ODC Dance Announces 46th Season

ODC/Dance, San Francisco's internationally acclaimed contemporary Dance Company, announces programming for its 46th annual home season at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. This season includes one world premiere by Brenda Way, one world premiere by KT Nelson, the return of Kate Weare's critically acclaimed work, Giant, and Way's enthralling 2016 work, Walk Back the Cat.

ODC Founder & Artistic Director Brenda Way premieres What we carry What we keep, a wide-ranging reflection on holding, hoarding and clearing out. Her intrigue with the meaning of material accumulation was triggered by "The Keeper," an art exhibit at the New Museum in New York City which featured three full floors of artifacts collected by artists over 30 years; and, at the same time, following the recent "KonMari" fad for radical downsizing. Way asks "What is this human obsession with stuff really about?" She goes on to explore the personal and interpersonal dimensions of holding on and letting go.

ODC Co-Artistic Director, KT Nelson's world premiere, Blink of an Eye, explores our ephemeral place in time, space and history. Through the use of historical costume accessories, hand-held light sources, and music from divergent historical periods, Nelson reflects on our capacity to change and meet our historical time. As part of her research, Ms. Nelson embarked on a six-week pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago. This experience "heightened my belief in collective compassion and the realization we are all in this together," she says.

Giant, by ODC Resident Choreographer Kate Weare, mesmerized audiences last season.Co-commissioned by ODC and Portland-based presenter White Bird, Giant plays with perceptions of the heroic body by fantasizing out loud about potency and valor. Playing with scale and feeling, Giant flips from idea to idea, toying with our assumptions of where - and how - power lies. Dubbed "the voice of the 'it's complicated' generation," by Dance Magazine, Weare charts her own humanism by tackling head-on the violence, sensuality and yearning for intimacy that mark our age.

Way's celebrated 2016 work, Walk Back the Cat is a metaphorical unraveling of the creative process, set to a commissioned score by longtime collaborator, composer Paul Dresher. Conceived as a kind of choreographic puzzle, the dance ultimately comes together in a scenario inspired by Thomas Hart Benton's muscular and vital murals of American City Life in the 1930s.

ODC/Dance also hosts its annual Spring Gala, "Women on the Move" on Friday, March 24, 2017 at the St. Regis at 6pm. The evening will include a pre-performance dinner, a special gala performance featuring works and excerpts by Brenda Way, KT Nelson, Kimi Okada and Kate Weare, and an after-party. US Senator Kamala D. Harris serves as Honorary Chair. More information is at www.odc.dance/gala.

CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:

WHEN:

March 23-April 2, 2017

WHERE:

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard Street, San Francisco

WHAT:

ODC/Dance Downtown, the 46thAnnual home season of ODC/Dance.

PROGRAM A

Blink of an Eye (World Premiere), CHOREOGRAPHER, KT Nelson

Giant (2016), CHOREOGRAPHER, KateWeare/MUSIC, Jay Cloidt

Thursday, March 23, 7:30pm

Saturday, March 25, 7:30pm

Sunday, March 26, 5:00pm (Pre-show balcony talk at 4:15pm)

PROGRAM B

What we carry What we keep (World Premiere), CHOREOEGRPAHER, Brenda Way/MUSIC, Joan Jeanrenaud

Walk Back the Cat (2016), CHOREOGRAPHER, Brenda Way/MUSIC, Paul Dresher

Thursday, March 30, 7:30pm

Friday, March 31, 7:30pm (Pre-show balcony talk at 6:15pm)

Saturday, April 1, 7:30pm

Sunday, April 2, 5:00pm(Pre-show balcony talk at 4:15pm)

SPRING GALA "Women on the Move" Friday, March 24, 6pm, Gala/8pm Performance

Blink of an Eye (world premiere), excerpt, CHOREOGRAPHER/KT Nelson

Triangulating Euclid (2013), excerpt, CHOREOGRAPHER/Brenda Way, KT Nelson, Kate Weare

Giant (2016), excerpt, CHOREOGRAPHER/Kate Weare

Two if By Sea (2013), excerpt, CHOREOGRAPHER/Kimi Okada

TICKETS:

Performance: $25-$80

Gala: $95-$600

Available at 415-978-ARTS (2787) or online at www.odc.dance