little seismic dance company; photo by Tony Campbell
By Jill Homan Randall, Blog Director
The San Francisco Bay Area has a rich and varied modern dance scene: dance theater, contact improv, aerial dance, site-specific dance, physically integrated dance, and blending of styles.
How to begin:
The best thing to do is to join Dancers' Group. Dancers' Group is the Bay Area's service organization. Membership is only $40. Their weekly emails list jobs, performance opportunities, grants, discounts, and upcoming performances. Dancers' Group fiscally sponsors local artists and offers numerous workshops to support artists, such as how to complete your taxes. Dancers' Group also publishes the local dance newspaper.
Where to train:
Check out the wonderful variety of modern dance, ballet, somatics, and Gaga classes at:
-Shawl-Anderson Dance Center (Berkeley)
-AXIS Dance Company (Oakland)
-Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts (Oakland)
-ODC Dance Commons (SF)
-Joe Goode Annex (SF)
-San Francisco Dance Center/Lines Ballet (SF)
-Dance Mission (SF)
-SF Conservatory of Dance (SF)
AXIS Dance Company; photo by Andrea Basile
Where to rehearse:
While all of the above dance centers have space to rent for rehearsing, there are also numerous artists who have a single studio to rent out. Check out the website Bay Area Performing Arts Spaces.
How dancers get performing gigs:
In the Bay Area, there are actually very few auditions. Most people make connections through regularly being in class and talking with other dancers before and after classes. The next step then is to confidently mention to an artist that you are very interested in his/her work and that you hope he/she might consider you for a future project. Provide your contact info. Be "up and running online" so that people can find you – whether you have a website, are on Facebook, have a LinkedIn page, etc.
In terms of auditions, you will find out about the occasional audition through the Dancers' Group email list. (Recent auditions in my memory include Bandaloop, AXIS Dance, and Gerald Casel.)
Paufve Dance; photo by Pak Han
Opportunities for emerging choreographers:
Several times a year choreographers can show work through the Pilot Program at ODC, mixed bill shows at Dance Mission, Works in the Works in Berkeley, and events at the Luna Dance Institute. Also investigate artist in residence options at centers such as SAFEhouse Arts and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center.
Festivals:
There are lots of festivals – Cuba Caribe, Black Choreographers, San Francisco International Arts Festival, aerial dance, and contact improv, to name a few.
Venues where out of town artists perform and organizations that present them:
Cal Performances at UC Berkeley
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco Performances
ODC Theater
Stanford Lively Arts
Mondavi Center at UC Davis
Opportunities to teach dance, the amount of work in the area, and ages and settings for teaching:
If you would like to teach dance, there are many opportunities in the area: studios, community centers, artist in residence opportunities, K-12 positions, and universities. Numerous high schools bring in guest artists to lead master classes or set choreography. Find out about job postings through Dancers' Group, Teaching Artists Guild, Teaching Artist Support Collaborative of CA (TASC), Performing Arts Workshop, and California Arts Council. Find out about some of the local high school programs here. The Luna Dance Institute is also an amazing resource for workshops, mentorship, and teaching opportunities.
Local colleges and universities with undergraduate and graduate programs:
- City College of San Francisco
- Laney College
- Cal State University East Bay
- Mills College (undergraduate and graduate)
- UC Berkeley (undergraduate and PhD)
- Saint Mary's College (undergraduate and graduate)
- University of San Francisco
- San Francisco State
- UC Davis (undergraduate, graduate, PhD)
- Sonoma State
- UC Santa Cruz
- Cabrillo College
Bay Area artists who have been featured on Life as a Modern Dancer (artist profiles):
Bay Area artists who have shared their schedules through the column "My Dance Week:"
Final thoughts:
Consider your first year in the Bay Area as your year of research and curiosity. Take lots of classes. Usher and volunteer at shows to see work and meet people. Be friendly before and after dance classes. And, at the same time, find work that can pay the rent as you settle into the area (whether that is working at a coffee shop, substitute teaching, nannying, etc).
Nina Haft & Company; photo by Jeff Lindeman
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Life as a Modern Dancer 
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