Dance Downtown

Founder, Artistic Director

Brenda Way received her early training at the School of American Ballet and Ballet Arts in New York City. She is the founder and artistic director of ODC/Dance and creator of the ODC Theater and ODC Dance Commons, community performance and training venues in San Francisco’s Mission District. She launched ODC and helped create an inter-arts department at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in the late 1960's before relocating to the Bay Area in 1976.

Brenda has choreographed more than 85 pieces over the last 45 years. Her commissions include Unintended Consequences: A Meditation (2008) Equal Justice Society; Life is a House (2008) San Francisco Girls Chorus; On a Train Heading South (2005) CSU Monterey Bay; Remnants of Song (2002) Stanford Lively Arts; Scissors Paper Stone (1994) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Western Women (1993) Cal Performances, Rutgers University and Jacob's Pillow; Ghosts of an Old Ceremony (1991) Walker Art Center and The Minnesota Orchestra; Krazy Kat (1990) San Francisco Ballet; This Point in Time (1987) Oakland Ballet; Tamina (1986) San Francisco Performances; and Invisible Cities (1985) Stanford Lively Arts and the Robotics Research Laboratory. Her work Investigating Grace was named an NEA American Masterpiece in 2011.

Born and raised in New York, Montalvo is a San Francisco based director, choreographer, dancer, and dance educator. A professional dancer with Robert Moses Kin and various other companies for over 6 seasons, his choreographic commissions include works for RMK, Liss Fain Dance Company, LINES Ballet Training Program/Summer Program, The Black Eyed Peas, DanceWorks Chicago, MINI (USA), Mini Amp Live, SF Ballet School, Concept o4, Dance Mission’s Dance Brigade, Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center, Cardinal Ballet, University of SF Dance Ensemble, Marin School of the Arts, & the ODC Dance Jam. Montalvo and his choreography have appeared on the MTV, BET, Telemundo and Fox networks. Montalvo is a past Artistic Director of the Dance Theatre of San Francisco (in his tenure DTSF won two of the four Isadora Duncan award nominations including “Outstanding Choreography” for his ballet, “Pent”). Additionally, he was awarded a 2019 Saint Louis Inner Circle Award for “Such Sweet Thunder”, won an Izzie Award for his choreography in “Art Behind Bars” in 2014 and was nominated for another with “Impluse” in 2015 (RMK commission).

As a dance educator, Montalvo currently teaches at SF Ballet, USF, Dominican University of California (LINES BFA Program), LINES Ballet Training Program & ODC Dance Commons. Dexandro also serves as Assistant Director and Rehearsal Master of ODC’s pre-professional teen company. He has also taught at many other schools including Stanford University, SUNY Purchase College and Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center. Montalvo holds a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase College.
 

Photo by Andrea Basil