Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego all maintain robust contemporary dance communities, there’s relatively little interaction between them. Each region (and each region’s artists) are too-often re-inventing the wheel over and over again, unnecessarily expending capital in the pursuit of ‘figuring it out’ on their own. So, in an optimistic spirit of collaboration, we decided to work together and see if we could design a better way for companies to share resources and provide more opportunities for each other. At the very least, we wanted to find a way forward that worked for our two companies, with the hope that it might work for others, too.

What emerged is a relatively straight-forward program, where each company takes on the responsibilities of hosting the other in their own hometown, in exchange for the opportunity to be a fully-produced, visiting guest in the other.

Marketing and PR efforts are shared to reduce costs and increase impact, and the choreographers are given freedom to present whichever works they feel best represent their aesthetics, their desires, and their companies. From September 14-16, FACT/SF and ODC Theater will host LACDC in San Francisco, and two weeks later LACDC will return the favor by hosting us in Los Angeles.

From an economic side, this makes a lot of sense. Many of FACT/SF’s expenses for producing a show are fixed, and it costs us little extra to add more works from a visiting artist to our evening. And it makes sense from an audience engagement perspective, too. If we self-produced in Los Angeles, it is unlikely that many people would attend the show because few people in LA are familiar with our work. By working with a local company as host, their own communities will turn out for the event, with the added bonus that those audiences will get to see something new and different, too.

2017 is the inaugural year of PORT. We have full confidence that we’re set up for success, but obviously do not truly know how it will actually go. Once the September shows have finished, we’ll evaluate the program’s strengths and identify areas that need improvement. After that, we’ll develop a platform for other contemporary dance companies to work together, so that the knowledge we’ve gained from this experience can be of benefit to artists, companies, and artists up and down the West Coast.

Charles Slender-White is the Artistic Director of FACT/SF. He has created dozens of original dance works, is a Certified Countertechnique Teacher, and has performed and taught across North America, Europe, Russia, and in Hong Kong and Australia. Slender-White started his career with Provincial Dances Theatre (Yekaterinburg, Russia), and received his BA in English Literature and Dance & Performance Studies from UC Berkeley.

Reflecting on Platform

Written by Liane Burns

As Charlie and I make the final changes to the piece, the production team perfects the intricate lighting, video, and set design for the work, and we all gear up for Platform’s world premiere, I feel fortunate to take the time to reflect on how it all began.

Photo by Kegan Marling

Since moving to San Francisco in 2012, I have been a part of FACT/SF’s many unique, creative processes and performances as both dancer and collaborator. Each of us in the company helps shape the work by generating material and providing feedback, with Charlie as the director with final veto power. Platform’s process was significantly different for both him and myself, as we agreed to equally share creative input and authority throughout the creative process. Having been on the dancer/collaborator side of the relationship for so many years, I had my own concerns for myself and Charlie. Would I feel comfortable speaking up? Would Charlie be able to loosen the reins and share the responsibility with me?  

In 2015, sitting at a bar and sipping sangria, Charlie (my boss, colleague, and someone who would become a dear friend and creative partner), asked if I had listened to Holly Herndon’s latest album, Platform. I could tell by the enthusiasm in his voice how completely stoked he was about the music. Having danced in FACT/SF’s Relief to one of Herndon’s tracks from her first album, Movement, I shared Charlie’s appreciation for Herndon’s genius. Charlie already knew I had a desire to choreograph my own work, and asked if I would be interested in co-creating a duet to Platform, the album. I was like, “Hell yes!”

Without a budget, plan, or premiere date, we both committed right then and there at the bar, not only to make a duet together, but to use every single track on the album. What seemed like two simple guidelines at the time turned out to be both a challenge, and a wonderful way of pushing us to make new choices together that we might never have made on our own. Platform’s journey has been an exciting and adventurous two years, due in large part to Charlie’s experience and knowledge as a director and dance maker, to the team of creative advisors and designers who generously agreed to help shape the work, and to FACT/SF’s supportive community. I am forever grateful to both Charlie and the Company for believing and trusting in me.

Over the last two years, iterations of Platform have been shown in San Francisco, Bulgaria, and Serbia. Platform v.1 was created and performed in San Francisco for FACT/SF’s JuMP 2016. These first three sections took the longest of all 10 tracks to make, largely because Charlie and I had to learn how to co-create a work together. This process was slow, tedious, and considerate, resulting in 2 of the most intricate and detailed sections of the work. Soon after closing JuMP 2016, Charlie and I flew to the Balkans for a creative residency in Bulgaria and to teach and perform in Serbia. I found our 5 weeks traveling, teaching, and performing in the Balkans to be the most significant part of the overall process. Not only were we given the time to focus solely on dance, but we lived, worked, ate, drank, and shared an apartment together. In this time, I got to know Charlie as a person and a friend, not just a boss or colleague. The Balkans trip provided us with a deeper and more comfortable working relationship and a completely new audience, which allowed us to make more risky and unapologetic choices for Platform v.2.

Photo by Andrew Weeks

What I love most about Platform is that it is made out of collaboration. Darl Andrew Packard and Delayne Medoff, two lighting designers with a history of working with FACT/SF, have co-designed the lighting for Platform. Monique Jenkinson (Stylist) and Keriann Egeland (Costume Designer) collaborated to give us our looks. Cara Rose DeFabio (Dramaturge), and James Fleming & Maurya Kerr (Creative Advisors), are all familiar with FACT/SF’s work and provided feedback and insight throughout the creative process. This fantastic team significantly helped me and Charlie shape Platform.

What a journey! Each iteration and performance of the work gave us the opportunity to test out ideas on a live audience, and to then learn and reflect on the choices we had made and where we wanted to go next. From its first performance in JuMP 2016 to its premiere this Friday and Saturday, Platform has developed into something I am both honored and proud to share with each of you who come to support and witness. I know I can speak for both Charlie and myself when I say we are ready and excited to share the little dance baby we made together called Platform. See you at the show!

Liane has spent the last four years working in San Francisco as a company member and collaborator with FACT/SF and detour dance, and as a guest artist with Simpson/Stulberg Collaborations, RAWdance, LEVYdance, and Christine Bonansea. Liane is the Lead Instructor at Elevate Group Fitness, and corporate Group Fitness Instructor with City Move’n Fitness. Liane received her BFA in Dance and Performance from Chapman University, and completed her postgraduate studies in Israel at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. While living in Israel, she additionally apprenticed and performed with Amir Kolben's Kolben Dance Company. She has both performed and created work in Orange County, San Francisco, Israel, Bulgaria and Serbia.

[Editor's Note: FACT/SF invited Platform collaborators to write about their experiences witnessing rehearsals and contributing to the development of the work. In addition to the writing above by Platform Co-Choreographer, Liane Burns, FACT/SF has also shared reflections from James Fleming (Creative Advisor), Maurya Kerr (Creative Advisor), Cara Rose DeFabio (Dramaturge), and Charles Slender-White (Co-Choreographer). In offering these thoughts, questions, observations, and impressions, FACT/SF aims to provide some insight into our creative process and a bit of context for Platform's conceptual considerations.]