ODC/Dance presents: Summer Sampler

• A Brief History of Up and Down Choreography by Brenda Way

  Art-making inherently poses questions and proposes fresh ways of seeing. A Brief History of Up and Down joyfully shares reflections on the evolution of beauty that has taken place in dance over the 55 year lifespan of the ODC/Dance Company. From simple movement to extraordinary virtuosity- “Real people really Dancing!”

  
   

  Founder, Artistic Director Brenda Way received her early training at the School of American Ballet and Ballet Arts in New York City. She is the founder and Artistic Director of ODC/Dance and creator of the ODC Theater and ODC Dance Commons, community performance and training venues in San Francisco’s Mission District. She launched ODC and helped create an inter-arts department at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in the late 1960's before relocating to the Bay Area in 1976.

  Brenda has choreographed more than 85 pieces over the last 45 years. Her commissions include Unintended Consequences: A Meditation (2008) Equal Justice Society; Life is a House (2008) San Francisco Girls Chorus; On a Train Heading South (2005) CSU Monterey Bay; Remnants of Song (2002) Stanford Lively Arts; Scissors Paper Stone (1994) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Western Women (1993) Cal Performances, Rutgers University and Jacob's Pillow; Ghosts of an Old Ceremony (1991) Walker Art Center and The Minnesota Orchestra; Krazy Kat (1990) San Francisco Ballet; This Point in Time (1987) Oakland Ballet; Tamina (1986) San Francisco Performances; and Invisible Cities (1985) Stanford Lively Arts and the Robotics Research Laboratory. Her work Investigating Grace was named an NEA American Masterpiece in 2011.

• 10,000 Steps: A Dance About Its Own Making Choreography by Catherine Galasso

  Catherine Galasso’s 10,000 Steps: A Dance About Its Own Making (World Premiere) dissects the notion of “pedestrian” movement and the liminal, theatrical space between locomotion and dance through exactly 10,000 deliberate steps. Both joyful and self-reflective, 10,000 Steps: A Dance About Its Own Making reveals nuanced complexities within an intricate and exuberant structure. 

  

  Catherine Galasso is an independent choreographer and director based in Brooklyn, NY. Her interdisciplinary dance works have been presented by venues in the US such as Danspace Project, La MaMa, SFMoMA, and MoCA Santa Barbara, and internationally at Bibliotheque National in Paris, France; Skena UP in Pristina, Kosovo; and Zona D Studio in Bucharest, Romania. In addition, she creates original performance works for alternative spaces such as underground bank vaults, apple orchards, decaying 4-story homes, and grand marble staircases. Galasso’s work has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, Headlands Center, Kaatsbaan and ODC Theater in San Francisco, among others. Her collaboration with choreographer Andy de Groat (GET DANCING) was nominated for a New York “Bessie” and her Alone Together was awarded a San Francisco "Izzie." Her Bring On The Lumière! about cinema pioneers the Lumière Brothers received a dedicated chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies. The New York Times called her 2015 rendition of Jim Neu’s musical comedy The Floatones (with co-director Keith McDermott) “...very nearly unclassifiable and utterly delightful;” while her 2018 Alone Together was described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “...a treasure chest so packed with jewels that the lid won’t stay down.” Galasso also works as a choreographer for theater & opera, creating dances for the US premiere of The Miracle of Heliane (dir Christian Rath, 2019 Bard SummerScape), for the internationally touring interactive theater troupe TPO of Italy (COLORS, dir Davide Venturini, 2019 Brooklyn Academy of Music), and has assisted Annie-B Parson on David Lang’s The Public Domain (Mostly Mozart Festival 2016, Lincoln Center). Galasso is the daughter of internationally acclaimed composer Michael Galasso. She holds a European Baccalaureate in Painting from the Istituto Statale d’Arte in Venice, Italy, and a BA in Film from Cornell University.

Relive your favorite moments of Summer Sampler 2024. Watch the Digital Encore on ODC Connect. 


Watch Now