Program for ChoreoFest 2021 – July 31

YBGF presents classical, world, and jazz music, contemporary and traditional dance, theater, children’s and family programs, and cultural events reflecting the rich cultures and creativity of the region. Artistic excellence, inclusion, diversity and innovation are at the heart of its mission. As the only curated arts park dedicated to the longterm presentation of free arts and cultural programs, Yerba Buena Gardens has a unique place in the cultural landscape of San Francisco. ybgfestival.org

RAWdance is an award-winning contemporary dance company known for transforming theaters and public spaces through performance, curation, collaboration, and film. The company creates adventurous, thoughtful, and welcoming programming that challenges what contemporary dance is, where it happens, who it includes, and the role it plays in our lives. A “rare treasure” (Critical Dance) and ”witty, whip-smart, and beautiful to watch” (San Francisco Chronicle), RAWdance has performed throughout the U.S. and in Asia. rawdance.org

Allegra Bautista, a San Francisco native, graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California with a double major in Dance and Liberal & Civic Studies. She was classically trained at San Francisco Ballet, City Ballet School and the SF Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division for classical guitar. She is honored to have performed in the works of Garrett + Moulton Productions, Kristin Damrow & Company, Amy Seiwert, Raissa Simpson, RAWdance, Epiphany Dance Theater, Tanya Bello’s Project.B, Natasha Adorlee’s Concept o4, and ka·nei·see | collective. She is also a certified yoga instructor.

Corey Brady is a native of Houston, TX and a graduate of Houston’s High School for Performing and Visual Arts. He also trained at Houston Ballet Academy, Martha Graham School, and American Dance Festival. After earning a BFA in dance from the University of Oklahoma, Corey moved to San Francisco, where he has danced with ODC, RAWdance, Imagery Contemporary Ballet, Concept o4, Project.B, Printz Dance Project, and Kambara+Dancers. Corey has taught extensively in ODC’s youth, teen and adult programs and been an ODC choreography repetiteur for the SFSU Dance Department. Corey is on faculty at Berkeley Ballet Theater, where he teaches modern dance. He also works as a Visitor Experience Assistant at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and is a figure drawing and print model.

Keanu Brady is a San Francisco-based dancer/artist and company member of FACT/SF. He discovered dance because he was inspired by Step Up (Channing Tatum, if you’re reading this, find me after the show). He received his BFA in Modern Dance at the University of Utah. Hope you enjoy the show!

Carolina (Carro) Czechowska was born in Stockholm and received her education at the Royal Swedish Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, The Boston Ballet, and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet Training Program. In San Francisco, she has danced with RAWdance, Capacitor, James Graham Dance Theatre and Garrett & Moulton Productions (2011-19). Internationally, she has been part of installations by Tino Seghal and work with Johannes Wieland. She is a company member of Moving Isolation, an award-winning online international collaboration developed during the pandemic. Carro has taught classical Pilates for twelve years and is the owner of Body Bottega. She is currently a LEAP student at Saint Mary’s College. In 2017 Carro was awarded the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for outstanding individual performance.

Kelly Del Rosario was born and raised in Mililani, Hawaii. He began his studies in dance in 2001 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and received his BFA in dance in 2005. Upon graduation, Kelly moved to San Francisco where he has worked with various artists including Project Agora, Sarah Bush Dance Project, Robert Moses’ Kin, Project.B, and RAWdance.

Tristan Ching Hartmann received her early training from the San Francisco Ballet School and the Westside School of Ballet. She began studying modern dance with Diane Frank and Robert Moses at Stanford University, where she received a BA in English and a MA in Dance Education. Tristan is grateful to have danced with Robert Moses’ Kin for 11 years as well as such artists as Sharp and Fine, Project.B, RAWdance, Janice Garrett, Stephen Pelton, and Chen and Dancers. Tristan was on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance until the school’s closing in 2018 and has since started presenting her own work, collaborating with the writers of Red Light Lit as well as her fellow dance heroes.

Olivia Caldeira Holston was born in São Sebastião, Brazil and was raised in California. She received her BA Honours degree from the London Contemporary Dance School in 2019. She attended summer intensives such as the Alvin Ailey Professional and Junior Divisions in New York as well as P.A.R.T.S. and Eastman in Belgium. Olivia has had the opportunity to work with Paufve Dance, Bellwether Dance Project, and Rebecca Morris and dancers. In addition, she choreographed and performed in the dance video project SweetWire directed by Greg Niemeyer. She has taught in ODC’s and Shawl Anderson Dance Center’s youth programs as well as given master classes at Marin Academy. Olivia is currently working with David Herrera Performance Company and A Pulso Dance Project.

Shinichi Iova-Koga is the Artistic Director of the physical theater and dance company inkBoat, founded by Shinichi in 1998. He has toured in North America, Europe, South Korea and Japan, often collaborating with local artists in museums, theaters, studios and site-specific locations. He has co-directed works with Anna Halprin, Ko Murobushi and others. Shinichi is the editor of the book 95 Rituals, a tribute to Anna Halprin and contributor to The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance. He delivered a TEDx Talk on improvisation. Shinichi has been teaching body mechanics and composition since 1994, including through the MFA programs of Mills College and UC Davis and through lectures at universities throughout the USA.

Margaret Jenkins is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, as well as a designer of unique community-based dance projects like CHIME and Encounters Over 60! She began her early training in San Francisco. In the sixties, she moved to New York to study at Juilliard, continued her training at UCLA and returned to New York to dance with Gus Solomons, Jr., Jack Moore, Judy Dunn, Viola Farber and in Twyla Tharp’s first company. She assisted Merce Cunningham for 12 year in the teaching of his work. Since her return to San Francisco, the MJDC has been a part of the cultural fabric dedicated to the making and touring of new work and international exchange. mjdc.org

Katherine Neumann is a dancer and choreographer based in San Francisco. She holds a BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). Katherine has worked and performed with Robert Moses’ Kin, FACT/SF, the Mari Meade Dance Collective, ka·nei·see | collective, Stephanie Unger & Artists, Alyssa Mitchel, Alex Law, Hannah Ayesse, and Hannah Young.

Suki O’Kane is an Oakland-based musician, composer, public artist and intermedia curator. Since 1996 she has been developing temporary public art projects that emphasize the fleeting and seek to catalyze highly personal transformations in unexpected places. Her work now focuses on the transformation of civic spaces with the ephemeral tools of light and sound, organized as collaborative, improvisational practice. She founded The Illuminated Corridor, a nomadic public art project that creates site-specific illumination of public space. She curated and produced Music by the Eyeful, the San Francisco-based gallery performance that featured inventions in visual audio. As a collaborator with Neighborhood Public Radio, she curated and presented NOVA, a culminating event of NPR’s exhibition American Life at the 2008 Whitney Biennial.

Amy Rathbone’s process is one of meticulous construction that occurs over an extended period of time. Each element is painstakingly assembled from minuscule parts to form an immersive whole. Wire, sandbags, spray paint, ink and gouache are employed to form a novel environment, which holds its own inner logic. From 1999-2009 she worked as a draftsperson for Sol LeWitt. She has worked with inkBoat since 2011. Amy was born in Cleveland, OH and lives and works in San Francisco, CA. She holds a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University and received her MFA at UC Berkeley. Her work has been the subject of many international solo and group exhibitions.

Charles Slender-White is a queer contemporary dance artist, instigator, and organizer of mixed European and Roma descent. He is also the Artistic Director of FACT/SF, a San Francisco-based contemporary dance company. As a performer, teacher, choreographer, and advocate, Charles has worked in more than fifty cities across twelve countries on four continents. He is optimistic about the future of dance. He actively utilizes FACT/SF’s organizational structure to provide resources and opportunities to other practitioners in the field, and is one of 36 Countertechnique Teachers worldwide. Charles began his career with Provincial Dances Theatre in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and graduated from UC Berkeley with degrees in Dance & Performance Studies and English Literature. factsf.org