presents

June 4 & 11, 2022

The first part of our yearlong project Queer Athletic Futurity, fluid forms is a free, public dance performance about sports, inclusion, and the adjacent possible. Parkgoers are invited to watch from one area or follow dancers as they flow throughout the park and perform a dance piece created in response to and site-specifically within the Presidio Tunnel Tops environment.

Concept & Direction

Charles Slender-White

Choreography & performance

FACt/SF Company members

Keanu Brady, Katherine Neumann, LizAnne Roman Roberts

Guest artists

Devon Chen, Liam Fleming, Alexandra Mannings, Amelia Nommensen, Wade Reynolds, Chloe Rosen

production

Jax Blaska, Operations Manager

Jessica Brown, Production Assistant

Charles Slender-White is a contemporary dance artist, educator, instigator, organizer, and the Artistic Director of FACT/SF. Slender-White believes that artists deserve a living wage and that artists’ labor should be recognized, and he utilizes FACT/SF as a framework to realize these values, make art, and engage community. He is one of 44 Countertechnique Teachers worldwide, on faculty at the American Dance Festival, and recently served as a Guest Curator and Resident Strategist at ODC Theater from 2021-2023. Slender-White began his career with Provincial Dances Theatre in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and graduated with honors from UC Berkeley with degrees in Dance & Performance Studies and English Literature.

Jax Blaska (they/she) is a San Francisco-born theatremaker & creative collaborator. Jax works in production and arts administration across theatre, dance, performance art, and installation, with a diverse variety of Bay Area artists and organizations including FACT/SF, Detour Dance, EyeZen Presents, and Cutting Ball Theater. They hold a BA with honors from Yale University, and can occasionally be found performing in drag.

Keanu Forrest Brady is a San Francisco based artist since 2016. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) from the University of Utah. He’s so grateful to be working with FACT/SF since 2018, as well as joining the board of directors last year . He loves food, family, and the outdoors.

Jessica Brown (she/her) is a third year dance major at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She grew up dancing in the Santa Ynez Valley and has loved teaching and working in her community. She has interned with companies such as Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Carmel Dance Festival, and now FACT/ SF. She is honored and excited to be joining the team for this outdoor production!

Devon Chen is a versatile freelance dancer who has collaborated with numerous local artists. Her dance performances are characterized by a captivating blend of athleticism and grace. Driven by a deep curiosity about the human body and its capabilities, her lifelong dedication to the art of movement has led her to become a passionate physical therapist specializing in guiding dancers and athletes on their journey to recovery.

Liam Fleming (he/they) is a pole and contemporary dance artist based in San Francisco. Liam’s pre-professional dance training includes ChiArts, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and the LINES Ballet Training Program. He proudly serves Pole + Dance Studios as Regional Facilities Manager, Kristin Damrow & Company in administration, and pursues performance independently.

Alexandra Mannings (she/they) is a dance artist hailing from the East Coast. They are excited by the possibilities of dance creation and performance when linked with text and other visual mediums. Alex also enjoys hiking, biking, tide pooling, cooking, eating and being with loved ones.

Katherine Neumann (she/her) is a San Francisco based dance artist. She a company member of FACT/SF and Liss Fain Dance and has previously worked with Robert Moses’ Kin, the Mari Meade Dance Collective, ka·nei·see | collective, Stephanie Unger & Artists, Alyssa Mitchel, Alex Law, Hannah Ayesse, and Hannah Young.

Amelia Nommensen is a dance artist and naturalist. As a choreographer, filmmaker, and performer based in San Francisco, her creative work aims to integrate movement into ocean conservation and vice versa sparking compassion and inspiring action. Learn more at www.nommensendance.com.

Wade Reynolds holds an MFA in Dance from Mills College, and a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has danced across the country before coming to the Bay Area, and is honored to perform with FACT/SF. Wade currently dances for sjDANCEco and ArcTangent Dance Company.

LizAnne Roman Roberts began dancing at four after seeing Giselle on TV in her hometown Tulsa, OK. She began her career 22 years ago with Tulsa Ballet. She then earned a BFA at the University of Oklahoma, and began dancing in the Bay in 2008. This is LizAnne’s 11th season with FACT/SF.

Chloe Rosen (they/them) is a queer/nonbinary dance artist, educator, and community organizer. They started creatively conceiving and directing dance productions during their undergrad at UCSC, and have continued on in the years following. Their work centers creating spaces for queer folks to gather in solidarity to heal.

FACT/SF is a San Francisco-based contemporary dance company, founded in 2008 by Charles Slender-White as a platform for organizing collaborators, building community, and creating choreography. FACT/SF regularly performs in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has performed throughout California, Russia, and the Balkans, and in Oregon, Washington, and North Carolina. FACT/SF also offers Countertechnique classes and workshops throughout North America, and supports the health of the local dance field by offering fiscal sponsorship, distributing production support grants, and producing the annual FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival. In addition to core support from our individual donors, FACT/SF's programming has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Phyllis C Wattis Foundation, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, and numerous others.

The Presidio opened its new Tunnel Tops park in summer of 2022, after a multi-year long push to create public space that gives visitors a car-free way to traverse Highway 101 and connect Crissy Field to the rest of the Presidio. Since then, Tunnel Tops has been home to public art installations, community performances, and many, many picnickers, hikers, dog-walkers, and humans of all ages playing.

The Presidio was originally established as a fortified location by Spanish colonizers in the 18th century, as part of the long and bloody project of gaining control of the region. The Presidio passed through Mexican control before it was seized by the American army during the Mexican-American war in 1846. From 1848 until 1991, the Presidio was operated as an important US Army base, a number of military hospitals, and as the Western Defense Command during World War II. Here, the directive for the internment of Japanese-Americans was signed, and military units embarked from the Presidio for a number of armed conflicts overseas, including the invasion of the Philippines and the First Gulf War. After 1991, the Presidio Trust took over management of the park, dedicated to the “preservation of the cultural and historic integrity of the Presidio for public use.”

This is, of course, not the oldest history of what we now know as Presidio Tunnel Tops. The Presidio sits on the unceded lands of the Yelamu, a local tribe of the Ramaytush Ohlone people who once populated all of what is now San Francisco. They and their descendants are the traditional stewards of this land whose dispossession and forced removal remains one of many dark blights on the American story.

To acknowledge the history of this land, and the work of those fighting to retain their culture and connection to it, in 2022 FACT/SF began to pay annual land taxes to the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, currently set as 0.5% of our operating budget. We recognize that this is just a beginning step, and that monetary donation only goes so far in addressing and holding accountable the wrongdoing of the past. We welcome community insight about additional methods to pursue, and we encourage our peer organizations and our network of audience, donors, and collaborators to also think critically about how they can support indigenous rights movements in their area.

fluid forms is made possible with support from the following organizations, and generous individual donors.

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

FACT/SF’s on-going work is also supported by:

Oliver Bacon & Greg Barnell, Jesse Dill & Patrick Metz, John Engstrom & Matthew Fidanque, Abel O'Connell, Thomas Pack & Matthew Mansh, John Perkins, Maryam Rostami & Jackson Bowman, Verna Slender, Rune Stromsness, Glenda & David White, Sherisse Burns & Mary Grunthaner, Melissa & Dan Joseph, Catherine Newman, Jeanne Pfeffer & Paul Young, Blaze Stancampiano, Ellis Wood, Michael Todd Cohen & Adrian Frandle, Zoe Fyfe, Jessica Granderson, Robert Guter, Krista & Eric Hanson, Timothy Hildebrandt & Sam Bennett, Risa Jaroslow, Lauren & Adam Jennings, Beth Lim, Lauren Mazareeb, Mark Schaeffer, Shelley & George Slender, Tonia & Dan Stadler, Patricia Svilik, Emily Woo Zeller, Joe Yang, Liz Baqir, Sarah Barnes, Pamela Berelson, Susan & John Bunch, Rob Connolly, Erin Coyne, Sylvia de Trinidad and Andrew Young, Cara Rose DeFabio, Sherry & John Engstrom, Melinda Furch, Nina Haft, Lisa Hsai, Ben Jehoshua & Andrew Pearson, Denise & Eric Jennings, Beth Kuenstler & Shawn Reifsteck, Joyce Kushner, Amy Lewis, Karen and Ryan Little, Eduardo Lucio-Villalon & Chad Spitler, Andrew Lund, Jennifer Maness, Clifton Meek, Erica Mikesh, Angela Mousseau, Carol Murota & Neil Zelin, Liz Nagle, Antoaneta Petkova, Julie Phelps, Eric Prendergast, Jill Randall, Isabel Rosenstock, Richard Royse & Rocky Blumhagen, Lily Taylor & Sean Miller, Connie & Bill Van Horn, Catherine Volzke & Robyn Miller, Amanda Whitehead, Faye Wylder, and Carolynn & Dan Zocchi

Image by Crystal Barillas