My ODC

For many, ODC represents thousands of hours spent sweating and learning in class, or the place where they can watch innovative, live performance. For others, ODC is an incredible company of skilled dancers that time and again present pertinent, moving art.

More than a theater, a school, and a dance company, ODC is a multi-faceted, inclusive home to many.

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  • A Letter From Brenda Way

    Dear patron,

    It seems like a world ago, the youthful dreams of the first Oberlin Dance Collective. In 1970, we were in our twenties and intent upon writing our own life script. Somehow, in spite of the tumultuous social/economic changes of the last 46 years, we actually did…with plot twists we hadn’t imagined- buying two buildings and fitting out eight studios, two performance spaces, a café, health clinic, and community spaces- home now to 6 dance companies and stomping grounds for over 15,000 students, 1,000 performers, and some 48,000 audience members each year. How gratifying that the present still radiates the adventure, risk, and enthusiasm that motivated our beginnings.

    What does this all mean to me? It means a joyful daily celebration of talent, possibility and contemporary artistic vision. To watch the faces of our young audiences at ODC’s Velveteen Rabbit, the hooting crowds at a hip hop dance-theater concert at ODC Theater, or our senior dancers in a hula class is to witness this delight. It is also our bid to promote empathy in a time of deep social division. Art is the place where we meet to find out what might be beyond the cages of our familiar behavior and perception….the place we go to try on any cloak and walk in different shoes. I believe we all need to step out.

    Artistically, this past year was marked by a number of career-high moments, KT’s magnificent sold-out Path of Miracles at Grace Cathedral, the company’s celebrated appearances across the country in boulders and bones, the company’s celebrated appearances at the Brooklyn Academy Next Wave Festival… in Minnesota and Zellerbach Hall here at home, ODC’s participation in the MODAFE festival in South Korea and Jacob’s Pillow Festival in Massachusetts, my timely and invigorating collaboration with Artists Doug Argue and Alex Nichols in News of the World, Kimi’s surprising site-specific work, gifts of solace- with its 8 dancing dogs- and the final glorious performances of our  dancer, Josie Sadan. In the realm of uplift, our new Executive Director, Carma Zisman, is enlivening my days with discussions about art, culture, and staying alive. I have no doubt her powerful leadership will take us into a brave new chapter.

    But the winds of change are blowing. In the current political climate, support for the arts is taking a back seat while the cost of living in the Bay Area continues to skyrocket. Honestly, our artistic and administrative staff dance on the edge. Shifts and challenges in the art world are also afoot. So new ideas and unorthodox approaches are called for. (In fact, without change, something sleeps inside of us.) This watershed moment will require ingenuity and resources. To this end, please please consider a donation to our efforts. Your support this year, at whatever level (and I mean that), will deeply affect the scope of our endeavors. You can really make a difference.

    To imagination, generosity and the humanizing power of the arts,

    Brenda Way
    ODC Founder and Artistic Director