ODC Theater Sets 2016 Summer Season

ODC Theater, one of the West Coast's major centers for contemporary dance and performance, has announced the program for its 2016 summer season. Highlights include world premieres by Hope Mohr Dance and RAWdance, and the fifth anniversary of ODC Theater's signature summer dance event, the Walking Distance Dance Festival-SF, featuring performances by BODYTRAFFIC, Christopher K. Morgan and N? Lei Hulu I Ka W?kiu. On the final day of Walking Distance, ODC Theater in association with Epiphany Productions will also co-present a celebratory festival within a festival, a day of free, outdoor performances within walking distance of ODC's two-building campus in the Mission District.

Organizing ODC Theater's 2016 summer season is a focus on questions of identity. "To kick things off, in this year's Walking Distance Dance Festival-SF, June 1 - 4, we are delighted to present a return engagement of BODYTRAFFIC," says ODC Deputy Director Christy Bolingbroke. "The reputation of this Los Angeles-based repertory company is built on its strength in embodying diverse choreographic styles. There is no single aesthetic that defines them; rather, their identity is their mutability. We are pleased that BODYTRAFFIC will share three newly commissioned pieces since they were last here in 2013."

"Other vantage points on identity are offered by D.C.-based dance artist Christopher K. Morgan and San Francisco's hometown hula masters N? Lei Hulu I Ka W?kiu. We are pairing them in the Festival for complementary perspectives on their shared Hawaiian identity. Both performances offer insights into the relationship between inherited identity and developed identity."

"RAWdance has established an identity borne from the longtime collaboration between its two directors Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith, but this year they stage their own kind of artistic intervention with a major new work composed of a dozen commissioned duets, each by a different West Coast choreographer or choreographic team. The net result is a living exhibit of West Coast dance, and one which poses interesting questions about what defines West Coast choreography as well as what defines RAWdance."

"Hope Mohr is another artist who has demonstrated a commitment to questions of lineage, authorship and identity, and we are excited to present her newest work, Manifesting, responding to artist manifestoes like Yvonne Rainer's famous 'No Manifesto.' Mohr is interested in the way in which rules can be a spur to creativity, and conversely how the absence of rules can introduce a sense of 'wildness,' while bridging an individual dancer's agency with that of the choreographer."

"Likewise, Monique Jenkinson, aka Fauxnique, takes a critical and self-aware eye to performance, and in particular to the performance of gender identity as a culturally inscribed act. Next summer ODC Theater will present Monique in a new evening-length solo, but this year we get a taste of the work-in-progress via ODC's signature 'Unplugged' format."

"Finally, we are considering questions of identity at an institutional level. This year marks 40 years since ODC started as a presenter, offering itself as a foothold for national and international touring artists seeking debut in the Bay Area. What was originally the New Performance Gallery on Mississippi Street is today ODC Theater on 17th Street. Much has changed since 1976, and on June 4, the final day of the Walking Distance Dance Festival-SF, we will present Mission Street Dances as a gift to the neighborhood, a focal point for the city's history and ever-evolving identity."

In advance of its curated summer season, ODC will present a number of events includingTake 5, a quarterly program inviting three dance artists to share five-minute excerpts of their work-in-process, followed by a moderated discussion among the studio audience. The next dates in this series are April 8, June 10 and September 9. ODC's Pilot is the culmination of an 11-week mentorship program offering artists feedback in the areas of choreography and the demands of self-production. This year Pilot falls on April 9 - 10. Uncertain Weather is an annual showcase of performers, ages 7 - 18, from the ODC School Youth & Teen Program. On view are an array of diverse dance styles including contemporary, ballet, house, rhythm, tap and Bollywood. Uncertain Weather takes place this year May 7 - 9.

Not least of all, ODC Theater annually co-presents a select group of performances each season, and this summer ODC is proud to co-present the inaugural Home Season of SFDanceworks, June 23 - 25. Additional co-presentations include the Design for Dance Conference, April 28 - 29; ODC/Dance alumna-turned-choreographer Yayoi Kambara andKhamla Somphanh, May 20 - 21; and Tamalpa Institute's Tamalpa Dances for ArtCorps, June 25 - 26. To purchase tickets or for more information about these and all of ODC Theater's programs, visit odcdance.org. A chronological list of ODC Theater's 2016 summer season follows.

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