Presented by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, ChoreoFest 2021 highlights the spectacular strength, diversity, and vibrancy of the Bay Area contemporary dance scene. Curated by RAWdance’s Co-Artistic Directors Wendy Rein, Ryan T. Smith and Katerina Wong, the fourth annual YBG ChoreoFest is reimagined as safe artistic gatherings in response to San Francisco’s return to live, outdoor performances. Spanning three Saturdays this summer, nine local companies will activate and enliven the beloved downtown park with special site-specific performances.

Please note that this program takes place in multiple areas of the Gardens and requires the audience to change location. Comfortable footwear recommended. Persons needing assistance should seek Festival staff in orange Festival caps.

YBG ChoreoFest 2021 Dates:

• Day 1: July 10, 2021
• Day 2: July 31, 2021
• Day 3: August 14, 2021

Day 1 Program

Day 1 Artists:

Kiandanda Dance Theater/Byb Chanel Bibene
Bibene is a dance educator, choreographer and performer working in theater, ethnic, Afro urban, and contemporary dance forms. His own technical and aesthetic sensibility is rooted in the culture and dances of his country of origin, the Republic of Congo. He has toured the world and performed internationally with companies and choreographers originating from Africa, Europe and the USA. Bibene earned a Bachelor in Science, Economics/Finances from Marien Ngouabi University/Congo, an MFA in Dance Creative Practice, earning the Dean’s award for Academic Excellence from Saint Mary’s College of California. He is the artistic Director of Kiandanda Dance Theater and Mbongui Square Festival.

SAMMAY
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.

RAWdance
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.

See updated safety guidelines under Visitor Information.

This program is supported by: