ODC/Dance Will Present DANCE DOWNTOWN

ODC/Dance, San Francisco's internationally acclaimed contemporary dance company, will present Dance Downtown, its 49thHome Season featuring two programs of bold and bracing choreography, March 26 - April 5, 2020.

From March 26 - March 29, ODC presents powerful works by ODC Founder and Artistic Director Brenda Way and Co-Artistic Director KT Nelson. Both pieces in the opening week embody values that continue to compel the artists: the world of nature and the power of community. Nelson's 2009 work Grassland, is "pulsing with life," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle. Moved by the grievous disappearance of natural diversity, Nelson's Grassland is set to a lush, commissioned score by Marcelo Zarvos. The work's physical language is derived from observing a wide range of grass, including extinct grasses. Way's celebrated 2011 work, Speaking Volumes, is set to an original score by Jay Cloidt and conceived as a treatise on building: a facility, a dance company, and a community. It begins, in a fleeting gloss on the opening of the Marriage of Figaro, with a solo dancer measuring the space, inviting us to consider both construction and perception. It accumulates to a final boisterous section featuring the whole company amplified by a chorus of young dancers and returning ODC alumni.

Over the second weekend, April 2-5, the company performs Up for Air (Decameron). A collaboration woven from all four ODC choreographic voices: Brenda Way; KT Nelson; Associate Choreographer Kimi Okada; and Resident Choreographer Kate Weare, Up for Air (Decameron) is performed by dancers from both ODC/Dance and New York-based Kate Weare Company. As in Bocaccio's 14th century novel, The Decameron, the dance is comprised of erotic, touching and raucous tales of love and connection. It features a range of contemporary music and live vocal and instrumental music by Lisa Berman of the celebrated Old Time Band, The Crooked Jades.

ODC's Home Season also includes its annual Spring Fundraiser, "ODC Dance Downtown Gala," on Friday, March 27, 2020 at 5:15pm at the YBCA Forum and Theater. Chaired by Jack Calhoun & Trent Norris and Peter Chandonnet & Timothy Schroeder, the luminary evening will include a pre-performance dinner, a performance, and an after-party. Proceeds support ODC's creation of innovative new work. More information is at www.odc.dance/gala.

The ODC/Dance Company is widely recognized for its rigorous technique and numerous groundbreaking collaborations, balanced with its commitment to accessibility and inclusive dance experiences for all community members through its school and extensive outreach. Comprised of ten world-class dancers, the company performs its imaginative repertory for more than 50,000 people annually. Two annual home seasons in San Francisco include Dance Downtown and the holiday production, The Velveteen Rabbit. Recent highlights include appearances at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music Next Wave Festival and The Joyce Theater in New York, MODAFE Festival in Seoul Korea, Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, Royce Hall at UCLA and in past years, standing-room-only engagements in Europe, Russia, and Asia. Founded in 1971 by Artistic Director Brenda Way, ODC is known nationally for entrepreneurial savvy and was the first modern dance company in the United States to build its own home facility, the ODC Theater. In 2005, ODC expanded its campus to include the ODC Dance Commons, which houses ODC/Dance, ODC/School, a Pilates studio, and a Healthy Dancers' Clinic.

WHAT:

ODC Dance Downtown
Program A: Grasslandand Speaking Volumes

Program B: Up for Air (Decameron)

WHEN:

Program A

Thursday, March 26, 8pm

Friday, March 27, 5:15pm, Spring Gala

Saturday, March 28, 8pm

Sunday, March 29 at 5pm

Program B

Thursday, April 2, 8pm

Friday, April 3, 8pm

Saturday, April 4, 8pm

Sunday, April 5, 5pm

WHERE:

Blue Shield of California Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,

700 Howard Street, San Francisco

Gala Dinner & After Party: YBCA Forum, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco

TICKETS:

$30-$80 (Performance)

$175-$600 (Gala)

Available online at odc.dance/downtown or at 415.863.9834

Photo Credit: RJ Muna

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