About the Theater

Lobby Nights are free art openings that add a dash of dance with low-risk dance and live performance "open mics."

Quarterly Guest Curators invite visual artists to install exhibits that kick off on the first Friday of each month. Performing artists are welcomed to show a small snippet of work in a fun and casual atmosphere.

Audiences are invited to bring a date or make it a night out with friends at ODC Theater with art, snacks, drinks, and dance - pop in, enjoy, mingle.

Want to show a small live performance moment or workshop an idea at the open mic / on the open floor? You'll have an intimate audience with this no tech, no stress opportunity. ODC can provide audio playback on a small speaker - bring your device to plug in. For folks showing movement, please note that the space is small and there is no dressing/warm up room. Write to theater@odc.dance to sign up in advance or talk to ODC staff at the event to get added to the lineup!

Please RSVP in advance to reserve your spot and make arrival faster. Walk-ups are welcome to RSVP at the door.

View upcoming lobby nights ►

Photo by Andrew Rogers

ODC Health will host monthly educational workshops regarding dancer health. The facilitators, topics, and target audiences will vary each month as we hope to provide information to our large range of ODC participants. Our expert facilitators will include physicians, physical therapists, mental health specialists, nutritionists, and health coaches, all who have experience dancing and helping dancers. These workshops are live and include opportunities for Q&A with our experts.

View upcoming workshops ►

Photo by Andrew Rogers

Information on discounted rentals for the 2023 calendar year will become available in summer 2022. 

Discounts for 2022 were selected in fall of 2021 by a panel of five Guest Curators.

ODC’s Resident Artist Program is a vital three-year intensive offering four Bay Area contemporary dance and performance artists comprehensive mentoring and unique opportunities to develop both their creative practice and their sustainable capacity as artists and ensembles. The program is currently on pause after the culmination of its most recent cohort in June of 2021. ODC Theater will take 2022 to review the program in dialogue with artistic community to assess the most supportive format for reemergence.

Learn more ►

• Charles Slender-White   
  
  
  Charles Slender-White (he/him) is a queer contemporary dance artist of mixed European and Roma descent. He is a choreographer, teacher, performer, organizer, and the Artistic Director of FACT/SF. Slender-White has worked throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, and began his career in 2006 as a dancer with Provincial Dances Theatre in Yekaterinburg, Russia. His choreographic works have since been commissioned by ODC Theater, CounterPulse, the US Department of State, and numerous others. Slender-White is one of 40 Countertechnique Teachers worldwide, and he completed his undergraduate degrees in Dance & Performance Studies and English Literature at UC Berkeley.
  
  Photo by Robbie Sweeney
   

• amara tabor-smith 
  
  
  Amara Tabor-Smith (She/her). Born in SF, and based in Oakland, CA. She is a choreographer/performance maker and the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater. She describes her dance and performance making practice as Conjure Art. Her interdisciplinary site-specific and community responsive performance experiences utilize Yoruba Lukumí spiritual technologies to address issues of social and environmental justice, race, gender identity, and belonging. Her work is rooted in Black, queer, womanist principles, that insist on liberation, joy, homefullness and well-being. In addition to her own work Amara has also performed in the works of artists such as Ed Mock, Joanna Haigood, Anna Deveare Smith, Ronald K. Brown, Julie Tolentino, Adia Tamar Whitaker, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and Faustin Linyekula. She is the former associate artistic director and company member with Urban Bush Women, and was the co artistic director of Headmistress, a performance collaboration with Sherwood Chen. She is a 2021 inaugural recipient of the Rainin Fellowship; a 2020 recipient of the Hewlett 50 grant with East Side Arts Alliance; a 2019 Dance/USA Fellow; a 2018 United States Artist Fellow and a 2018 recipient of KQED’s “Bay Brilliant” award. Her current project, House/Full of Blackwomen in collaboration with director Ellen Sebastian Chang is a site-specific ritual performance project addressing the displacement, well-being and sex trafficking of Black women and girls in Oakland. Rooted in Oakland, Amara is a member of the Black Cultural Zone (BCZ) Arts and Culture working group in East Oakland; she is a co-founder of the Oakland Anti-Racist Organizing Committee (OAROC) a collaboration of BIPOC artists and activists that holds space for individuals and organizations to address internalized structural racism, and she is the co-founder of Conjure and Mend, a creative sanctuary for survivors of Sex Trafficking in Oakland in partnership with sex trafficking abolitionist Regina Evans. Amara received her MFA in Dance from Hollins University and is an artist in residence at Stanford University. www.deepwatersdance.com
  
  Photo by Jean Melesaine

• Alleluia Panis

  
  
  Alleluia Panis has been a director & choreographer for over four decades. She is the founder of KULARTS, the nation's premiere presenter of contemporary and tribal Pilipino arts. She is a respected elder artist in the US and the Philippines and is at home in both Philippine indigenous dance and American contemporary forms. Her immersive multidisciplinary work explores legacies of colonialism, immigration, and forced displacements. A 2017 SFAC Legacy Artist awardee, she is the recipient of Hewlett 50 Commissions, Rainin Foundation Open Space grant, and Gerbode Foundation Special Arts Award. Her dance film, She, Who Can See premiered at the 2018 CAAM Fest and is currently playing at YBCA. Asian Art Museum has commissioned her 2022-24 Anting Anting dance project. kularts-sf.org

  Photo by Joe Ramos
   

• Farah Yasmeen Shaikh

  
  
  Farah Yasmeen Shaikh is an interantionally acclaimed Kathak performer, choreographer, and instructor, and Founder & Artistic Director of Noorani Dance, with two decades of training from the late Pandit Chitresh Das. Farah performs her own traditional and innovate works, most notably, The Forgotten Empress and The Partition Project. A TEDx speaker and host of the podcast, Heartistry Talk Show, Farah has received support and recognition for unique projects and collaborative endeavors. In addition to training students of Noorani Dance, Farah's teaching experience includes ODC School and Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco, India Community Center in the Silicon Vallety, and various academic and arts institutions throughout the U.S. Since 2015, Farah has been performing and teaching throughout Pakistan, engaging in meaningful exhanges with artists, organizations, students, and art-lovers. nooranidance.com

  Photo by Ammar Zaidi
   

• Marlene Garcia

  
  
  Marlene Garcia received a BA in dance with an emphasis in choreography from San Francisco State University. Both as a performer and creator, her work fuses contemporary and breaking: mixing textures and technique to athletically captivating experiences. She was awarded winning choreographer in The International Dance Festival Competition, 2018. She's performed with Kristin Damrow & Company and Alyssandra Katherine Dance. Her choreographic work has been presented at ODC Theater, Root Division Art Gallery, Joe Goode Annex, LevySalon, Dancing in The Park SF and San Francisco Movement Arts Festival. makedanceart.com

  Photo by Jardy Santiago
   

• Dazaun Soleyn

  
  
  Dazaun Soleyn, artistic director of dazaun.dance, has been presenting work in the Bay since the Fall for 2014. Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco, a Gyrotonic Trainer, Level 2 Reiki Practitioner, and Energy Worker. He is also a candidate for a Master's in Architecture Degree at California College of the arts. dazaunsoleyn.org

  Photo by Alexeya EM
   

• Leyya Mona Tawil

  
  
  Leyya Mona Tawil [Lime Rickey International] is an artist working with sound, performance, and hybrid transmissions. Her 25-year record of performances have been presented throughout the US, Europe, Russia, and the Arab world. She is the director of DANCE ELIXIR / TAC Temescal Art Center/Arab.AMP in Oakland, Ca. DANCE ELIXIR, Arab.AMP

  Photo by Cameron Kelly

• Jonathan Corderero
  
  Jonathan Cordero, Ph.D. (Ramaytush Ohlone/Chumash) is Founder and Executive Director of the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, Affiliated Scholar at UC Hastings College of the Law, and Visiting Scholar at USC. He works as a consultant in both the public and private sectors, especially in the arts, and he serves as a leader, speaker, and activist in the broader Ohlone and Chumash communities.
  
  Photo c/o Jonathan Cordero
   
• Emma Rubinowitz
  
  Emma Rubinowitz is a professional dancer, choreographer, and designer based in San Francisco, CA. Emma danced with San Francisco Ballet for many years, leaving in 2019 to pursue other endeavors. She currently freelances, and enjoys creating dance films in her spare time. "I am excited to be the guest curator for ODC’s Lobby nights; it gives me a chance to bring artists together and promote their work."
  
  Photo by Randall Hobbet