LEVYdance

LEVYdance continues to push boundaries. I remember attending their 10 year anniversary performance two years ago in the graffito covered Heron Alley. They began the night standing in a tight circle, foreheads nearly touching, in an intimate moment before their performance. Dressed in all white Yu Kondo Reigen, Sarah Dionne Woods, Paul Vickers, and Scott Marlowe performed some of the most innovative dancing I’ve seen in person.
The performances seemed to reinforce LEVYdance’s mantra of pushing boundaries and taking risks in the way they create and show art: each musical note connected with an emotion and each emotion visualized in motion. The theme of intimacy continued throughout; the dancers not only leaned upon one another physically as they maneuvered through complicated lifts and transitions, but also emotionally through sadness, heartbreak, and joy.
I look forward to seeing more of their performances.

You would expect San Francisco to have a real cutting-​edge dance company that, via its performances, projects, and classes actually stretched the boundaries of dance greatly and LEVY is that company. Whatever its physical space lacks in design or grandeur, it makes up for in the sincerity and gravitas of the work they present here. Their professional and pre-​professional classes and intensives also have to be highly recommended because they can provide young yet developed dancers with exposure to choreography that they would likely not find elsewhere.

Not a classic space, but more a studio turned into lounging area to watch artists express themselves. The atmosphere and cutting edge work more than makes up for the casual seating, which is comfortable, but sometimes can make it hard to see.