Summer Dance Festival 2026 (Fieldwork)

FACT/SF SUMMER DANCE Festival overview

The FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival is part of FACT/SF Fieldwork, a set of programs that nourish the contemporary dance ecology by providing opportunities, support, and material resources to fellow artists. In addition to the Festival, Fieldwork currently includes Production Support Grants, Fiscal Sponsorship, Summer Dance Lab Scholarships, and our touring platform, PORT (Peer Organized Reciprocal Touring).

The Festival brings together an array of contemporary dance works by choreographers from the Bay Area and beyond. The purpose of the Festival is to juxtapose a variety of works to spur dialogue, support artists and artistic growth, and present to audiences a range of perspectives. In its inaugural year, the Festival was described as “a very strong debut and a great addition to the SF dance festival circuit.” - Heather Desaulniers, DanceTabs

Donofrio Dance Co presents BETTY at the 2023 FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival. Photo by Robbie Sweeny

present work with us in 2026

The 2026 FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival will take place at ODC Theater from August 14-16, 2026. FACT/SF will curate local & visiting choreographers to share work on a mixed-bill with FACT/SF. Each choreographer will present 8-12 minutes of finished work. We aim to curate a festival that includes artists from diverse geographical regions, so choreographers do not need to be Bay Area-based. Applications for the 2026 Summer Dance Festival are included in our Fieldwork Application process, now open through October 17, 2025 (or until 50 applications are reached).

Selected choreographers will each receive:

$1,500 presentation fee
$750 travel stipend for artists from outside the Bay Area
Full production support
6 complimentary tickets
Photo and video documentation
Limited marketing support
Inclusion in the FACT/SF season calendar

Our curatorial priorities are to:

Engage BIPOC artists and LGBTQ+ artists
Engage artists with a track record of making high-quality work
Juxtapose works of local and non-local artists
Support artists and works that are viable relative to artist’s capacity, artist’s history, and the scale of the Festival

application process

Fieldwork 2026 applications are now open through October 17, 2025, or until we have reached capacity at 50 applications.

Click here for application information.

Applications for curation into the Summer Dance Festival will be considered as part of the 2026 Fieldwork Appliction Process. We have streamlined the application process for all of our Fieldwork programs, so artists may now apply for any or all of the 2026 opportunities to get involved during one process. All Fieldwork applicants who complete the application process will receive a $30 honorarium to recognize the time and labor involved in preparing their application. For more information, please see the Fieldwork page.

In addition to completing the application, applicants must:

Identify as a maker of contemporary dances
Engage in two-way and open communication between our respective teams to facilitate and deepen our relationships as fellow artists
Adhere to a policy which prohibits and prevents discrimination against people on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, physical disability, veteran's status, national origin, ancestry, or socio-economic status

2025 festival artists

weekend 1

The Davis Sisters, Alexander Davis and Joy Davis, were mistaken for a married couple in 2015, and have been spending the last 6 years unsuccessfully trying to convince people that they are not married, but are kind of related… At the threshold of dance, theater, comedy, and installation, TDS create experiences in which performers and audiences are invited to contemplate humanity, enjoy absurdity, and delight in physical and verbal articulation. Drawing from pop culture and the pedestrian, TDS develop work that displays the theatricality of everyday life and imagery from less logical dreamscapes of the imagination. By illuminating underrepresented queer narratives, they delve into topics about love, hope, and memory which transcend boundaries and make space for individual connection. Through rigorous imagination, movement improvisation and the ridiculous, they courageously and insightfully dare to create scenarios in which they perform magnified versions of themselves.

Jenna Riegel (she/her), originally from Fairfield, Iowa, is a dance artist and movement educator. Jenna holds an M.F.A. in Dance Performance from the University of Iowa and a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Maharishi International University. During her eleven-year performing career in New York City, Jenna toured and performed nationally and internationally as a company member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance, Alexandra Beller/ Dances and Bill Young/ Colleen Thomas & Company. She also danced with Daara Dance (choreographer Michel Kouakou), Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, Shaneeka Harrell, Tania Isaac Dance and johannes weiland. She has been on faculty in the dance departments of Barnard College, The Juilliard School, and Virginia Commonwealth University, and at the American Dance Festival and the Bates Dance Festival. Jenna is currently an Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance at Amherst College.

weekend 2

Heather Dutton (she/they) is a Brooklyn based queer and gender fluid dance theater artist driven by a deep fascination with human nature. Their multidisciplinary approach to movement calls on their background in theater, comedy, creative writing, and a range of dance techniques. Most recently, she was an artist in residence with the American Dance Festival and premiered a new work at Flushing Town Hall with the support of Mare Nostrum Elements. Their work has also been presented at Arts on Site, Here Arts Center, Dixon Place, LPAC, the Tank, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and more. She holds a B.A. in Dance (Choreography and Education) from Muhlenberg College, where she also minored in Women’s and Gender Studies. Dutton is the director of emerging company, Middle Child Dance Theatre. IG: @middlechilddancetheatre, @featherrbutton

Claire Evangelho is a movement artist and educator rooted in Contact Improvisation, Noguchi Taiso, and release techniques. She has danced with Lizz Roman and Dancers, AXIS Dance Company, Push Up Something Hidden, Carol Keuffer-Moore, Nkechi Njaka, and others. Claire currently creates improvisational performance works and co-organizes dance education with badgoatdance.com.

Dani Oblitas (they/she) is a dance artist, choreographer and educator based in Chicago, IL. She is passionate about making movement accessible to all, and views dance as a life affirming act of both community cultivation and individual embodiment. They graduated from St. Olaf College with a degree in both Dance and Environmental Studies. Dani has performed with Liz Sexe Dance, We Are Collective, Helen Lee, kt Williams, and Ishti Collective among others. Currently, they are a collaborator and performer with 773 Dance Project, Sildance/Acrodanza, and Albany Park Theater Project's Port of Entry. Dani has presented work at Links Hall as a CO-MISSION Resident for 2024/2025, Marvelous Monday, Short Stack Film Festival, and the Transilience Festival. In 2024, they completed the Essential Level Spiral Body Techniques® teacher certification with Molly Shanahan/MadShak.

Chafin Seymour is originally from from Brooklyn, NY. He has had the pleasure to perform with Sage Ni’Ja Whitson/The NWA Project and Anneke Hansen Dance among others. As a choreographer, under seymour::dancecollective, Chafin’s work has been presented throughout NYC and nationally at venues such as Center for Performance Research (CPR), Triskelion Arts, Dixon Place, Livestream Public, Gibney Dance, The Wild Project, New York Live Arts, Movement Research at Judson Church, ODC Theater, The Ohio Dance Festival and The American Dance Festival among many others. The collective works on a project-to-project basis with a rotating roster of curated artists. The collective’s most recent evening length production BRIAR premiered at the ODC Theater (SF) in Fall 2024. Chafin has taught contemporary forms at Gibney Dance in NYC since 2015 and at ODC San Francisco since 2023. He was an inaugural Ann & Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow at Jacob’s Pillow in 2018 and was commissioned by The American Dance Festival and Limón Foundation to create ‘Suite Donuts’ for the Limón Dance Company in 2020. He has also created commissions for Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) in St. Louis, LINES Ballet Training Program (SF), and Fresno State University (CA) among others. He holds a BFA with Distinction in Dance from The Ohio State University and an MFA in Choreography from the University of Iowa. Currently Chafin resides in the Bay Area, CA and serves as an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Dance at San Jose State University.

The Taja Will Ensemble (TWE) is a social justice-minded dance collective, est. 2015, to support ongoing embodied research and collaboratively created contemporary dance. Artistic Director Taja Will (they/them) is a non-binary, chronically ill, queer, indigenous Latine (Chilean) adoptee. They are a performer, choreographer, somatic therapist, consultant and Healing Justice practitioner based in Mni Sota Makoce. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Their aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Will’s artistic work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through a blend of ritual, dense multi-layered worldbuilding and everyday magic. Taja initiates solo projects and teaching ventures and is a recent recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, in the dance field. Will established a project-based collective, the Taja Will Ensemble, in 2015 and collaborates with local dance, music and design artists. Their work has been presented throughout the Twin Cities and across the United States including local performances at the Walker Art Center Choreographer’s Evening, the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks, and the Candy Box Dance Festival. They are a 2018 McKnight Choreography Fellow and NCCAkron alumni artist. Follow their work on social media @tajawillxo (IG).