Mission Statement
Dandelion Dancetheater is situated at the crossroads of dance, theater, community activism, healing, and new performance forms. We are fascinated by artistic experimentation, vulnerability, risk-taking, and a simultaneous commitment to the creation of radically accessible art. We view the exploration of the endless possibilities of the human body as a potent means for personal and collective growth; and share this exploration with diverse populations through performance, teaching, speaking, video, and writing.
Background
Dandelion Dancetheater, formed by Kimiko Guthrie and Eric Kupers in 1996, creates performance work interdependent with a passionate commitment to teaching and community involvement. We teach and create work with dancers, actors, musicians, political organizers, academics, therapists, children, adults with developmental and/or physical disabilities, gender theorists, fat acceptance activists, spiritual seekers and more. We have performed throughout California, across the U.S., and abroad in India and Scotland and have, in a relatively short time, grown into a powerful and provocative presence in the SF arts community.
Dandelion Dancetheater performs annually at ODC Theater, WestWave Dance Festival, CELLspace, and CounterPULSE, as well as many collaborative events and festivals. Our strength lies in our passionate commitment to dance/theater as a form for reaching diverse cultures and facilitating empowerment. Dandelion is widely known for The Undressed Project, developed by co-director Eric Kupers while in-residence at Jon Sims Center for the Arts from 2001-2005. This project, which explores body politics in dance, has forged a powerful network of community support and participation with a diverse range of populations interested in the intersections between art, social activism and healing.
With its recent work, Dandelion has developed a unique multi-disciplinary performing ensemble at the heart of the extended company. DROP, the fifth Dandelion piece to enjoy an extended run, was created collaboratively with this ensemble and explored the intersections between dance, theater, and music. DROP was based on the feeling of “the rug being pulled out from underneath,” of groundlessness and lack of a solid sense of self. The eight artists that spent a year in thorough, weekly artistic experimentation towards the creation of DROP are now embarking on a deepening of the ensemble in our next multi-disciplinary work, Oust, to premiere for a three-week run as part of the San Francisco International Arts Festival in May 2008.
Dandelion has received numerous awards and grants, including a Dancemaker grant from Dance USA/Irvine Foundation, a Gerbode Foundation Choreography Commission, a Rockefeller MAP Fund grant, an award from the Grants for the Arts non-recurring events fund, and repeated funding from the Zellerbach Family Fund, the Theatre Bay Area CA$H Program, San Francisco Arts Commission, an anonymous foundation and many individual supporters. Eric Kupers is a resident artist (with Dandelion) at ODC Theater and has received a Princess Grace Award for Choreography to create a physically integrated dance piece on both Dandelion Dancetheater and AXIS Dance Co.