There and Back: 2026 Home Season

RAWdance’s 2026 theatrical season, There and Back, features three exciting Bay Area premieres. Featuring two layered, visually-striking, ensemble works as well as a new ethereal duet for the company’s Co-Artistic Directors, Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, the season brings RAWdance’s history of developing work outside of the Bay back to the stage at ODC Theater.

Vibrating with urgency, Art is a Guarantee of Sanity navigates a path through an eerie, harrowing world in which our minds sometimes betray us. The quintet features a score by multimedia artist Surabhi Saraf. Originally commissioned for St. Louis’ MADCO, Art is a Guarantee of Sanity draws haunting imagery and inspiration from author Susannah Cahalan’s memoir Brain on Fire and from select works by visual artist Louise Bourgeois.

The premiere of Veneer combines a new, original score by New York-based composer Eric Dietz with a dynamic ensemble cast of eight dancers and three tables. Launched from an earlier piece that Smith and Rein developed in 2015 for students at Webster University, Veneer offers an abstract, constantly shifting landscape of group and intimate dynamics.

Lastly, RAWdance’s Smith and Rein bring their celebrated, intricate partnering back to a Bay Area stage for the first time since 2019, with a new duet titled Time Passed. In development for the last year through programming in the company’s Hudson Valley location, the duet blends new material with an assemblage of largely discarded fragments from past works that span Rein and Smith’s nearly three decades of partnership on the dance floor.

Friday February 6 at 6:15-7:15pm, VIP Pre-Show Reception
Join the RAWdance community at this special pre-show reception to celebrate the company’s latest production and to hear directly from the artists. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served. VIP ticket holders will also have priority seating for the Friday evening show. The event is Friday night only, but VIP tickets holders for all nights are welcome to attend the Friday event.
The VIP Pre-Show Reception will be held in the Executive Suite at the ODC Dance Commons at 351 Shotwell St.

Saturday February 7 at 7-7:30pm, Free Pre-Show Artist Talk
Chat with RAWdance’s Co-Artistic Directors Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith before the show! Hear stories and get insight on all three of the program’s works. ASL interpretation provided.
The Pre-Show Artist Talk will be held in ODC Theater.

Image by Maximillian Tortoriello Photography