Womxn’s Oracular Radical Dance. Now, more than ever, we need to support womxn identified and GNC voices and their intersecting identities. Dance Mission is proud to announce its presenting and program for 2018-2019, WORD, during which we are working closely with four groups of womxn identified artists. Don’t miss these exciting performances, conversations, and on-going investigations that dive into some of today’s most pressing topics.
D.I.R.T. Festival, or Dance In Revolt(ing) Times, is a social political dance festival in its 6th year. D.I.R.T. presents the work of artists that explicitly addressing local/global challenges through their creative process. There are many ways that an artist may address such challenges – be it from the content of their choreography, to looking at who has a voice, to their process. The D.I.R.T. Festival seeks to present dances that are rooted in social justice.
The Choreographers Showcase is produced twice a year (once in the fall and once in the spring) and is a non-juried opportunity for both emerging and established choreographers of all dance genres to show work or work-in-progress in a professional setting. Applications will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis. All levels and dance styles are welcome. Applications will be available online and at the studio a few months before each showcase.
Dance Missions Mission Youth Arts Festival is a free an annual event held at Portrero del Sol (La Raza) Park in the heart of our beloved Mission District. The Mission Youth Arts Festival debuted in 2018 and celebrates the young, rising voices of the neighborhood. The event has featured performances by the dancers and taiko players of GRRRL Brigade, the sizzling samba drummers of Loco Bloco, the folkloric dancers of Cuicacalli, the bouyant musicians of Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, the martial artists of Abada Capoeira SF, the steel drummers of Willie Brown Middle School, the spoken word poets of Youth Speaks and many others. In 2020, the Festival was be held throughout the Mission and then live streamed due to COVID-10 precautions.
“We wanted to counter the invisibility of the artists, families, and young people of the neighborhood and provide a platform for their voices and experiences. This is still a place where art and culture thrive and families live. Being poor, brown, young, a girl is no reason to be overlooked. It felt important to encourage and support youth to act on behalf of their hood and to create a way for these young people to network and share learning.” – Stella Adelman
“Of all the forms of inequity, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane.” – Martin Luther King Jr
Comhar, or “the power of working together,” is a unique collaboration between artists, activists, healers, scientists, and community. The festival, which consists of performance, talk, and ritual, examines the stark realities of health disparity and trauma, specifically in how the two relate to HIV/AIDS acquisition and transmission. The festival looks not only at the challenges we face as a community, also the beauty that lies in our resilience.
HIV is the success story of our time. It went from being a death sentence to a treatable disease. However, for certain populations, this is not the case. Today in SF 85% of men diagnosed with AIDS live 5+ years, while only 78% of transgender/biological women do. Black women are being infected at 8xs the rate of white. Medical experts attribute the disparities largely to trauma — physical, emotional, and structural, as well as to the disconnect between patients and scientists/researchers. Scientists often look at patients as viral load numbers not the whole person. Conversely, patients might not trust doctors due to a lack of connection – be it cultural, class, or color – and therefore don’t always reveal risky behavior. And many patients don’t feel safe disclosing their HIV status, making it hard to form supportive relationships (crucial to viral load suppression).
The festival uses art and storytelling to increase dialogue between scientists/researchers and infected/at-risk/general community members. Through performance, talk and ritual, we will encourage the two distinct populations that are working on the same end goal – but often separately – to come together, encouraging trust and collaboration.
The next Comhar Festival will be held June 2020 as a prelude to the International AIDS conference, which will be held in SF/Oak July 2020.
Dance Mission is dedicated to supporting underrepresented artistic voices via the production, creation, and presentation of new works at Dance Mission Theater and at other venues around the region. Dance Mission partners with artists via a co-presentation model, offering reduced rent, mentorship, and publicity support.
Dedicated to supporting underrepresented artistic voices via the production, creation, and presentation of new works at Dance Mission Theater and at other venues around the region. See past and upcoming Dance Mission Presents events below:
