Walking Distance Dance Festival to Return in June

Next month ODC Theater celebrates the fifth anniversary of its signature summer dance festival with performances by artists from around the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Over four days from Wednesday, June 1 to Saturday, June 4 the Walking Distance Dance Festival-SF will feature performances byBODYTRAFFIC, Christopher K. Morgan & Artists and N? Lei Hulu I Ka W?kiu. The festival culminates in a series of site-specific performances all within walking distance of ODC's two-building campus in the Mission District. Presented in association with Epiphany Productions, the Mission Street Dances program features ODC's flagship dance company ODC/Dance, as well as Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts, 13th Floor, Dance Brigade, David Herrera Performance Company, and Zoe Klein of Epiphany Productions performing a solo choreographed by Kim Epifano.

ODC Deputy Director Christy Bolingbroke conceived the festival five years ago to be "a veritable smorgasbord of dance, a chance to offer audiences a wide sampling of dance performance, with something for everyone." This year's event lives up to this goal with works by nine companies and solo artists, representing an array of styles and forms, from the protean members of Los Angeles-based BODYTRAFFIC to the traditional and contemporary hula dancers of N? Lei Hulu I Ka W?kiu, from dance theater to aerial, contact improvisation to street dance.

Uniting this year's program is an inquiry into the topic of identity. BODYTRAFFIC is a celebrated Los Angeles-based repertory company well-regarded for its eclectic commissions of contemporary choreographers. "There is no single aesthetic that defines them; rather, their identity is their mutability," says Bolingbroke. Since their sold-out 2013 engagement at ODC, the company has commissioned new pieces by Victor Quijada and Richard Siegal, which they will perform for this year's Festival. The third and final piece on their program is a preview of a brand new work by Slovakian dance maker Anton Lachky. BODYTRAFFIC performs twice, Wednesday and Thursday, June 1 - 2 at 7:30 p.m.

On Friday, June 3, the Festival features a double bill of traditional and contemporary Hawaiian dance by D.C.-based artist Morgan and San Francisco's hometown hula masters N? Lei Hulu I Ka W?kiu. ODC will present the West Coast premiere of Morgan's P?haku, a nearly hour-long work combining hula, modern dance, first-person stories, live music and projection to explore "universal themes in the story of Hawaii's native people, including land loss and fractured identity." Morgan's personal story is that of a first-generation, half-Hawaiian, who was born and raised in California. P?haku, which means "stone" in Hawaiian, represents his first choreographed work incorporating his native Hawaiian cultural traditions along with his modern dance training. Accompanying Morgan on a six-string electric cello is the classically trained Wytold, and on percussion, Morgan's sister Kim Ku'uipo Simpson.

N? Lei Hulu I Ka W?kiu will, in turn, perform a medley of 12 pieces from their more than 30-year history in a program titled The Hula Show. Under the direction of Patrick Makuakane, the company will perform a selection of works spanning the gamut from traditional (hula kahiko) to contemporary (hula 'auana). At the traditional end is Wilikoki, "a protest song written in the 1890s honoring Hawaiian patriot Robert Wilcox. He tried to free Hawaii's last Queen from prison but his efforts were foiled," explains Makuakane. At the other end of the spectrum is a work titled The Birth Certificate Hula, about the release of Obama's long-form birth certificate in response to questions raised by conservatives about his citizenship. Twenty-six company members, including Makuakane on percussion, will take the stage inThe Hula Show.

Pohaku will be performed in ODC Theater, and The Hula Show in Studio B in the ODC Dance Commons. Following the Festival's tradition, audiences will change venues in short walking distance of each other on this program.

The Festival concludes on Saturday with a nod to the changing identity of ODC's neighborhood in the Mission district. Four hour-long walking tours will feature Bay Area artists in five- to eight-minute site-specific performances. The tours, appropriately titledMission Street Dances, start at Gray Area located at 2665 Mission Street, and finish at the Wells Fargo bank parking lot at 16th and Hoff Streets. Individuals are advised to register in advance for a reserved spot on these pay-what-you-want tours, to dress comfortably and to arrive 20 to 30 minutes in advance to check in.

ODC Artists-in-Residence Sheldon Smith and Lisa Wymore, the husband-and-wife directors of Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts, kick off the tour with an excerpt of a work slated to premiere at ODC in winter 2017. Titled Quantified Self, the piece takes on the growing movement of self-monitoring or "lifelogging," using wearable sensors and computing.

Other highlights of the tour include two separate performances by members of ODC/Dance, David Herrera Performance Company performing in Alioto Park, a trio by 13th Floor under the direction of Jenny McAllister, Dance Brigade under the direction of Krissy Keeferperforming in Clarion Alley, and an aerial solo by Zoe Klein choreographed by Kim Epifano.

Individual tickets to each program on June 1 - 3 are $30 - $45. Admission to Mission Street Dances on June 4 is pay-what-you-want with prices ranging from free to $30. A Festival package, including Arts Patron tickets to the BODYTRAFFIC program and the double bill of Christopher K. Morgan & Artists and N? Lei Hulu I Ka W?kiu, as well as a reserved spot on aMission Street Dances tour is a bargain at $55 and guarantees admission to all programs. Tickets may be purchased online at odcdance.org/wddf.

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