One of San Francisco's leading contemporary dance companies is heading into its next-to-last season before a 10th anniversary. SFDanceworks returns to Z Space in the Mission for Season 9, with four performances Nov. 4 through 7.
What's on the program
- Merce Cunningham: excerpts from three solos, Scenario (1997), Ocean (1994) and Enter (1992), according to Dance Informa. The company's season page lists Silas Riener as the performer, while the Dance Informa announcement names San Francisco Ballet principal Joseph Walsh, so check casting with the company.
- Jermaine Maurice Spivey: a world premiere for five dancers. Spivey, a longtime member of Crystal Pite's Kidd Pivot, makes his Bay Area choreographic debut.
- Brett Conway: a world premiere trio for company artists Isaac Bates-Vinueza, Sarah Chou and Emily Hansel. Conway, formerly of Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater, was the company's co-artistic director from 2019 to 2021.
- Yue Yin: a remount of A Measurable Existence, a duet originally made for two men, performed by two casts this season.
"Merce Cunningham was one of the most radical innovators in American dance," artistic director Dana Genshaft said in the season announcement. "By presenting Cunningham alongside contemporary American choreographers working locally, nationally and internationally, we honor that lineage while continuing it."
Tickets and workshops
Tickets cost $36 to $130 through Z Space. The company is also running public workshops built on past commissions, including a Nov. 7 class with Bates-Vinueza on Bryan Arias' The Broken Glass and a Nov. 14 class with Hansel on Emma Portner's elephant. Workshop participants get a discount on the Nov. 4 opening night, which ends with a reception.