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.