KQED Live And Dancers' Group Present THE WELCOMING, December 12

KQED Live and Dancers' Group present The Welcoming, December 12, 2021 at 7pm at The Commons, a new multipurpose event venue at KQED headquarters in San Francisco's Mission district.

The Welcoming is the latest project by For You, a project launched by performance makers Erika Chong Shuch, Ryan Tacata, and Rowena Richie, made in collaboration with the community befriending organization Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly (LBFE). For You is a dedicated practice of performance making that brings groups of strangers together to make performances as gifts.

During the course of the pandemic, For You connected individual artists with elders with several goals in mind: to minimize isolation, make new friends, and to initiate some form of creative exchange. Since 2020 the project has paired more than 75 artists and elders around the US and the globe, with those numbers growing.

For You continues with The Welcoming, a series of shared, public rituals that builds off the relationships formed during the pandemic. The Welcoming invites audiences to become part of the performance.

The evening includes a drag performance by artists El Beh and Morningstar; a sermon delivered by Sister Clarice, a Dominican nun, accompanied by woodworking created by Crow Cianciola; and a red carpet rollout for painter, singer, artist and activist Harriet Sebastian, who stars in Lady Harriet, an animated short created by animator Nick Refuerzo with Shuch, Richie, and Tacata.

"Through The Welcoming, we aim to emerge from the isolation of the pandemic by putting audiences into the hands and imaginations of our elders," said Shuch. "We want this evening to bring strangers together for a moment of togetherness, to create a situation where people surrender to each other and surrender to a moment of beauty."

To help ensure the safety and wellbeing of attendees, staff and artists, this event will require proof of full COVID-19 vaccination for entry. And attendees will be required to wear face masks in compliance with local public health guidelines at the time of the event.

For You (Erika Chong Shuch, Ryan Tacata, Rowena Richie) is a performance collective that brings diverse strangers together and makes performances as gifts. As a response to worldwide shelter-in-place ordinances due to COVID-19, they launched Artists & Elders-a project that virtually pairs artists and elders together for creative exchange. foryou.productions

Dancers' Group promotes the visibility and viability of dance. Founded in 1982, we serve San Francisco Bay Area artists, the dance community and audiences through programs and services that are as collaborative and innovative as the creative process. As the primary dance service organization in the Bay Area, we support the second largest dance community in the nation by providing many programs and resources that help artists produce work, build audiences, and connect with their peers and community. dancersgroup.org

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