Published by Dancers' Group, In Dance is discourse and dialogue to unify, strengthen, and amplify.
JAN/FEB 2019
San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company, Jan 20 photo by ArtWilinski
Welcome by DANCERS' GROUP STAFF
fearful thoughts that I might become addicted to painkillers plagued my mind. It was in those moments I knew that I had to change… This incident was definitely a wakeup call for me. I wasn’t listening to my body and it was calling out for help. As the new year approaches, creating new regimes for one’s body and mind may seem cliché but sometimes they are truly nec- essary… [Read more on page 14] —Andréa Spearman, Program Assistant I remember calling my mother post-concussion who immedi- ately suggested we pray; this happened after I had performed my own full moon ritual at a friend’s dance studio earlier that same day …When it comes to issues pertaining to men- tal and physical health, I have continued to turn to alterna- tive modalities. Discussions around the ways race / gender / class / citizenship / language intersect with being an artist and how these factors affect access to healthcare need to be had and examined more thoroughly. … So how does one get what one needs when the system in place is inherently designed to keep specific people out and others in?... [Read more on page 14] —randy reyes, Program Assistant When I think of health, my mind turns to the word care and the idea of taking care . But, I resist the idea of “self- care.” Admittedly, it’s enticing – in an American Capitalist culture that rewards production, earnings, and acquisition, prioritizing one’s own body and mind sure seems like sage advice. But it sneakily perpetuates another dark aspect of the American idea: that there is an Individual Self and there is an Other, and we are in competition for every resource. I’d prefer to think of my “self” as an inextricable part of com- munity and family. I reject the binary of self and other. Let's build a culture, not of individualism, but of reciprocal well- being. Let’s take care of one another. —Michelle Lynch Reynolds, Program Director
Each new year offers opportunity to illuminate ideas, insti- gate new ideologies. A chance to be inspired so we can inspire. Dancers’ Group’s staff brings in 2019 with responses to the question, what is healthy? As can happen with a ques- tion this personal and complex, there was more written than can fit on this page. Continue to page 14 to read Andréa and randy’s full reflections. Sprinkled throughout this issue are articles centered on this question, including Juliet Paramor’s coverage of ODC’s Healthy Dancers Clinic and its upcoming Day For Dancers’ Health on January 26; Ken Foster considering health in arts leadership; and Sima Belmar’s regular column “In Practice” transforms to share a personal journey towards wellness. I grew up equating health with success and I’m working to unlearn this notion and numerous beliefs about what consti- tutes being healthy. As a dancer am I naturally healthy? No. Evolving, and aging, are complex and I work to believe—or is it to trust?—that my aging body is whole, and beautiful, and perfect in this moment. With the start of the new year I recommit to my body—I am not the person I used to be. —Wayne Hazzard, Executive Director A healthy life is about maintaining balance of all things that can affect a person’s mentality, physicality, emotionality, finances, and spirituality. Each of these selves are connected to one another, therefore causing a perpetual balancing act that we have to perform on the daily. Some are lucky to be able to support and be supported by others whenever they begin to teeter totter. However 2019 pans out, may we all find ground- ing, support and presence whenever we fall off balance. —Valerie Mendez, Program Assistant This past summer, my immediate health was challenged by a fall I took during a performance at the Sun Gallery in Hayward... [Doctors] said without a doubt that I was deal- ing with sciatic nerve pain...Having initially no relief and
Kathleen Hermesdorf, part of FRESH Festival, Jan 4-27, article on p. 4 photo by Robbie Sweeny
SF Ballet, Jan 25-Feb 3 photo by Erik Tomasson
continued on pg 14 »
by SIMA BELMAR IN PRACTICE: Going Health Nuts
ARTS LEADERSHIP AND A HEALTHY ARTS COMMUNITY
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by KEN FOSTER, Director, Arts Leadership at University of Southern California
Feldenkrais with Mary Armentrout; dance classes with Randee Paufve, Nina Haft, Mo Miner, Melecio Estrella, and Joan Lazarus; Iyengar Yoga with Anneke Faas; lymphatic massage and somatic experiencing with Ama Dawn Greenrose; acupuncture with Carla Cassler; Jungian psychotherapy with (not telling! I’ll share body workers but not my shrink); nutritional advice from newly minted nutritionist Vika Teicher; no screens past 8pm, lights out at 10pm (this is more aspirational than actual); consumption of half my body weight in water every day (also aspirational—I hate having to pee all the time); mindfulness meditation (I don’t always manage even five minutes a day, but I believe “meditation on the spot” as Pema Chödrön calls it, counts); listening to Tara Brach pod- casts; clean eating (I started a 30-day clean eating challenge, the 30-Clean, in late Sep- tember, and haven’t gone back to any of my old habits…yet; I could write a whole piece on the stress of trying to figure out how to eat—what’s an omnivore to do? Right, ask Michael Pollan). I’ve got calls out to a Reiki I need all those body-centric activities to give my guts and fascia an opportunity to tell me what to do. practitioner and a Jin Shin Jyutsu master. I dabble in Qi Gong (I love your DVD, Margit Galanter!). I get occasional chiro/ART tune- ups from Bruce Rizzo and Rob Pape, plus PT with Wendy Clark at Kaiser Oakland. And of course, as much time as possible with beloved friends and family, indulging in intel- lectual inquiry, creative practice, commisera- tion, and The Great British Baking Show. How do I afford all this? I do a lot of bar- tering, for one thing. And it’s not like these things are weekly or even monthly in some cases. I mainly try to make room for at least one of the above body-mind modalities per day. Also, though precarious, I’m privileged to have three jobs that allow for a flexible schedule to accommodate these psychophysi- cal adventures. Folks give Descartes a really hard time for initiating the mind-body split, but I think we’re too hard on the guy. I certainly know that my mind and my body are deeply con- nected but I also often feel like they are two separate entities vying for my attention. I was not raised to listen to my body, so my mind does a lot of the heavy lifting for me,
IN OUR USUAL pre-article email exchange, In Dance editor, Wayne Hazzard wrote to me, “What is healthy these days?” I have a very personal stake in this ques- tion, which made it hard to sit down and write about it. I tried to write about it when I was feeling well—but when I’m feeling well, I don’t want to think about my health. I tried to write about it when I was in the throes of a panic attack because I was convinced I had neck cancer (more on that below)—but it’s challenging to write when you’re lying on the cool tile of your bathroom floor with your legs up the wall, sobbing on the phone to your psychotherapist. I tried to write about it when the air quality in the Bay Area was worse than Delhi and Beijing—but my kids were home because schools were closed and Yahtzee took precedent over writing. I tried to write about it the Monday after Thanks- giving because my deadline was in three days—that worked! I was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2016, found out I had the BRCA1 mutation a month or so later, had a double mastectomy in July, and a full hysterectomy plus breast reconstruction in December. Then, in early 2018, I discovered the doc- tors missed a spot in a single lymph node, so I had surgery again, then four rounds of chemotherapy, and five weeks of radiation. I finished all the treatment in July, spent Sep- tember in a panic that I would be diagnosed with cancer every two years for the rest of my life (hence the aforementioned neck can- cer panic—it took three doctors to convince me that I have, in their words, “a perfectly normal neck!”), and enjoyed the extra hour afforded by Daylight Savings Time wallow- ing in the realization that I have anger issues and can’t forgive myself for yelling at my kids all the time. Hard times, my friends, hard times. Add to my personal saga our national politics and global climate change and it would seem per- fectly rational to start smoking a daily pack of Winstons again and having liquid lunches (Seabreezes, to be precise) like I did during the summer of 1988 in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. (That was my weight loss plan at the time. Worked like a charm.) But I want to stick around for as long as I can for those kids I yell at all the time so they can com- plain about me in therapy and then tell me about what a shitty parent I was at Passover seders. So what does health look like “in prac- tice” for me now? And what does my reflec- tion on that question have to offer our phe- nomenal dance community? The hardest part is feeling like I don’t have any control over my health because there are too many variables at play. I know I have some control, and most of it has to do with what I do with my body—how and how often I move it, what I feed it, how much I allow my mind to fuck with it. To cultivate the best body-mind relationship I can, I engage in a rather extensive and some- what unwieldy self-care regimen, which includes:
often to ill effect. So I need all those body- centric activities to give my guts and fascia an opportunity to tell me what to do. If I’ve learned anything about health, it’s that trusting in one’s health is fundamental to feeling healthy, and that enjoying one- self as much as possible is good for your organs. I remember yogi Rodney Yee telling a smoker who was feeling bad about smok- ing that if he’s going to smoke he might as well do so with pleasure: deep inhale, long slow exhale—the yoga of nicotine addiction. It’s also a great idea to see beauty and humor wherever you can. Sounds Pollyanna-ish, but for a gal who grew up with whatever the opposite of Pollyanna is (Yenta?), it works wonders. For example, having gummy bears that are anchored under my pectoral muscles in place of breasts that used to hang so low it took an acrobatic feat of drop-and-scoop to get them into a bra, means doing grand allegro braless—plus, I can now wear plung- ing necklines and backless dresses. Having no reproductive organs means no menstrual cycle and thus no fear of pregnancy (I know, I was pretty much out of the woods before my hysterectomy, but not totally out!). Other perks: my hair has grown back curly post- chemo and I have an asymmetrical tan across the right side of my chest that makes me look like I sunbathed half topless. My health woes have taught me a lot about gratitude, though it’s still hard to feel it sometimes. (Thus the gratitude account- ability email exchange I have with a friend.) They’ve showed me who’s in my corner. Above all, they’ve made me painfully, joy- fully conscious of the fact that we’re all born into a death sentence. And what better way to partner with death than to dance. SIMA BELMAR, PH.D. , is a Lecturer in the Depart- ment of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarly articles and book reviews have appeared in TDR , the Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices , Performance Matters , Contemporary Theatre Review , and The Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies . enjoying oneself as much as possible is good for your organs. If I’ve learned anything about health, it’s that trusting in one’s health is fundamental to feeling healthy, and that
have been ridiculed as soft, non-competitive, unrealistic and similar adjectives that are used to denigrate what are actually policies and practices that are humane and respectful of our individual and collective selves. As we move into a new world with alter- ative ideas of what a healthy organization is comprised of and what constitutes healthy leadership, those individuals and organiza- tions that are riding these trends rather than fighting them are the ones that will emerge from the chaos of our transitional moment into a new, healthier environment. So what should those who aspire to be healthy leaders and organizations be doing? First, study environmentalism and resil- ience theory and re-envision your idea of what makes a sustainable (i.e. healthy) arts organization. There is an environmental concept that I love that defines sustainabil- ity as the endless striving for an unattainable ideal. Is there a better way to define art and therefore arts organizations? As artists, are we ever “finished” with the process of cre- ation of a work of art? Healthy arts organi- zations must think in the same way; that our work is an endless process of striving for an unachievable ideal. It is the ideal that drives us to work; sustainability comes in the act of the work itself. It’s not about how big your organization’s budget is, or how many staff you have, or how stable (or maybe rigid?) you are! It’s about that vision—and the end- less striving towards it—that makes you sus- tainable and healthy. Are you really working towards that ideal or are you just trying to grow your budget? A new, resilient organizational vision also requires a new vision of leadership. Healthy organizations will look at the diversity of their staff and leadership for clues to new ways of providing organizational leader- ship. Do we really need a CEO “at the top,” a concept and a term that we have appro- priated from the hierarchical, straight white male dominated business model of corpo- rate America? This is an organizational form and structure that is, in fact, antithetical to who we are as artists and what we do as arts organizations. It stifles the creativity, experimentation and exploration that are, or should be, at the heart of our organization. Can we imagine new ways of working that has us thinking – and acting – more like the artists we are than the business people we most assuredly are not? Now that we have (finally) made some progress towards bringing diverse voices into our organization, we need to bring those diverse leadership perspectives into our orga- nization as well. Today’s arts leaders need to
First, thanks largely to the internet and all its technological progeny, we are now living in a horizontal, networked world, not the vertical, hierarchical world that we Boom- ers inherited, sustained and still try to sus- tain even as we see it no longer operative. “Information wants to be free” may be old (and debatable) news but it is a signifier of the wholesale disruption of hierarchical pat- We are now in this interesting phenomenon in which organizations are looking for leaders who fit a leadership profile that terns of control that once were signifiers of a “strong” or “healthy” organization. Social media and its ilk mean that everyone has access to everyone and everything all the time. Information chaos reigns in the con- temporary world and no carefully designed, centralized, “chain of command” system can contain that chaos. We see evidence of that everywhere we turn from politics, to media, to education, to health care. All of our pre- viously stable, solid, societal institutions are being upended and remade. Why would we think the arts would escape this fate? Second, as the population continues to diversify and the values and beliefs of the multiple cultures that comprise the coun- try proliferate throughout all of our societal structures, organizational systems that have been created, controlled and dominated by straight white men and the people who try to act like them, become increasingly sus- ceptible to disruption and transformation. When the dominant culture (which actually thought/thinks of itself as the “only” cul- ture), is confronted with the reality of its loss of power that comes from being the domi- nant culture, organizational change has to occur. Command and control can no longer command or control the organization. Happily, ideas like leadership are not the province of a single culture and a healthy organization recognizes that and embraces multiple leadership strategies to insure orga- nizational health. We are now in a world of shared leadership, consensus decision-mak- ing, horizontal organizational structures, team building, work-life balance and self- care to name only a few more effective, and healthier, approaches to organizational lead- ership. These are concepts that heretofore fewer people fulfill, and even fewer want to fulfill.
I THINK IT WAS SOMETIME back in the 90’s when the arts field first started talking about a crisis of future leadership. We looked around and saw a LOT of Baby Boomer organization leaders nearing or entering retirement. “Where is the next generation of leaders coming from?” became a big worry and a topic of many conversations. Leader- ship development programs of all types were created to address this concern, including a proliferation of graduate arts management programs that would help train “the next generation of arts leaders,” ready to take over once the Boomers got out of the way. It wasn’t long however, before some wrin- kles in this imagined scenario emerged. The first was that a LOT of Baby Boom- ers refused to retire. There were many rea- sons for this. To begin with, the arts leaders of the Baby Boom generation were deeply involved in creating the enormous nonprofit arts infrastructure that we have today. We prided ourselves (I say “we” because I am of this generation) on our devotion to our work above all else. Having invested our hearts and souls in our work with a pas- sion of a generation determined to change the world, we were understandably reluctant to leave. Additionally, with our identities so completely intertwined with our work as an “Arts Leader,” many of us balked at the idea of walking away from something to which we had devoted our entire adult lives. With- out these jobs in these organizations that we had worked so hard to create and inhabit, what meaning was there in our lives? Furthermore, over the years that we had selflessly worked for arts organizations we had discounted our own health and well- being and sacrificed our future “for the good of the organization.” Many of us went with- out health insurance; most failed to invest in retirement. Now, approaching age 65 and beyond, the decision to keep working “until I die in the chair” was as much about money as it was about meaning. So we stayed; and continue to stay. In some large organizations, with more stable and secure finances, arts leaders actu- ally did invest in their future, so they could, and did, retire. But then, as search firms and search committees looked around for their replacements, another trend emerged. Not only were younger people lacking the “deep experience” that every job posting asks for in executive roles, it became clear that many younger people actually didn’t want those jobs! Watching their “elders” in these all con- suming, eighty hour a week jobs devoted to a LOT of “administrivia,” many of the next generation were thinking, “Why would I want that job? It’s enormously stressful and unhealthy!”Who can blame them? We are now in this interesting phenomenon in which organizations are looking for leaders who fit a leadership profile that fewer people fulfill, and even fewer want to fulfill. This is not quite the leadership crisis we expected. But is it really a crisis? Or is it a chance to remake our field and the very concept of leadership in a healthier way? To answer that, we need to step back and take a more expan- sive view of the world we live in and how we might need to rethink our idea of what makes a healthy organization and what a healthy leadership approach actually might be. As the contours of our world are chang- ing, and as organizations become more multi-faceted and diverse in their compo- sition and staffing, ideas of what makes a healthy organization are evolving. I want to focus here on two major external trends that are, in my view, transforming our under- standing of healthy leadership and functional organizations.
be open to alternative points of view, able to encourage intense and productive discussions and not threatened by dissent and disrup- tion. The best arts leaders in today’s world must above all be synthesizers; people who can listen to and manage alternative, even conflicting points of view and synthesize them into a coherent organizational ethos. Getting everyone “on the same page” does not mean lock-step agreement to a single narrative but instead a somewhat loosely defined, adaptable idea based on where we are headed and able to acknowledge that multiple paths will get us there. Our willing- ness to tolerate an atmosphere of continu- ous change and adaptability to that change is what will make us both successful and healthy organizations. In today’s chaotic environment we have a very human desire, perhaps need, for “stabil- ity” for “rock solid” answers. We desperately seek a predictable future. This is not possible. It’s not the world we live in and there are no signs that events around us are going to get any less unpredictable than they are. So arts leaders interested in creating healthy arts organizations will have to strive for a more dynamic view of what stability means, one that is focused on the vision but willing to entertain multiple strategies to get us there. We just can’t be the “institution builders” that defined the Baby Boomer generation of leadership. Instead, we need to be facilitators and guides, helping steer our organizations through some very rocky waters. Our choice now is to either adapt our organizations and our leadership to this changed world, or engage in the endlessly frustrating, unsatisfying and ultimately unhealthy way of working of the past. Where are you headed? Kenneth Foster is Professor of Practice in the Thorn- ton School of Music and Director of the Graduate Arts Leadership program at the University of South- ern California. From 2003 to 2013, he was Executive Director of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. His first book, Performing Arts Presenting: From Theory to Practice , was published in 2006. His second book, Arts Leadership; Creating Sustainable Arts Organi- zations , was published by Routledge Press in May 2018. He has an extensive national and international consulting practice for a variety of arts organizations, specializing in leadership development and innova- tive organizational design and planning for the 21st century. He currently resides in Pasadena with his partner Nayan Shah. kenfosterarts@gmail.com
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CONTENTS
P4
NOMINATIONS OPEN: 2019 Dancers Choice Award
ON THIS PAGE / In Practice: Going Health Nuts by Sima Belmar 3 / A Healthy Arts Community by Ken Foster 4 / Speak: A Decade of FRESH Festival and 20 Years of ALTERNATIVA by Kathleen Hermesdorf 8 / January/February Performance Calendar 11 / ODC’s Healthy Dancers’ Clinic by Juliet Paramor 12 / Dance and Disability in 2018 by Patricia Reedy 15 / Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Nominees & Honorees
Bay Area Dance Week and Dancers’ Group are now accepting nominations for the 12th annual Dancers Choice Award. Honor an individual or organization who has impacted the dance community—behind the scenes, in the classroom, or on the stage. Nominations open through January 9, 2019 bayareadance.org/awards_dancers
Located in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, Mills College offers BA, MA, and MFA degrees in dance. Expand every dimension of your art through: • Choreography • Theory • Pedagogy • Technology • Performance GRADUATE FACULTY Kara Davis Ann Murphy Sonya Delwaide Sheldon Smith Molissa Fenley Victor Talmadge thinking bodies moving minds
Carla Service, 2018 awardee / photo by Ah Sou Saechao
MAKE A STATEMENT.
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RECKONING: A decade of FRESH Festival and 20 years of ALTERNATIVA by KATHLEEN HERMESDORF
San Francisco’s 10th Annual Festival of Experimental Dance, Music and Performance, features four weekends of cutting-edge live art PERFORMANCES; three weeks of immersive training PRACTICES in dance and related forms; and 15 social and interactive EXCHANGES throughout San Francisco, Oak- land and Berkeley. FRESH Festival 2019 PERFORMANCES January 4-5: Sara Shelton Mann, Byb Kongo Bibene, Chrysa Parkinson January 11- 12: Monique Jenkinson + Mica Sigourney, Amara Tabor Smith, Kinetech Arts, Kim Epifano January 18-19: NAKA Dance Theater, Claudia Lavista, Proyecto al Margen, ProyectoCASĀ January 25-26: ALTERNATIVA’s 20th Anni- versary Show, featuring the World Premiere of Reckoning in collaboration with FAKE Company All performances at 8pm at Joe Goode Annex, SF, $25-35 joegoode.org/box-office or 415-561-6565 PRACTICES January 5-6: Sherwood Chen January 7-11: ALTERNATIVA, Sara Shelton Mann, Keith Hennessy January 12: Monique Jenkinson + Mica Sigourney January 13: Kim Epifano January 14-18: ALTERNATIVA, Claudia Lavista, Proyecto al Margen January 20: ALTERNATIVA + FAKE Company January 21-25: ALTERNATIVA, Raha Behnam + Abby Crain, Larry Arrington January 26-27: José Navarrete + Marvin K. White All practices are held at Joe Goode Annex, SF freshfestival.org/practices EXCHANGES Community oriented social and interac- tive events, including live music works-in- process, writing and reading circles, and roundtable talks, created to cultivate and cross-pollinate artists and audiences. Exchanges at Space 124, Red Poppy Art House and ODC, SF; Finnish Hall, Berkeley; and EastSide Arts Alliance, Oakland. freshfestival.org/exchanges Full festival details at freshfestival.org
speak
INSTALLATION Reckoning 10/20, images, videos and mate- rials from a decade of FRESH and 20 years of ALTERNATIVA. Friday + Saturdays in January 6:30-8pm Studio 124 in Project Artaud, SF FRESH 2019 ARTISTS Jøse Abad, ALTERNATIVA, Juan Manuel Aldape, Arletta Anderson, Larry Arrington, Raha Behnam, Byb Chanel Bibene, Adi Brief, Chani Bockwinkel, Christine Bonansea, Alexa Burrell, Malia Byrne, Sherwood Chen, Gabriel Christian, Abby Crain, Alex Crow, DAFUQ, Claudette Decarbonel, Karen de Luna, Nicia De’Lovely, Ryanaustin Den- nis, Sofia Engelman, Kim Epifano/Epiphany Dance Theater, Regina Evans, Wiley Evans, Asha Fashalacqua, Richard Festinger, C.D. Fisher, Daria Garina, Samcia Gaye, Letitia Goodjoint, Cookie Harrist, Keith Hennessy, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Jesse Hewit, Cherie Hill, Steven Horner, Gwen Hornig, Antoine Hunter, Monique Jenkinson, David Jensen, Jonah Kagan, Debby Kajiyama, Kinetech Arts, Allison King, Ayisha Knight-Shaw, Kata Kovács, Kentaro Kumanomido, Andrew Kushin, Sriba Kwadjovie, Angelina Labate, Raymond Larrett, Claudia Lavista, Daiane Lopes da Silva, Tanja London, Twyla Mal- chow-Hay, Lisa Manca, Ursula Marcussen, Diego Martínez Lanz, Albert Mathias, Elaine Maurer, Delaney McDonough, Magdalena Meyers Dahlkamp, Rena Meyers-Dahlkamp, Gizeh Muñiz, NAKA Dance Theater, José Navarrete, Thomas Anthony Owen, Em Papineau, Chrysa Parkinson, Jonathan Pat- tiwael, ProyectoCASĀ, Proyecto al Margen, Zoe Reich-Aviles, randy reyes, Sebastian Santamaría, Johnny Sapinoso, Najwa Seyed- morteza, Sara Shelton Mann, Coral Short, Mica Sigourney, Manon Siv, Adam Smith, Laurel Snyder, Farah Soltane, Andréa Spear- man, Amara Tabor-Smith, Ainsley Tharp, Janine Trinidad, Jessy Tuddenham, Amy Wasielewski, Hannah Wasielewski, Marvin K. White, Ian Winters, Miriam Wolodar- ski, Dwayne Worthington, Weidong Yang, Pamela Z, more TBA
Reckoning with time.
create and connect, to gather the brilliance of synergistic artists, to cultivate collaboration of mediums and communities, and to create contexts for experimental art.
There is something thrilling about a new year, a fresh start, the beginning of another cycle around the sun. There is also the reck- oning it invites, to acknowledge the past and set things right or free to make space for change. As I prepare for FRESH Festival 2019, a celebration of a decade of FRESH and 20 years of ALTERNATIVA, my com- pany with musician Albert Mathias, I’m noticing what of the past lingers, what has impact on this moment in time, and what reflects into the future. As I collect and con- nect the years leading up to these anniversa- ries, I see ripples in a body of water created by a stone thrown long ago, and find myself in a boat made of my own body, throwing more stones to make more ripples. I am an artist in the field, professionally nomadic, working outside of and in collabo- ration with more formal institutions. From this position of relative freedom, I want to create alternative situations and structures for dance to develop within, and to connect people and places, joining forces and gener- ating situations for artists, including myself, to deepen our focus, expand our range, and widen our exposure. One of the first events that Albert and I produced was OPEN FIELD, an improvisation swap/meet in which we brought together an idiosyncratic group of dance, music, spoken word, and perfor- mance artists. FRESH Festival has become the fulfillment of those initial impulses to The need to create. The need to connect.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
FRESH is an ARTLAB, ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ aspect of ALTERNATIVA that satis- fies two of our main missions - the sharing of creative resources and the expansion of what art can be. The Festival became possible because of sublime timing, affordable spaces [co-sponsors Kunst-Stoff Arts from 2010-14 and Joe Goode Annex from 2015-19], and substantial community support. With this tri- angulation of time, space and effort, we have been able to construct an immersive arena for collective, diverse, and inclusive energy and exchange. FRESH has changed shape and size over 10 years, expanding from a week of training and informal performances to 4 weekends of mainstage performances and 3+ weeks of Practices and Exchanges. This has only been possible because of the ongoing, invested energy of FRESH art- ists, participants, audiences, volunteers, and funders. FRESH 2019 extends our curatorial reach, mixing local artists with guest art- ists from Mexico and Europe. Co-curator José Navarrete has attracted Regina Evans and Nicia De’Lovely, Juan Manuel Aldape, Byb Chanel Bibene and a cast of 20 dancers, Antoine Hunter and Ayisha Knight-Shaw, and EastSide Arts Alliance, and will share new work by NAKA Dance Theater with Debby Kajiyama. Chrysa Parkinson, Amara
Monique Jenkinson and Mica Sigourney / photo by Robbie Sweeny
NAKA Dance Theater/ photo by Debby Kajiyama
Tabor-Smith and Sherwood Chen are back, along with Festival regulars Sara Shelton Mann, Abby Crain, and Keith Hennessy. All of the participating artists are fantastic and the entire list is in the box on the right-hand side of this page.] We’re hosting a cohort of collaborators from Ponderosa, near Ber- lin, Germany, including FAKE Company, an eclectic group of international performance artists. I have been spending my summers at Ponderosa since 2000, collaborating with Stephanie Maher on projects and program- ming, and am overjoyed to bring so many folks from there to here. We’re also engaging in cultural exchange with artists from Maza- tlán, Guadalajara and Mexico City, Mexico. By inviting our colleagues from beyond bor- ders, and representing generational and aes- thetic lineages from different regions of the Bay Area and wider world, we’re instigating an embodied, articulate exchange of cultural contexts, current considerations, and creative propositions. The theme of FRESH Festival 2019 and the title of ALTERNATIVA’s 20th Anniversary piece is Reckoning. We are in the thick of it, facing the music and figuring the math. What is fake and what is fact? Who needs to talk and who needs to listen? Where is the bal- ance, the justice? How are we accountable? In response, we gather close to 100 artists to share their art practices, processes and proj- ects, as well as their perspectives on somatics and society, art and culture, the personal and the political, and individual and collective responsibility. Reckoning - facing the music, figuring the math.
As FRESH goes into double digits, and ALTERNATIVA heads towards 25, pos- sible futures unfold. Will we expand or con- tract? What must change? Who will join us as production partners, community allies, and curatorial collaborators in the Festival? How can we create more exchange, equity, and accessibility? Where will this new cycle around the sun take us? And the ripple effect of this rising tide? I invite you to celebrate with us and reckon with what is next.
FRESH Festival, classes and workshops in the Bay Area, and residencies and commissions at universi- ties, festivals, and studios worldwide. la-alternativa.us KATHLEEN HERMESDORF is an international dance artist, educator, and producer based in San Francisco. She is the director ALTERNATIVA, with musician Albert Mathias, and teaches, creates and performs around the world. She was a member of Bebe Miller Company, Contraband and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Hermesdorf is the co-director of PORCH Training Program at Ponderosa in Stolzenhagen, Germany.
Surrounding and permeating it, a collection of images and video shares the work of hun- dreds of artists who have participated in the company and the Festival. I might live there. Come visit me. I’ll tell you stories……. ALTERNATIVA , directed by dancer Kathleen Hermes- dorf with musician Albert Mathias, is an apparatus for deeply integrated contemporary dance and music. Active in San Francisco since 2000, the organization supports the creative work of the directors alongside programming which includes an annual January
The need to collect. The need to recollect.
I need a time machine. Reckoning 10/20 is an installation, event horizon, gathering space, community library, and live archive that inhabits Space 124 in Project Artaud for the entire 24 days of FRESH 2019.
ALTERNATIVA / photo by Robbie Sweeny
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Dancers' Group Announces 2017 CA$H Dance Grant Recipients
FIND SPACE, CREATE Highlighting venues and studio spaces around the Bay Area
START PLANNING NOW All Dance All Free All Week
Virginia Matthews Throughout 2019, Sonoma, Marin, & San Francisco Approaching 70 - 50 Years of a Life in Dance: A Solo Retrospective is an exploration of solo work choreographed by Matthews from 1975 to the present. CA$H for: facility rental
María de la Rosa May/June 2019, Location TBA
ka·nei·see | collective March 2019, San Francisco
CA$H, the bi-annual awards that support Bay Area dance artists and organizations has announced the latest round of grantees. $42,000 in grants are being awarded to seven individual artists and seven dance organizations in support of artistic proj- ects—each grant award is $3,000. CA$H supports artists from diverse cultural back- grounds and creative practices. Projects supported this round feature hip hop, per- formance ritual, Mexican cultural dance and music traditions, Butoh, modern, Flamenco, dance theater, circus, LGBTQ+-focused and feminist works. The CA$H program, which has been sup- porting dance-makers for the past 19 years, is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Grants for the Arts.
The Milkbar Previously in East Oakland, MilkBar moved to its new Richmond location in 2016. The main studio features a 24’ x 32’ sprung marley dance floor, with white walls and high sloping ceilings (between 15’ to 26’). It’s a quiet reflective space in an old industrial gem with views of the Richmond hills. Adjoining the main space is a 1000 sq.ft. space that includes a workshop, storage, bathrooms, kitchenette, and seating / green room area. In addition to offering the space for rent, MilkBar is the home studio for Mary Armentrout Dance Theater, video artist Ian Winters, and video production company 37 North, a thriving artists residency program, the MilkBar salon program, and a number of other east bay dance and performance groups. 241 A South 1st St, Richmond Rental rates start at $20/hr with discount available for longer-term or regular renters bayareaspaces.org/spaces/8901 milkbar.org
Las Peteneras is a concert performance explor- ing female archetypes and ultimately, feminism and female leadership in Mexican cultural dance and music traditions. CA$H for: artist fees Chris Evans March 2019, Oakland Reconstructions is a site specific, North- Oakland based performance ritual connecting the impact of post-Civil War reconstruction on the psyches of Black people in the US to the ongoing economic reconstructions of North Oakland. CA$H for: artist fees Hien Huynh March 2019, San Francisco of metal and skin is a duet performance between Hien Huynh and his mother, Moui Lu, uniting mother and son through understanding her imprisonment in post-war Vietnam, physi- cal injuries, and recollection. CA$H for: artist fees, marketing, admin expenses Supporting research for XXX Rated Planet: The Epigenetics of Femicide , a multimedia dance production that uses street dance, documen- tary theater, and choreopoetry to explore gender-based sexual violence. CA$H for: research Nicole Klaymoon May 2019, San Francisco
Drawing inspiration from the feminist battle cry, “Nevertheless, she persisted,” Neverthe- less surveys the field of gender-based harass- ment from the subtle to the violent, in a mar- riage of song and dance, comedy and horror. In collaboration with Cat Call Choir. CA$H for: artist fees
APRIL 27–MAY 6, 2018
REGISTER YOUR FREE EVENT(S)
• Share your work during the 2018 Festival • Last year, over 20,000 partici- pants enjoyed nearly 400 classes, performances, and more
Lauren Simpson May 2019, San Francisco
by Thursday, Feb 8 to be considered for our annual printed event guide
Kristin Damrow & Company February 2019, San Francisco
Dance Exhibit is a performance plus discussion event responding to the unique architecture, sounds, and light at the Minnesota Street Project. CA$H for: artist fees
Impact is a contemporary dance piece inspired by Brutalist architecture and the egalitarian
BayAreaDance.org
society it represents. CA$H for: artist fees Oneness Butoh March 2019, Hayward
20 YEARS OF ALL DANCE, ALL FREE, ALL WEEK
ORGANIZATIONS : Brannigan Dance Works March 2019, San Francisco
Ode to Minamata is a collaborative butoh and taiko performance that pays tribute to the many generations of people from Minamata, Japan, who have died of mercury poisoning from careless toxic waste dumping. CA$H for: artist fees San Francisco Flamenco Company January 2019, San Francisco Volver is a contemporary flamenco production featuring musical collaborations with master musicians Amir Haddad and Ali Paris. CA$H for: artist fees
Bones (part 2) is a new work reflecting nature itself, accessing the innate wisdom and feminine intuition that lives with bodies and the earth. CA$H for: artist fees
dancersgroup.org/cash
Photo by Lydia Daniller
THE 14 FALL 2018 DANCE GRANTEES ARE: India Davis June 2019, Oakland
APRIL 26 – MAY 5, 2019
James Graham Dance Theatre April 2019, San Francisco
Start planning for the 21st annual Bay Area Dance Week now!
• Host a free event – a class, perfor- mance, open house, workshop, lec- dem, film screening, or flash mob. • Last year, over 20,000 participants took part in over 400 free events. • Register your free event(s) by Thurs- day, February 7 to be considered for the annual printed event guide.
Wavelength is an experimental multimedia dance work exploring the relationship between the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, whales/whaling,
The Grass is Sleeping is a new dancetheatre piece looking at mental health, the rising gap between rich and poor, and a changing San Francisco. CA$H for: artist fees
and climate change. CA$H for: artist fees
The Anata Project June 2019, San Francisco
BIG SALT is a new contemporary dance work about the clash between love and ambition in motherhood. CA$H for: costume design & artist fees
Images courtesy MilkBar
Professional Learning for Dance Educators
AUDITION & WORKSHOP
ODC Theater Presents little seismic dance company Divining February 14-16, 8pm odc.dance/divining
FEBRUARY 17, 2019 / LOS ANGELES GLORYA KAUFMAN INTERNATIONAL DANCE CENTER AUDITIONS For places on our Undergraduate FD/BA Honours Degree in Ballet & Contemporary Dance. WORKSHOPS For aspiring young dancers, aged 14-19 years, who are considering their next steps in dance training. Further info and application instructions can be found on our website and via our Facebook Page.
Motivation & Creativity
February 2, 1-5pm, $125 Explore ways to support student confidence & meaning-making
Equity in Dance Panel
Perspectives On Trauma w/ Mary Claire Heffron February 23, 2:30-5pm, Free Dance artists & educators discuss race, power, & privilege March 9, 1-5pm, $125 Learn about impacts of trauma & creating healing & resilience additional workshops at lunadanceinstitute.org 10% Dancers’ Group/NDEO/CDEA & 50% student discounts 605 Addison St. Berkeley, CA 510.883.1118
ODC Theater Presents Risa Jaroslow & Dancers At Your Service February 21-23, 8pm odc.dance/service
rambertschool.org.uk/students/usa/
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calendar JAN/FEB 2019 VISIT THE ONLINE COMMUNITY CALENDAR, to find additional events and to submit a performance. dancersgroup.org
RAW presents Emily Hansel / Malia Byrne SAFEhouse Arts, SF
Emily Hansel’s new work is developed out of an exploration of things that bring people hap- piness. Malia’s work grapples with and honors her experience as a mixed, Asian-American woman, remembering influences from codified dance education and academia. Sponsored by RAW (resident artist workshop), a residency program of SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts. Fri-Sat, Jan 25-26, 8pm, $15-20. safehousearts.org Saint Mary’s MFA in Dance Program Dance Mission Theater, SF Fragments is a collective work by Cohorts 4 & 5 of the Saint Mary’s College MFA in Dance program where various themes and talents are explored by their diverse group of graduate students. Cohort 4 will be presenting on the 25th and 26th while Cohort 5 will be presenting on the 27th. Fri-Sat, Jan 25-26, 8pm; Sun, Jan
FRESH Festival 2019 Joe Goode Annex, SF
Performances feature three radical and risk- taking dance, music and performance makers each weekend, utilizing the stage as a platform for embodied research and new material. Jan 4-26, see website and p4-5 for more informa- tion. freshfestival.org
27, 7pm, $10-15. stmarys-ca.edu
The 7 Fingers, Feb 22-24 / Photo courtesy of Cal Performances
SF Ballet San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, SF
Kirill Berezovski and Fullstop Dance ODC Dance Commons, Argyle Studio, SF
phy Showcase and Michael Smuin’s timeless Schubert Scherzo and The Eternal Idol . Carmel: Fri, Feb 1, 7:30pm, Sat, Feb 2, 2pm, $58-76. Mountain View: Thu-Sat, Feb 21-23, 7:30pm; Sat-Sun, Feb 23-24, 2pm, $58-75. smuinballet.org
Helgi Tomasson and Yuri Possokhov’s Don Quix- ote , with set and costumes designed by Tony Award winner Martin Pakledinaz, features a cast of characters from Miguel de Cervantes’ novel— and some of ballet’s most technically demand- ing dances. Fri, Jan 25 & Feb 1, 8pm; Sat, Jan 26 & Feb 2, 2 & 8pm; Sun, Jan 27 & Feb 3, 2pm; Tue-Thu, Jan 29-Jan 31, 7:30pm, $40-400. sfballet.org
My Hungry Heart considers what artists trust and where they find their courage. Please join for a free open rehearsal, informal showing of the piece and a peek into Berezovski’s process. Sun, Jan 6, 5pm, FREE. fullstopdance.weebly.com
Bharata Dance & Allied Arts Brava Theatre, SF
Life of Pi is Bharatanatyam concert based on Yann Martel’s best-selling novel of the same name. This is the story of 16-yr old Pi who spends 227 days in a boat with an adult Bengal Tiger after he’s ship wrecked in Pacific ocean. Sun, Feb 3, 3pm, $20-35. lifeofpi-sf.eventbrite.com RAW presents Emergence Dance Company and Borderline Ballet Project SAFEhouse Arts, SF Emergence Dance Company is interested in doing a work about trust. Borderline Ballet Project: Precautionary Principle is inspired by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Sponsored by RAW (resident artist workshop), a residency program of SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts. Fri-Sat, Feb 1-2, 8pm, $15-20. safehousearts.org The Traveling Spectacular gala features a surrealist vaudeville experience, magic and circus arts, appetizers, wine, silent auction, a milonga (social tango dance) featuring the live music of Trio Garufa and a sneak peek preview of Tango Con*Fusíon’s newest chore- ography. Sat, Feb 2, 7pm, $45-175. tangoconfusion.com RAW presents randy reyes / Grisel Torres SAFEhouse Arts, SF randy reyes in xxx idk yyy kk f*** me zzzzzzzzzzz 0% battery &&&&&&. #331369 : this might be an attempt at generating a sound score through the movement of the body and the elements. Grisel’s soul is looking to take one giant leap for all kinds. To challenge her to hold space for herself and inspire others to do so as well. Sponsored by RAW (resident artist workshop), a resi- dency program of SAFEhouse for the Perform- ing Arts. Fri-Sat, Feb 8-9, 8pm, $15-20. safehousearts.org Tango Con*Fusión Alma del Tango Studio, San Anselmo
RAW Presents Sabaa Zarena, Marlene Garcia and
LEVYsalon LEVYstudio, SF
mia simonovic SAFEhouse Arts, SF
Providing multidisciplinary artists with 10 hours each of free rehearsal space to work, create, explore & develop ideas and themes. Each group performs 5 minutes of their work-in- progress at the culminating showcase. Sat, Jan 26, 8:30pm; Sun, Jan 27, 3pm, $15-20. eventbrite.com Body Tales Western Sky Studio, Berkeley An informal performance integrates move- ment, voice and personal storytelling with the Berkeley BT women’s groups, led by Olivia Cor- son. Wed, Jan 30, 7pm, Suggested donation of $10–20, no one turned away for lack of funds. bodytales.com
Sabaa Zareena will showcase their experimen- tal piece The Deserving Kind . Marlena Garcia experiments with partner work and improvisa- tion. mia simonovic in temp/t , explores our temporary age, race, gender, sex assignment. Fri-Sat, Jan 11-12, 8pm, $15-20. safehousearts.org Aviva & Molly Rose-Williams Kinetic Arts Center, Oakland Join the journey of twins exploring the gap be- tween them. Fri, Jan 11 & 18, 8pm; Sat, Jan 12 & 19, 4 & 8pm; Sun, Jan 13 & 20, 3 & 7pm, $20-25. mollyrosewilliams.com
Kristin Damrow and Company, Jan 31-Feb 2 / Photo by RJ Muna
Tango Con*Fusión, Feb 2 / Photo by by Genevieve Parker
FURY August Hall, SF
Impact features a cast of 15 performers inhabiting a dystopian world in the near future. With scenic design by Alice Malia and commissioned music by Aaron Gold, this new dance by Kristin Damrow will lead audiences through a mirror world eerily like our own. Thu- Fri, Jan 31-Feb 1, 8pm; Sat, Feb 2, 7pm, $30-65. kristindamrow.com First Friday Fiesta with Con- junto Folklorico Panama America MACLA, San Jose Conjunto Folklórico Panamá América is a cul- tural nonprofit that promotes dances, folklore and traditions of Panamanian culture from the diverse regions of the country, honoring the Spanish, Afro-Caribbean, and indigenous heri- tages. Fri, Feb 1, 8pm, FREE. maclaarte.org
RAW presents Kevin Wong and Jennifer Perfilio SAFEhouse Arts, SF Kevin Wong: His name was... presents the con- sequences of retelling and sharing the journey of a relationship. Jennifer Perfilio in Exterior: Exterior is an investigation of our authentic self and the body as vulnerable. Sponsored by RAW (resident artist workshop), a residency program of SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts. Fri-Sat, Jan 18-19, 8pm, $15-20. safehousearts.org Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Program A (1/18 and 1/20); Alejandro Cerrudo/ Silent Ghost, William Forsythe/N.N.N.N., Nacho Duato/Jardí Tancat, Crystal Pite/Grace Engine. Program B (1/19); Emma Portner and Lil Buck/New Piece with music by Dev Hynes, with Third Coast Percussion. Fri-Sat, Jan 18-19, 8pm; Sun, Jan 20, 3pm, $30-68, prices subject to change. calperformances.org SADC Winter Salon 2019 Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley Join SADC for the Quarterly Salon - an evening featuring six local choreographers presenting their experiments, explorations and ideas in an intimate performance space. Featuring established and emerging artists spanning four generations: Julie Crothers, Zoe, Huey and Kassidy Friend, Wendy Jones, Dana Lawton, Valerie Mendez, Rhea Speights, Nol Simonse. Sat, Jan 19, 6 & 8pm, $15. shawl-anderson.org
An immersive concert experience inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road. Featuring live music by YASSOU and star dancers from Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Intimate and up-close, FURY fea- tures original live music by YASSOU and string composer Kristina Dutton, choreography by Danielle Rowe, and immersive visuals. Fri-Sat, Feb 1-2, 8:30pm, $35-125. furyshow.com SMUIN Sunset Center, Carmel by the Sea Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, Mountain View Acclaimed dancemaker Trey McIntyre returns with his fourth collaboration with Smuin in Blue Until June . The show will include a trio of works first developed in Smuin’s Choreogra-
Kristin Damrow and Company YBCA Forum, SF
Inspired by the Brutalist movement in archi- tecture, with its emphasis on massive exposed concrete construction, and a wistfulness for the anti-bourgeois spirit of an earlier era,
RAWdance, Jan 24-26 / Photo by Hillary Goidell
San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company Brava Theater, SF Volver is a celebration of the heart of Fla- menco. The poetry of Leonard Cohen, Federico Garcia Lorca, Rumi and Violeta Parra is put to the song of Flamenco. Musicians Amir-John Haddad and Ali Paris joins the Company in this new work directed by Kerensa DeMars. Sun, Jan 20, 7pm, $12-28. sanfranciscoflamenco.com
Hope Mohr Dance Southern Exposure, SF
Hope Mohr’s newest work takes Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station as a jumping off point for hybrid theater: part dance impro- visation, part monologue, part hallucinatory testimonial for the role of art in precarious times. Thu-Sun, Jan 24-27, 8pm. $20-100. hopemohr.org
RAWdance YBCA Forum, SF
8x8x8 The Uptown, Oakland
15th anniversary season includes two world premieres. Roar , choreographed by Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, and Katerina Wong choreographs 14 , drawing inspiration from the history of the 14th Amendment. Thu-Sat, Jan 24-26, 8pm, $25-40. rawdance.org
2019 choreographers include: Antwan Davis, Bandelion, Fog Beast, Julie Crothers, Dazaun Soleyn, Wax Poet(s), Aviva & Molly Rose-Wil- liams, Marc Brew, Erin Malley & Doruk Golcu. Thu, Jan 24, 8pm, $8 at the door, 21+ event. paufvedance.org
The Dandelion Seeds, Feb 9 / Photo by Luiza Silva
Bharata Dance & Allied Arts, Feb 3 / Photo by Anubhava SJ
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