NorCal Takeover

May 23, 2017

San Francisco is crawling with unexpected dance events over the next month. Here are seven on our radar.

The Right to be Believed

Jo Kreiter’s gravity-defying, site-specific dance work taking place on UC Hastings College of the Law’s Outdoor Wall probes the credibility of women in society through Flyaway Productions’ signature cocktail of social justice and acrobatic spectacle. May 25–27, June 1–3. flyawayproductions.com.

San Francisco International Arts Festival

This festival takes the “international” part of its name seriously: The dance lineup alone has 26 different groups hailing from 10 countries, with equally wide-ranging styles and inspirations running the gamut from capoeira to shadow theater and traditional bharatanatyam to postmodernism. May 25–June 4. sfiaf.org.

Last Blue Couch in the Sky

Epiphany Productions’ Hien Huynh and Nuria Bowart. Photo by Andy Mogg, Courtesy YBCA.

Kim Epifano’s community-informed work explores the gentrification of San Francisco’s South of Market district, beginning with a walk of the neighborhood before concluding with a black-box performance at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. June 2–4. ybca.org.

Walking Distance Dance Festival

Still from Deep South. Photo by Alex Ketley, Courtesy John Hill PR.

This year’s iteration of ODC Theater’s annual event includes world premieres from FACT/SF, Monique Jenkinson and Maurya Kerr’s tinypistol, as well as Deep South, the final part of a film trilogy exploring what dance means to people in the rural U.S., with a performance by The Foundry. June 2–3, 9–10. odc.dance.

Precarious

Hope Mohr Dance on site at Klockar’s. Photo by Margo Moritz, Courtesy Hope Mohr Dance.

Inspired by the closing of the historic Klockar’s Blacksmith shop, Hope Mohr Dance celebrates its 10th anniversary with this new work, which begins with a tour (created in collaboration with Shaping SF Walking Tours) exploring the labor history of the Mid-Market neighborhood and ends with a performance at CounterPulse. June 1–3. hopemohr.org.

Nobody Lives Here Now


As part of a celebration of three decades of dance theater, Joe Goode Performance Group premieres a fantastical story using contemporary dance, text and video to confront aging and the fluidity of gender identity. At Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, June 22–24. joegoode.org.

SFDanceworks

San Francisco Ballet soloist James Sofranko’s rep company returns for a second season with works by Alejandro Cerrudo, José Limón, Danielle Rowe and Penny Saunders, as well as a world premiere by James Graham and the U.S. premiere of Christopher Bruce’s Shadows. June 22–24. sfdanceworks.org.