RAWdance Will Present THERE AND BACK As Its 2026 Home Season At ODC Theater
The program includes three Bay Area premieres choreographed by Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein.
By: A.A. Cristi Dec. 17, 2025
RAWdance will present There and Back, the company’s 2026 Home Season, at ODC Theater in San Francisco. Performances will take place Thursday, February 5; Friday, February 6; and Saturday, February 7, 2026. The program features three Bay Area premieres, including two ensemble works and a new duet performed by Co-Artistic Directors Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein.
The season brings together works developed over several years in locations outside the Bay Area and returns them to RAWdance’s home stage. All three pieces are choreographed by Smith and Rein in collaboration with the company’s dancers and feature lighting design by Del Medoff.
About the Works
The program includes Art Is a Guarantee of Sanity, a quintet that explores mental instability and resilience through layered movement and visual imagery. The work draws inspiration from journalist Susannah Cahalan’s memoir Brain on Fire, which documents her experience with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, as well as visual works by artist Louise Bourgeois. The piece features a sound score by multimedia artist Surabhi Saraf and was originally created in 2017 for St. Louis–based company MADCO through Dance St. Louis’ New Dance Horizons program.
Also featured is Veneer, a new ensemble work that examines shifting group and intimate dynamics through abstract and episodic scenes. The piece evolved from material originally developed in 2015 for Webster University students and now premieres as a full-length work for eight dancers. Veneer includes a newly commissioned score by New York–based composer Eric Dietz.
The program concludes with Time Passed, a new duet performed by Smith and Rein. The work blends new choreography with fragments from earlier pieces spanning the duo’s nearly three decades of collaboration. Developed over the past year in RAWdance’s Hudson Valley location, the duet marks the pair’s first Bay Area performance together since 2019.
Artist Statements
“In a way, these works feel like unfinished business to us,” said Smith. “One work was beautifully performed by another company in St. Louis but never by our dancers. One work launched from ideas developed for a university dance department, and we’ve been waiting for a decade to dive back in. And the last work has been bubbling for us in the Hudson Valley and we’re excited for it to be fully realized at ODC Theater.”
Rein added, “Sometimes when we begin a work, we don’t know what it will become or where it will land. Parts of all of the works in There and Back were originally developed for short pieces for our salon, the CONCEPT series. Those moments became the raw material that we then used to develop works in other places. Now we’re so excited for it all to come full circle, performed by our company and in the Bay for the first time.”
Events and Access
A ticketed VIP reception will take place prior to the Friday evening performance. A free pre-show artist talk will be held before the Saturday performance. RAWdance is a Home Company of ODC Theater.
About RAWdance
RAWdance is a San Francisco- and Hudson Valley–based contemporary dance company focused on performance, curation, and collaboration. Since its founding, the company has presented work nationally and internationally and has supported nearly 200 artists through its CONCEPT salon series. RAWdance has received multiple Best Dance Company honors and was awarded a Sustained Achievement Izzie Award in 2025.
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