Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest highlights the spectacular strength, diversity and vibrancy of the Bay Area contemporary dance scene through a two-weekend mini festival of site-specific work. Curated by RAWdance’s Artistic Directors, the fifth annual YBG ChoreoFest features an array of distinguished local dance companies of extraordinary performances throughout the Gardens’ lawns and architecture.

ASL interpretation will be provided for this event. This program moves across multiple locations and seating is very limited. Personal stools or portable chairs are welcome.

YBG ChoreoFest 2022 Dates:

• Day One: July 23, 2022, starts in the East Garden
• Day Two: July 30, 2022, starts in the Esplanade

Day Two Artists:

SAMMAY or Sammay Dizon (she/they) is a Filipinx American choreographer, interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer of Bikol, Kapampangan and Ilokano descent who bridges the traditional and contemporary in centering embodied storytelling as a vehicle for collective healing and liberation. Through multimedia dance theatre, she invokes rituals for remembering and decolonizing – creating to honor the tapestry of indigenous epistemologies embedded in our urban landscapes. Her practice is rooted in the fundamental knowing that dance is the medium that connects the earth and ancestral realm – the passageway to transmute intergenerational trauma across cultural lines and geographical borders. Dizon is the founder of SAMMAY Productions and Urban x Indigenous.

Push Dance Company, described as “emotional and kinetic” (San Francisco Bay Guardian), performs vibrant contemporary dances, providing audiences an opportunity to examine issues of identity and intersecting cultures that surround and affect us all. Founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Raissa Simpson, PUSH maintains a philosophy that bold movement and intellect can coexist. PUSH has presented countless interdisciplinary works vivifying the personal, untold stories of individuals from unique and overlooked communities. After 8 years of dancing with PUSH, Ashley Gayle makes her inaugural debut as Associate Artistic Director and choreographer with Choreofest 2022.

hien hunyh was born in Da Nang, Vietnam. Through the love, courage and resiliency of his parents’ refugee across the ocean, hien dedicates his artistic and living practices to share, move and dance in honor of their story alongside the oceanic journeys of ancestors. His movement practices stem from the spirit of improvisation. He recognizes improvisation as an ancestral form of survival, navigation and ingenuity. With immense gratitude, he is grateful to be able to continue sharing, exchanging and empowering through the arts with stories and reflection to ignite dialogue, disruption, change and healing. www.hien-huynh.com

RAWdance is an award-winning contemporary dance company known for transforming theaters and public spaces through a mix of performance, curation, and collaboration. Under the artistic direction of Ryan T. Smith, Wendy Rein and Katerina Wong, the company’s nuanced, charged dances pose questions ranging from the broadly social to the intimately personal. SF Chronicle described the company as ”witty, whip-smart, and beautiful to watch.” Critical Dance called RAWdance a “rare treasure” that “combines choreographic excellence, innovative structures, groundbreaking concepts and impeccable performances.” Founded in San Francisco in 2004 by Smith and Rein, the company grew to include Wong as a third Artistic Director in 2019, while also expanding to two locations — New York’s Hudson Valley as well as its home base in San Francisco. RAWdance’s work for this weekend’s program is choreographed by Katerina Wong. rawdance.org

See updated safety guidelines under Visitor Information.