ODC/Dance Presents: Dance Downtown
March 29 - April 2 at Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA
ODC/Dance returns to the Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA for Dance Downtown, March 29 - April 2, 2023. Delight in two programs of captivating works, including two world premieres: Collision, Collapse and a Coda by ODC Founder and Artistic Director Brenda Way and Witness by guest artist Amy Seiwert. The exhilarating lineup also includes Impulse, Dexandro Montalvo’s audacious quartet for four women, and two repertory favorites, Triangulating Euclid, a bracing three-way collaboration created by Brenda Way, KT Nelson, and Kate Weare in response to the restoration of the 1482 printing of Euclid’s “Elements of Geometry,” and Something About a Nightingale by Way, a whimsical delight, set to the enticing music of the Tin Hat Trio.
Programs
Program A
Something About a Nightingale Choreographed by ODC Founder & Artistic Director Brenda Way
Witness (World Premiere) Choreographed by Amy Seiwert
Triangulating Euclid Choreographed by ODC Founder & Artistic Director Brenda Way, KT Nelson, and Kate Weare
Program B
Impulse Choreographed by Dexandro Montalvo
Collision, Collapse and a Coda (World Premiere) Choreographed by ODC Founder & Artistic Director Brenda Way
Triangulating Euclid Choreographed by ODC Founder & Artistic Director Brenda Way, KT Nelson, and Kate Weare
2023 Dance Downtown Program Book
Choreographers
- Brenda Way
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.
- KT Nelson
KT Nelson joined ODC/Dance in 1976 and until 2019 partnered with Brenda Way in directing the ODC/Dance Company. KT choreographed and directed the Company’s first full-length family ballet in 1986, The Velveteen Rabbit. The production has become a holiday tradition in the Bay Area engaging generations of dance goers, young and less so.
KT has been awarded the Isadora Duncan Dance Award four times: in 1987 for Outstanding Performance, in 1996 and 2012 for Outstanding Choreography, and in 2001 for Sustained Achievement. Her collaborators have included Bobby McFerrin, Geoff Hoyle, Amy Siewert, Na Hoon Park, Brenda Way, Kate Weare, Zap Mama, and Joan Jeanrenaud. In 2008, her work RingRounRozi, in collaboration with French-Canadian composer Linda Bouchard, was selected to be performed at the Tanzmesse International Dance Festival.
Photo by Eszther David
- Kate Weare
Kate Weare received her BA from California Institute of the Arts and danced in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Belgrade and Montreal before settling in New York City. She founded the Kate Weare Company in 2005 and has steadily gained recognition for her uncompromising, articulate choreographic vision. Her dances deal with intimacy, power, identity, gender and the body’s brilliant capacity for truth telling. The company recently celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a season at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2015. Weare is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, 2011 Mellon Foundation Awardee, and 2009 Princess Grace Award-Winner for Choreography. She has been awarded choreographic residencies at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, CalArts, Bates Dance Festival, and Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), and her work has been presented at major venues throughout the U.S. and abroad.Photo by Patrick MacLeod
- Amy Seiwert
Amy Seiwert serves as the Artistic Director of the San Francisco contemporary ballet company, Imagery. She enjoyed a nineteen-year performing career with Smuin, and LA Chamber. As a dancer with Smuin Contemporary Ballet she was mentored under the wing of the late Michael Smuin and was the company’s Choreographer in Residence from 2008-2018. Named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine, SF Chronicle called her first full evening of choreography a “Top 10” dance event (2007.) Other awards include an IZZIE Award for Outstanding Choreography and a “Goldie” from the Bay Guardian. Her ballets have been supported by the NEA, The Rainin Foundation, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Joyce Theater in New York City. A former Resident Artist at ODC Theater, her ballets are in the repertory of Ballet Austin, Washington, Atlanta, Oakland, Colorado, Louisville, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, and American Repertory Ballets as well as Robert Moses KIN and AXIS Dance.
Photo by Steve DiBartolomeo
- Dexandro Montalvo
Born and raised in New York, Montalvo is a San Francisco based director, choreographer, dancer, and dance educator. A professional dancer with Robert Moses Kin and various other companies for over 6 seasons, his choreographic commissions include works for RMK, Liss Fain Dance Company, LINES Ballet Training Program/Summer Program, The Black Eyed Peas, DanceWorks Chicago, MINI (USA), Mini Amp Live, SF Ballet School, Concept o4, Dance Mission’s Dance Brigade, Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center, Cardinal Ballet, University of SF Dance Ensemble, Marin School of the Arts, & the ODC Dance Jam. Montalvo and his choreography have appeared on the MTV, BET, Telemundo and Fox networks. Montalvo is a past Artistic Director of the Dance Theatre of San Francisco (in his tenure DTSF won two of the four Isadora Duncan award nominations including “Outstanding Choreography” for his ballet, “Pent”). Additionally, he was awarded a 2019 Saint Louis Inner Circle Award for “Such Sweet Thunder”, won an Izzie Award for his choreography in “Art Behind Bars” in 2014 and was nominated for another with “Impluse” in 2015 (RMK commission).
As a dance educator, Montalvo currently teaches at SF Ballet, USF, Dominican University of California (LINES BFA Program), LINES Ballet Training Program & ODC Dance Commons. Dexandro also serves as Assistant Director and Rehearsal Master of ODC’s pre-professional teen company. He has also taught at many other schools including Stanford University, SUNY Purchase College and Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center. Montalvo holds a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase College.
Photo by Andrea Basil
2023 DANCE DOWNTOWN GALA
March 31, 2023
Celebrate the new season of fearless and exuberant dance in style with a sensational dinner followed by an electric performance by ODC/Dance. Afterwards, join ODC dancers, choreographers and collaborators in their post-show glow for an unforgettable after-party replete with cocktails, delicious bites, dancing, and other delights.
LGBTQIA+ Night!
April 1, 2023
ODC stands with and celebrates our LGTBQIA+ and drag communities. Arrive in drag and attend the performance and after party for free! Simply show up in drag and go to the box office.
Saturday, April 1st is LGBTQIA+ Night! Spend an evening with friends and fellow arts lovers enjoying a full program of dynamic and daring performances. Following the show, join us for an exclusive after-party celebrating our LGBTQIA+ Community featuring complimentary drinks, delectable desserts, music, and dancing hosted by Manny of MANNY’s and Honey Mahogany, legendary drag performer, activist, and chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party.
Tickets to this evening’s performance include entry to the after-party. No additional purchases are required.
ASL Interpretation will be offered throughout LGBTQIA+ Night: ASL interpretation will be provided at this event at the the box office prior to performances, during performances with performed text, and at our LGBTQIA+ Night After-Party.
Thank you to our sponsors and community partners
Honey Mahogany
Manny
Accessibility Services
ASL and Additional Wheelchair seating will be available for select performances. Captioning will be provided for Digital Encores. Please take a look at the individual performance pages for details and dates.
ASL interpretation will be provided on Saturday, April 1st at this event at the the box office prior to performances, during performances with performed text, and at our LGBTQIA+ Night After-Party.
Arts Access Ticketing
ODC offers a limited number of lower-cost Art Access tickets to every ODC-presented performance. These additionally subsidized tickets, available on a first-come, first-served basis, are reserved for those for whom price is a barrier.
We know living in the Bay Area is expensive. We also highly value the art onstage and are invested in supporting the artists that create it. Ticket prices only cover a small fraction of the resources invested in the performance, and we strive to make them as accessible as possible. Continued financial support through ticket purchases and charitable donations from people like you make Art Access tickets possible.
ABOUT ODC/DANCE
Founded in 1971 by Artistic Director Brenda Way, ODC/Dance was one of the first American companies to incorporate a post-modern sensibility (an appreciation for pedestrian movement) into a virtuosic contemporary dance technique and to commit major resources to interdisciplinary collaboration and musical commissions for the repertory.
Images by RJ Muna
