Pilot 75 Program

Pilot 75 Program

About the Pilot Program

The ODC Pilot Program is an 11-week mentorship program that provides comprehensive artistic and production mentorship by a professional choreographer and ODC Staff.  The group works within a framework for shared production responsibilities and artistic feedback.  The 6 artists are chosen by a curation panel of experts in the field.


Welcome to the Pilot 75 artists:

  • Tracey Lindsay Chan
  • Ria Fifield
  • Kat Lin
  • Eli Shi
  • Alice Svetic
  • Gabriella Wei

Performances:
ODC Studio B Theater
December 13 at 8 PM
December 14 at 4:00pm & 7:00pm


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About Pilot 75 artists

  • Tracey Linsday Chan



    Tracey is a choreographer, global researcher, and dance filmmaker, born and raised in San Francisco. A central goal of her work is to let people know they are seen and understood—a powerful form of healing. She gravitates to universal themes, and loves to explore them within fantastical, genre-specific frameworks like horror and surrealism. For Tracey, creation is a means of introspection and connection, seeking answers that help her understand her life and the shared human experience.


    Hypnagog explores the extreme, sometimes absurd lengths to which we push our brains and bodies in pursuit of inspiration.


    Instagram: @tracey.lindsay.chan

  • Eli Shi



    Eli Shi is a dancer and choreographer from Los Angeles. A graduate of Stanford University, Eli now dances with Alex Ketley/The Foundry. Their choreographic work excavates landscapes of human connection, exploring love, grief, and the ghosts that linger between people. For Eli, every solo is a duet, and every duet is two solos; the core of the story lies in our need for one another.

    Run all the way home is a piece about the grief of moving beyond childish certainty in happy endings and the comfort and joy we find in each other anyways.

  • Kat Lin

     

    Kat Lin is a choreographer and performer whose work explores her curiosity. Her choreography has been presented through Deborah Slater Dance Theater’s Studio 210 Summer Residency (2024), T2 Dance Company’s annual Choreofest (2024), Psychopomp Dance’s CHAOS! Festival Vol. II in Los Angeles (2024), and Berkeley’s Performance Primers (2023). As a performer, she's danced with Kinetech Arts.
    ️
    Eyeball Lips Eyeball is a fever-dream dance piece about eyeballs, seeing, being seen, and everything in between.

    Instagram: @kationanion

  • Alice Svetic

     

    Alice Svetic is a dancer+choreographer+educator based in Oakland, CA. Originally from Milwaukee, WI, Alice received their BFA in Dance from University of Wisconsin-Madison and their MFA in Dance from Hollins University, where they taught ballet and contemporary dance practice. Alice is currently a dance artist with SF-based Alex Ketley’s The Foundry and a teaching artist with the Alonzo King LINES Training Program, the LINES BFA program at Dominican University, and Marin Dance Theater. Their research centers around critical feminist and queer dance teaching perspectives, viewership politics, and the performative body.

    Their new work BUILDERS explores the question: what does it mean to build a life?

  • Ria Fifield

     

    Ria Fifield is a San Francisco based dance artist whose work explores the body’s expressive potential and the human experience through movement. She has collaborated with choreographers such as Yaniv Abraham and Guy Shomroni, Kim Epifano, Daniel Ezralow, Kristin Damrow & Company, Tara Pilbrow and Alexandra Pirici. Ria is currently part of Amy Lewis’s production My Obsession with Hamlet Machine.

    Crossing is a dance about belonging, becoming, and whether we ever truly have a choice in the paths we follow.

  • Gabby Wei

     

    Gabby Wei is a dance artist, yoga teacher and choreographer from Albany, California. Her dance practice is heavily informed by traditional Chinese dance, contact improvisation, release technique and contemporary floorwork. Since graduating from the LINES Training Program in 2024, she has danced in the bay area with UNA Productions, dNaga Dance Company, and Lily Gee. In her work, Gabby loves to play with ideas drawn from an endless array of inspiration, from poetry to meditation to walks in the forest and the general craziness life as a human has to offer.

    Watch Yourself is an experimental dance piece that aims to draw a landscape of what reality looks and feels like when you step back into the emptiness of awareness and watch the constant, layered ebb and flow of experience as it happens to you.

Pilot 75, 2025 Schedule

  • Weekly In-Person Cohort meetings: Fridays, 8:30-10 AM, beginning Friday, September 19th – December 12th, (no meeting Friday, November 28th, Thanksgiving week)
  • Composition Kick-Off Class with Mentor: Sunday, September 21, 11:30-2:30pm
  • First Showing: October 19, 1:00-4:00pm
  • Individual rehearsals with Mentor:  Sunday, November 2nd, 1:00-7:00pm (1 hour only, for each artist with the mentor)
  • Second Showing: Sunday, November 16th, 1:00-4:00pm
  • Tech rehearsal: Friday, December 12th, 1-11:00M (approximate window, exact schedule TBA)
  • Dress Rehearsal: Saturday, December 13, 5:00pm
  • Performances: Saturday, December 13 at 8 PM, Sunday December 14th at 4:00pm &  7:00pm at ODC Studio B Theater
  • Post Performance Debrief Meeting: Friday, December 19th, 8:30-10:00am

ODC Pilot Program artists receive:

  • Stipend of $600, payable in two installments
  • 10 hours of free rehearsal time at ODC, and 50% off after 10 hours (all rehearsals upon availability)
  • Sessions with choreographic mentor:  1 group composition class, 2 group showings, 1 individual rehearsal
  • Production mentorship by resident ODC staff
  • Small group stipend for marketing costs and reception

FAQs

  • When is the next Pilot?

    Pilot 76 will be December 12/13, 2026. Applications will be due in Mid August, 2026

  • How can I receive more information on the program and/or help on my application?

    There are two ways to gain info and help on the application process:

    1) Have general questions? Please email kimi@odc.dance
    2) Informal Zoom group info session on Wednesday, July 16th 5:00-6:00pm.. Link here.

    Meeting ID: 820 9138 9466
    Passcode: 370333

  • How is Pilot Organized?

    6 artists are chosen by a curation panel which includes ODC staff, the Pilot mentor, and an invited guest curator.   In your application we invite you to clearly share your artistic intention and how you specifically plan to realize your vision by submitting a written proposal and video work sample(s) no longer than 5 minutes maximum. Please do not send longer videos with time codes. 
    These 6 selected artists form a collective with shared production responsibilities. Each person becomes a manager of a certain job (i.e. facilitator, flyer design, social media management, etc.) and reports back to the group at the weekly Friday meetings.

  • Eligibility requirements?

    1) Every applicant must submit a proposal within the application period, with the application fee of $20.
     2) Participating Artists are required at all events, including regular Friday morning in person meetings, but dancers and collaborators are only required for performance related activities. 
     3) Participants must be local Bay Area residents 
     4) The program is intended to serve a wide-range of dance and movement practitioners from the beginning to mid- career level. 

  • What do participating choreographers receive as part of the experience?

    Artistic guidance with a artistic Mentor (a professional dance artist), who will attend and advise during: 
      
     1)  A composition kick-off class 
     2)  Two group showings of all choreographers’ work
     3)  One dedicated hour-long rehearsal-visit by the mentor for each artist at ODC
     4)  A post-performance artistic wrap-up session
      
     In addition to artistic guidance, the group is further mentored by resident ODC staff professionals with production seminars in PR, marketing, technical and digital production, box office, events coordination, and professional theater relationships to help foster self-presenting skills. 
    Additionally each artist will receive: 
    1)  10 hours of ODC studio space per artist at no charge, with 50% off of ODC studio space for any time after 10 hours
     2)  $600 Artistic Stipend
     3)  Small discretionary fund for production related expenses for group as a whole 
    * Each selected choreographer will work with ODC’s Front Desk Team starting in September to schedule and manage their studio time. Pilot Artists are encouraged to schedule time well in advance to best access studio-availability.

  • How long does my choreographed work need to be? 

    The only requirement is that no piece can be over 10 minutes in length.

  • What is the performance Space?

    Studio B is a 3,000-square-foot studio theater and rehearsal space with retractable seating for 94 audience members. 

    50 ft. X 61 ft.
     Theatrical sound and light system
     Retractable bleachers 
     Light grey Marley floor

  • What kind of tech is available?

    Pilot is designed to be a “low-tech” performance. That being said, a Production Manager/Lighting Designer is hired who gives each piece a special look with the capacity for some internal cues. Artist should not rely on complex light design nor have heavy tech or equipment needs as there is only 1 hour tech time per artist. 

    Live music is possible with only minimal tech setup needs.

    We discourage the use of projections since there is such limited tech time per artist and Studio B does not have an extensive digital capacity. 

    All technical needs must be discussed and approved by the Production Manager well in advance.

  • Marketing, equipment, and videographer costs?

    The group is given a minimal budget for the entire production and it must be spent on items that benefit the entire group with cohort consensus (production equipment, videographer, flyer printing, etc.). Pilot is promoted by the participating artists, though ODC does promote through its marketing channels. 

  • Does ODC have a dancer audition for Pilot?

    Unfortunately, this is not currently possible on our end and it is the responsibility of each Pilot artist to recruit their own dancers.

  • Do I get comps for the show?

    Space is limited and the only comps released for the performances are for those people who have donated time to the whole group (i.e. volunteer photographer, outside design work for a flyer, etc.).