Z Space

SFDanceworks Season 9

November 4 -7
on Z Space’s Steindler Stage

SFDanceworks returns to Z Space for its 9th season with a boldly curated program that brings together seminal modern-dance lineage, distinctly contemporary voices, and the collaborative energy of artists working at the edge of the form. Season 9 highlights artistic collaborators who have made an impact on the organization while bringing in new voices.

Ramping up for their 10th anniversary season, the program features a Merce Cunningham solo performed by San Francisco Ballet Principal dancer, Joseph Walsh, connecting the program to one of the most influential movement legacies of the twentieth century. Alongside it, two world premieres, Jermaine Maurice Spivey presents a group work for five dancers, and longtime SFDanceworks artistic collaborator Brett Conway contributes a work for three performers.

SFDanceworks will remount Yin’s A Measurable Existence, a duet originally created for two men. This season it will be performed on two casts. The dancers include Sarah Chou and Lani Yamanaka, Isaac Bates-Vinueza and Nat Wilson. 

Together, the works create a program shaped by lineage, risk, intimacy, and exchange—an expression of SFDanceworks’ continuing role as an incubator for contemporary dance and a springboard toward the company’s tenth anniversary season. Join us for four evenings of contemporary dance at Z Space, where established voices and emerging perspectives meet to shape the future of the form.

Community Workshop: Bryan Arias Repertoire with Isaac Bates-Vinueza

Sat, Nov 7, 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM PDT
Z Space

Level | Pre-professional to professional

Duration | 120 minutes

Beginning with a 30-minute warm up, this class will feature highly physical repertoire from Bryan Arias's "The Broken Glass" (2023). These excerpts involve highly detailed, intensely physical full-body movement that blends gesture, floorwork, isolation, release, and flow. Arias's choreography challenges dancers to balance specificity with individuality and to refine their movement textures.

Isaac Bates-Vinueza is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher who lives and works in San Francisco. As a performer, Isaac has danced with the Sacramento Ballet, SFDanceworks, Post:ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, and LED Boise. He’s worked with artists like Brian Arias, Lauren Edson, Jodie Gates, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Laura O’Malley, Mosceleyne ParkeHarrison, Penny Saunders, and Amy Seiwert. Isaac is an alumnus of Pacific Northwest Ballet School and holds a B.A. in English from UC Berkeley. A 2022 Jacob's Pillow Hicks Choreography Fellow, he regularly teaches ballet and contemporary dance throughout the Bay Area.

Bryan Arias was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, where he explored various dance styles and forms before discovering his passion for ballet and modern dance. As a performer, he worked with Nederlands Dans Theater and Crystal Pite’s company, Kidd Pivot. Alongside his performing career, his work as a choreographer is characterized by a profound exploration of human emotions and the human condition. His pieces address themes of personal identity, vulnerability, and resilience. He has created choreography for international dance companies, including Nederlands Dans Theater, Zurich Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Leipzig Ballet, Hessisches Staatsballett, Nuremberg Ballet, Basel Ballet, and Bern Ballet. At the prestigious Vienna Volksoper, he co-directed and choreographed the musical West Side Story. He has received the prestigious German FAUST Award, the Jacob’s Pillow Fellowship Award, and the Princess Grace Choreography Award; he was nominated for the Mentor and Protégé Award and honored by the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, where the mayor recognized his significant contributions to the arts, particularly in the fields of dance and choreography.

Image Credits: Robbie Sweeny
Poster image and two blue tone images:

Sarah Chou and Emily Hansel in JA Collective’s Everything Happens Later, SFDanceworks Season 8

Nat Wilson and Ja’Moon Jones in Yue Yin’s A Measurable Existence, SFDanceworks Season 8 and Season 9