Black Choreographers Festival to Launch New Season at Dance Mission Theater

The African & African American Performing Arts Coalition and K*Star*Productions has announced the program for New Voices/New Works, two back-to-back weekends opening the 21st edition of the BLACK CHOREOGRAPHERS FESTIVAL: HERE AND NOW (BCF), February 21 to March 1 at Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco. 

“It is inspiring to witness the extraordinary artistry and unique choreography crafted and presented for New Voices/New Works – choreographers bring such authentic and vibrant works each season,” said laura Elaine Ellis, founder of African & African American Performing Arts Coalition and BCF co-director. “BCF residencies provide a safe and supportive space for choreographers to take creative risks and challenge themselves artistically, and this year we welcome six new voices bringing new works to our stage: Olutola Afolayan, Styles Alexander, Alaja Badalich, Isha Tobis Clarke, Ja'Moon Jones and William L. Miller.”

A total of 18 choreographers will take part this season, and more than half will premiere new works between 5 and 15 minutes in length. For the remainder, the festival will present a mix of Bay Area premieres and excerpts of longer works in development. The participating artists run the gamut in their histories, dance lineages and life experiences. 

Audiences can look forward to performances by established artists including Gregory Dawson, Raissa Simpson and Dazaun Soleyn, as well as emerging artists including Styles Alexander, Alaja Badalich, Gabriele Christian, Clarissa Dyas, William Brewton Fowler, Jr., Marianna Hester, Ja'Moon Jones, dominique lesleyann, Aja Randall & Patricia West and Natalya Janay Shoaf. From Congolese and West African styles to jazz, dance theater, postmodern and contemporary ballet, BCF aims each year to present a cross-section of the diversity within Black dance across the country.

While most of the participating choreographers are based in the Bay Area, BCF welcomes two touring artists this season: Miller, who is currently based in Los Angeles, and Clarke, who spent several formative years in Oakland before moving east to study and perform with hip hop pioneers Kurtis Blow, The Sequence, DJ Kool Herc and MC Sha Rock. Both Miller and Clarke will present historically informed group works exploring the intersection of race and sexuality.

Identity and autobiography are themes well-represented this season as in most. For example, Hester will perform a group piece based on the story of her fateful flight alone at age 16 away from her family in North Carolina to live in Oakland. Hester found a new home in Dimensions Dance Theater's Rites of Passage youth program where she is now an instructor and performer with the adult company.

Music is another highlight of each season, with choreographers commissioning new music and musicians sharing the stage with dancers. Among the artists working with new music are Badalich and Soleyn. Other artists have designed projects in collaboration with visual and interdisciplinary artists: Christian will respond to a work by the late Jess Curtis, and lesleyann will respond to Adelf Uti, joining her on stage.

Other recurring themes include dance as a ritual for healing and wellness, and dance as a sacramental art form. Jones, who joined ODC/Dance in 2025, will present a solo featuring a cleansing by water. Afolayan has performed with Fua Dia Kongo, Dana Lawton Dances and Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, among others. She is also presenting a solo piece with a water theme, namely the stories of three women who visit a well. “My work is about the unseen guidance that meets us in the crossings between loss and belonging,” she said.