SAFEhouse Kicks Off SPF6 Tonight

SAFEhouse, a non-profit organization working to incubate new performing artists through residencies, workshops, and performance opportunities, is proud to announce its sixth annual Summer Performance Festival, SPF6, featuring eight emerging dance artists. SPF6 runs from tonight, August 14 to Sunday, August 18, 2013 at ODC Theater in San Francisco.

The eight dance artists hand-picked for SPF6 by SAFEhouse founder Joe Landini are: BodiGram,Jenni Bregman & Dancers, Aura Fischbeck Dance, Gretchen Garnett & Dancers, Angela Mazziotta, The Milissa Payne Project, Nine Shards, and Vinnicombe/Winkler.

Each of these artists recently completed a residency at The Garage performance space in San Francisco, and was selected [from a pool of more than 120 candidates] to participate in SPF6 on the basis of her capacity to make work that is rigorous, challenging and well-crafted.

"After curating The Garage residency program for seven years," says Landini, "I discovered that many of the artists that we had produced needed a larger venue to show their work. I founded SPF not only to showcase some of the best and brightest emerging dance artists today, but to help bridge the gap between The Garage's black box stage and larger venues like ODC Theater."

"I'm also really proud of the breadth of this year's festival which illustrates the wide spectrum of contemporary dance in San Francisco -- from contemporary ballet to physical theater to intermediated performance."

SAFEhouse (Saving Art From Extinction), founded in 2003 and based at The Garage in San Francisco, is a non-profit organization working to incubate new performing artists through residencies, workshops, and performance opportunities. Besides its annual Summer Performance Festival (SPF), SAFEhouse produces the Raw & Uncut Performance Showcase, RAW (Resident Artists' Workshop), AIRspace Queer Performing Artists Residency Program, and the West Wave Dance Festival. For more information, call (415) 518-1517.

FESTIVAL LINEUP:

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

7pm | Jenni Bregman & Dancers

9pm | BodiGram

Thursday, August 15, 2013

7pm | Nine Shards

9pm | I. Aura Fischbeck II. Gretchen Garnett & Dancers III. Angela Mazziotta

Friday, August 16, 2013

7pm | I. Aura Fischbeck II. Gretchen Garnett & Dancers III. Angela Mazziotta

9pm | Jenni Bregman & Dancers

Saturday, August 17, 2013

4pm | The Milissa Payne Project

7pm | BodiGram

9pm | Vinnicombe/Winkler

Sunday, August 18, 2013

2pm | Vinnicombe/Winkler

4pm | Nine Shards

7pm | The Milissa Payne Project

PROGRAMS:

BODIGRAM

Performance Title: D.R.U.N.K.S., Dangerous Rebels Uncovering Nonsensical Knowledge Satirically

D.R.U.N.K.S., Dangerous Rebels Uncovering Nonsensical Knowledge Satirically is a comedic dance theater piece about the ridiculousness of drinking. Combining contact improvisation, line dancing, and drinking games, BodiGram explores the word "Drunks" as a kind of secret acronym.

Length: 45 minutes

Performers: Blair Bodie, Julia Graham, Korie Franciscus, and Tara Fagan

JENNI BREGMAN & DANCERS

Performance Titles:

I. Home

II. Context

III. Force

Jenni Bregman & Dancers performs three short dance theater pieces. Home explores how children envision adulthood through the drawings they make. Context imagines what it's like to navigate the world with impaired senses. Lastly, Force is about working in a fast-paced corporation.

Length: 45 minutes

Performers: Sadie Carhart, Sharon Gallagher, Hillary Hoffman, Gina Levesque, Seren Pendleton-Knoll, Shawna Seth, Alberto Vajrabukka, and Jenni Bregman

AURA FISCHBECK DANCE

Performance Title: Have we all melted yet? (excerpt)

Relying on the body as a source of non-linear narrative and living history, Have we all melted yet? weaves together evocative movement and iconic imagery to examine myths of American identity and the melting pot theory.

Length: 20 minutes

Performers: Rebecca Chun, Colin Epstein, Aura Fischbeck, Annie Kahane, Daria Kauffman, Melissa Lewis, and Karla Quintero

GRETCHEN GARNETT & DANCERS

Performance Title: Buitenlanders (world premiere)

Buitenlanders investigates the isolation, confusion, and embarrassment of being an outsider. It looks at how we deal with our own otherness in search of a place that feels like home.

Length: 15 minutes

Performers: Leah Curran, Rachael Elliot, LizAnne Roman

ANGELA MAZZIOTTA

Performance Title: We lay awake breathing grapes (world premiere)

We lay awake breathing grapes is a solo about a woman who has something to say, but can't get the words out. "The lump in her throat and grapes in her mouth are dams to her words."

Length: 15 minutes

Performer: Whitney Stevenson

THE MILISSA PAYNE PROJECT

Performance Title: Up in the Air

Inspired by the grandeur of hot air balloon travel, Up in the Air features an ensemble of 15 Bay Area dancers, and set design by Bay Area painter Seán Patrick McArdle.

Length: 40 minutes

Performers: Vivian Aragon, Marlowe Bassett, Jamielyn Duggan, Emily Kerr, Bryan Ketron, Jackie Goneconti Gibbons, Damon Mahoney, Mairi Nicol, Rachel Speidel Little, Megan Wright, Jessica Woodman, Gabrielle Zucker

NINE SHARDS

Performance Title: my five thousand north stars (world premiere)

My five thousand north stars is a dance theater work investigating the world of home, and the choices we make within it and because of it.

Length: 45 minutes

Performers: Shannon Leypoldt, Abby Stopper, Lucy Vasserman

VINNICOMBE/WINKLER

Performance Title: Deconstructing the Surrogate

A duet created by husband and wife team Daniel James and Bryce Vinnicombe Winkler,Deconstructing the Surrogate is accompanied by an original soundtrack comprised of over 1000 individual tracks and a richly kaleidoscopic film projected over both performer and stage.

Length: 40 minutes

Performers: Bryce Vinnicombe and Harold Burns

All performances take place in the ODC Theater, 3153 17th Street, San Francisco, Calif. Tickets: $10/$15/$20. To purchase call 415-863-9834, Monday through Friday from 12-3pm. Or online at: odcdance.org/buytickets.php. For more about the festival, go to spf6.org.