BETTY (world premiere)

Choreography: Taylor Donofrio

Performance: Liessa Son, Poppy Miller

Music: Original sound score by Squash & Biscuit, with excerpt from The Ronnettes

Scenic Consultant: Yuki Ding

Lighting Design & Technical Direction: Del Medoff

Technicians: Taylor Rivers & Del Medoff

Conjuring the energy, empowerment, as well as struggles of the ‘Second Wave’ of the feminist movement, BETTY, connects feminist ideals of our current time to this significant historical period. Paying homage to the housewives, activists, and young women of the 1960’s, BETTY, contemplates gender equality and its place in 2023, where women’s rights are still in question.

About the Artists

Taylor Donofrio / Donofrio Dance creates delicate and intricate dance works for the screen, stage, and for public spaces. Donofrio’s approach to dance incorporates a psychoanalytic perspective, exploring one’s inner landscape and how it connects to our relationships and understanding of the world. Taylor examines new approaches to performance through artistic exchanges, her work informed by collaborators from various disciplines. Currently based in Los Angeles, where she received her MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts, Donofrio has worked as a choreographer in NYC for the past decade. She founded her own Contemporary Dance Company, Donofrio Dance Company in 2010 in Brooklyn, NY. Since, Donofrio’s work has been presented at Triskelion Arts, CPR, FLICfest, INSITU Site-Specific Dance Festival, 92Y, WestFest, Gibney Dance, Jacob Burns Film Center, Red Rock Screen Dance Film Festival, Governor’s Island, and Heidi Duckler’s Ebb & Flow.

Poppy Miller is a BFA3 at CalArts and recipient of the prestigious Duke/Surdna Foundation Dance Grant. She has worked with renowned choreographers/companies including; Merce Cunningham; Yusha-Marie Sorzano; Rudy Perez; Katherine Helen Fisher; Jose Limon; Jiri Kylian and Cricket Colter. She’s excited to study abroad at ZHDK this fall.

Liessa Son is a Korean American artist from Los Angeles. She has performed/collaborated with various dance choreographers as she explored her movements based on her training background of Korean Dance and western dance. Graduated from CalArts in 2021, she also creates her own multidisciplinary artwork mainly focused on dance films.

Brian Griffith and Shuwen Zhao create music for movement, film, animation, and performance as Squash & Biscuit. The duo draw inspiration from language, ritual, and their environment to create work that blends organic & synthesized elements. Both hold an MFA in Experimental Sound Practices & Composition from CalArts; they’re based in Los Angeles.

Insecta (world premiere)

Choreography: Héctor Jaime & Carmina Márquez

Performance: Héctor Jaime, Brooke Terry

Music: Meitei, Dylan Henner & Robert Farrugia

Lighting Design & Technical Direction: Del Medoff

Technicians: Taylor Rivers & Del Medoff

This piece explores my interest in movement and nature– two things that have brought me healing and a deeper understanding of myself. How can we explore the microcosms in nature to learn about ourselves? As a two-spirit identifying person, I was fascinated to find out about the concept of “gynandromorphism” which is found in the insect world. This is defined as an organism that contains both male and female characteristics, biologically and visually. I am always looking to find that moment of transcendental movement of embodying both characteristics of the masculine and feminine simultaneously.

About the Artists:

Héctor Jaime (They/She/He) was born and raised in Mexicali, Baja California, México. They began their training with Manuel Torres in El Centro Estatal de las Artes (CEART). Héctor graduated from the Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet BFA Program in San Francisco affiliated with Dominican University of California. Post graduation, they had the opportunity to be a member of Sean Dorsey Dance, Dawson Dance SF, and Detour Dance Company. He started their own company “Xochipilli Dance Company; based in the Bay Area. XDC has now premiered work in different residencies since its foundation including Deborah Slater Dance Theater summer residency in studio 210, Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers (FLACC), BBQueer Dance Festival, PUSH Artist in residency, D.I.R.T 2023, Stapleton School of the Performing Arts Choreographic Residency and Queering Dance Festival.

Brooke Terry (she/they) is a dance artist, choreographer, instructor, and movement investigator native to St. Louis, Missouri. Pre-professionally they trained rigorously through COCA STL, under the mentorship of Antonio and Kirven Douthit-Boyd, and graduated from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA program in 2022. They’ve worked with dawsondancesf, REYES Dance, Xochipilli Dance Company, David Herrera Performance Company, Joe Goode Performance Group, as a movement consultant for DETOUR Dance's We Build Houses Here, and are on faculty with the TEENS at LINES program. Brooke is currently based in San Francisco and aims to continue sharing their experiences as a young Black queer individual through movement.

RP (world premiere)

Choreography & Performance: Alfonso Cervera

Music: Panoptica, Angelica Maria, and ASMR family recordings. Edited by Alfonso Cervera.

Costume Design: Alfonso Cervera and Vilma Ojeda

Lighting Design & Technical Direction: Del Medoff

Technicians: Taylor Rivers & Del Medoff

Retinitis pigmentosa is a rare, inherited degenerative eye disease that causes severe vision impairment, often beginning in early childhood. Cervera's work places his family at the forefront as he archives and revisits shared moments with Maria Casanova and Denise Cervera's lived experiences. Through movement-based explorations, Cervera attempts to acknowledge past events and bring awareness to his family's disability.

Thank you to Denise my sister and Maria my mother for allowing me to interview them to place their stories within this work.

About the Artist

Alfonso Cervera holds an MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside. He’s a Queer first-generation Mexican American choreographer, performer, educator, curator, and activist. Along with his degree, he holds professional certifications in Asana Yoga, Reiki Healing, and is the Executive Director of Show Box L.A. His research and specialization as an independent movement practitioner focuses on the conversation between queerness, Ballet Folklorico, and Afro-LatinX social dances in a contemporary auto-biographical embodied experience that he calls Poc-Chuc. Poc-Chuc, an emerging and inclusive dance technique developed by Cervera, weaves these techniques as a pedagogical tool to create representation for marginalized communities.

Bad Birdwatching (world premiere)

Choreography & Performance: Mia J. Chong and Emily Hansel

Music: Ben Juodvalkis

Lighting Design & Technical Direction: Del Medoff

Technicians: Taylor Rivers & Del Medoff

Bad Birdwatching, a duet choreographed and performed by Mia J. Chong and Emily Hansel, is a stroll through the forest that playfully addresses how humans unknowingly alter the natural world. Through mundane rituals and gibberish vignettes, we explore the day-to-day guilt, or lack thereof, regarding the climate crisis and other social inequities.

About the Artists:

Mia J. Chong is a choreographer and dancer from San Francisco. Mia currently collaborates with Post:ballet while freelancing throughout the Bay Area. Her work has been performed by Post:ballet, BODYSONNET, NYU Tisch, UC Berkeley’s Chamber Chorus, and more. Mia danced with ODC/Dance, Robert Moses’ Kin, Dance Theatre of San Francisco, and Concept o4. She received a Princess Grace Award and Chris Hellman Dance Honor, among other honors. Mia earned a BA in Social Sciences from NYU and is currently pursuing an MS in Arts Administration and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University. miajchong.com

Emily Hansel is a San Francisco-based dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, arts administrator, and artist advocate whose work centers the dancer’s experience. Originally from Rochester, MN, Emily received their BFA in Dance from the University of South Florida.They currently dance for Post:ballet, SFDanceworks, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Christy Funsch, and David Herrera Performance Company. Recently, Emily created new work for Post:ballet, received an SF Artist award from the SF Arts Commission, self-produced her first evening-length choreographic work, Four by Four, at ODC Theater, and was named an Individual Artist Fellow by the California Arts Council. More at www.emilyhansel.me.

Autobrecciation (world premiere)

Choreography & Performance: Brianna Elyse Torres and Chinchin Hsu

Music: Kuniyuki Takahasi, Led Zeppelin, Arca

Lighting Design & Technical Direction: Del Medoff

Technicians: Taylor Rivers & Del Medoff

In Brianna Torres' newest collaboration with Chinchin Hsu, audiences will bear witness to real time choices, a glimpse into a new world co-created, time slipping, intimacy building, human decay, chaos and autobrecciation. buckle up.

Thanks to Gama Hsu, Garret Hernandez, and the Performing Arts Workshop for their support and rental space.

About the Artists

Brianna Elyse Torres (she/her) is a Boricua movement artist, child of the diaspora, healer, platano lover, and birthworker currently rooted on Lisjan Ohlone lands. Brianna is an alumni of Laguardia Performing Arts High School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She is a deep believer in movement as a way to heal, grieve and access collective joy. Brianna is excited to share new work with Chinchin Hsu. She is deeply appreciative Chinchin's spirit, friendship, intention and collaborative nature.

Chinchin Hsu (she/her/她), was born and raised in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. moved to the U.S. in 2004 and now resides on Ramaytush lands; a southeast asian immigrant, a teaching artist, now a dance mama of two little humans. she has trained in tai-chi, chinese martial art, chinese ballet, western ballet, various modern techniques, improvisation and composition. chinchin is curious how imagination and motherhood combine themselves in this process of creativity and how they will manifest a stage sharing performance today. she is delighted to be in this dialogue with Brianna in imagining ways to destabilize discomfort within our constant changing female-by-birth bodies.

sitch (world premiere)

Concept & Direction: Charles Slender-White

Choreography & Performance: Keanu Brady, Katherine Neumann, LizAnne Roman Roberts

Music: Charli XCX

Lighting Design & Technical Direction: Del Medoff

Technicians: Taylor Rivers & Del Medoff

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, maintains a core group of local collaborators, and has developed an extensive international network of partners. FACT/SF has premiered 42 works, with tours throughout the US, across Russia, and to Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Macedonia. FACT/SF’s Fieldwork programs provide support and material resources to contemporary dance artists outside FACT/SF.

About the Artists

Keanu Forrest Brady (he/they) is a San Francisco-based dance artist working at the intersection of contemporary improvisation, hip-hop and post-modern movement forms. Keanu received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Modern Dance at the University of Utah. Over the years, he has worked closely as a performer and creative collaborator with various San Francisco based companies and arts nonprofits such as LEVYdancy (2017-2021), AXIS dance company, ODC, Kinetech, and Sarah Shelton-Mann, alongside other local choreographers and drag performers. Within the United States, he has worked on stage and screen with Carl Flink, Eric Handman, Satu Hummasti and Scotty Hardwig, among others. His performance work has allowed him to tour within the United States and Internationally. He is currently a company member of FACT/SF since 2018, as well as serving on the board of directors as Dancer Liaison as of 2022. If you are unable to find him dancing in the studios, stages and streets of San Francisco, you can find him on instagram, @keanu.dance.

Katherine Neumann (she/her) is a San Francisco based dance artist. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Katherine received her early dance training at Danspace in Oakland, under the guidance of Beth Hoge. She holds a BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Katherine has worked with Robert Moses’ Kin, the Mari Meade Dance Collective, ka·nei·see | collective, and Stephanie Unger & Artists. She is currently a company member of both FACT/SF and Liss Fain Dance.

LizAnne Roman Roberts (she/her) fell in love with dance at age four after seeing Giselle on TV in her hometown Tulsa, Oklahoma. Honored and humbled to have been working in the profession of her dreams for over twenty years, LizAnne began her career with Tulsa Ballet while finishing high school and earning a BFA at the University of Oklahoma. She has been dancing in the Bay since 2008, and collaborating with FACT/SF since 2012. LizAnne is a certified Pilates instructor, and mom of two. She dedicates this performance to Josh - to ten years and to one. 

Jax Blaska (FACT/SF Operations & Production Manager, they/them) is a San Francisco-born creative collaborator. Jax works in production and arts administration across theatre, dance, performance art, and installation, with Bay Area 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 alien drag (Nasturtium!). For the 2023-24 season, Jax will be the inaugural Directing Apprentice at Cutting Ball Theater. Jax is proud to have been with FACT/SF for two years and is deeply grateful for the creative community and dear friends they have found here.

Delayne (Del) Medoff (Lighting Design & Technical Direction, he/him) loves lighting dance. Really loves it. Like, really, really really, didn't realize how much it enriched his life but now does because he was completely cut off from for 2 years, loves it. He dislikes writing bios. Like really, really really, waits till the last second then frantically pieces together parts of old bios with scissors and glue like some sort of villain in an 1990's abduction thriller, dislikes it. I hope you enjoy the show!

Charles Slender-White (he/him/any) 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.

MISSION AND IMPACT:

ODC is dedicated to the lifecycle of the artistic process. Through our company, school and theater, we aim to inspire audiences, cultivate artists, engage community, and foster diversity and inclusion through dance.

ODC Theater exists to empower and develop innovative artists. It participates in the creation of new works through commissioning, presenting, mentorship and space access; it develops informed, engaged and committed audiences; and advocates for the performing arts as an essential component to the economic and cultural development of our community. This 170-seat venue is the site of over 150 performances a year involving nearly 1,000 local, regional, national and international artists.

Since 1976, ODC Theater has been the mobilizing force behind countless San Francisco artists and the foothold for national and international touring artists seeking debut in the Bay Area. The Theater, founded by Brenda Way has earned its place as a cultural incubator by dedicating itself to creative change-makers, those leaders who give the Bay Area its unmistakable definition and flair. Nationally known artists Spaulding Gray, Diamanda Galas, Bill T. Jones, Eiko & Koma, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Karole Armitage, Sarah Michelson, Brian Brooks and John Heginbotham are among those whose first San Francisco appearance occurred at ODC Theater.

ODC Theater is currently under the Creative Direction of Chloë L. Zimberg, and is a proud member of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Western Arts Alliance, Dance/USA. For more information on ODC Theater and all its programs please visit: odc.dance/theater

ODC Theater relies on the generous support of donors like you. To give to ODC Theater, visit odc.dance/support-theater

ODC is on the ancestral lands of the Ramaytush People in Yelamu. We pay respects to elders past and present, who are still here and part of our community. We recognize that regenerative land management is not new, but is a continuation of practices from Native cultures and from our own ancestors. It is our responsibility to steward the land with care, as our elders did before us.

ODC is donating $.50 for each in-person ticket (seat) sold to all performances in the Theater. ODC will donate these funds to the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone land tax fund.

ODC THEATER STAFF:

ODC Founder and Artistic Director Brenda Way

Executive Director Carma Zisman

ODC Theater Creative Director Chloë L. Zimberg

ODC School Director & Associate Choreographer Kimi Okada

ODC Fellow KT Nelson

ODC Chief of Staff Garth Grimball

Assistant to the Creative Director Luna Sofia Ruíz

Director of Production Jack Beuttler

Production Coordinator Chris Chamberlin-Miner

ODC Theater Venue Manager Brian Williamson

Audience Services Manager Katya Ponomarenko

Director of Marketing & Communications Sophie Leininger

Publicist John B. Hill

FRONT OF HOUSE STAFF:

Lynn Layug Schnulle, Senior Associate

Sophia Grimani

Sarah Hampton

Valerie Lam

Annika Mikk

Callie Norberg

AJ Ong Cortez

Jordan Wanderer

Olivia V

ODC TECHNICIANS:

Mary Clare Blake-Booth

Colin Johnson

Liz Kreter-Killian

Del Medoff

Cole Stuart Johnson

Dan Weiermann