On Oct. 3 and 4, PUSH Dance Company held its ninth annual PUSHfest, proving that San Francisco\u2019s dance scene has a heart that continues to beat. Within the four walls of the black box theater in its company space known as the Sanctuary, the audience was invited into an intimate world of sweaty dancing and passionate narratives.<\/p>\n
Showcasing an array of local and national artists, the festival consisted of four programs over two days, along with a gala afterparty taking place Sunday, Oct. 4. Programs A and C mostly presented pieces from PUSHLab \u2014 an eight-week performance workshop held by choreographers and teachers at PUSH \u2014 whereas programs B and D featured artists with longstanding connections to PUSH.<\/p>\n
Associate Artistic Director Ashley Gayle opened program B by first highlighting PUSH\u2019s Youth Scholarship Fund, the beneficiary of the gala\u2019s proceeds. She then warmly invited audience members to be in the moment with the dancers, priming them for the interactive performances ahead.<\/p>\n
First to emerge onto the dark stage was Ayo Walker, a choreographer and professor at Columbia College Chicago, who performed her piece \u201cSula.\u201d Adorned with a black veil and fur scarf, Walker embodied the rebellious and sensual character from Toni Morrison\u2019s novel of the same name. The piece drew from historically Black social dances and used what Walker calls \u201cCaricatureography,\u201d a technique which translates literary characters\u2019 narratives into dance. Against an audio background switching between narrations from the novel and a smooth blues track, Walker danced the experience of living in Morrison\u2019s fictional neighborhood in Ohio. She turned into Sula on stage, rocking loosely with her eyes closed and arms to the sky. Her movements were magnetic and her cheeky winks left cheers from the audience hanging in the air.<\/p>\n
Tainah Damasceno and Jaguar Santana from BrasArte, a Brazilian dance company based in Berkeley, kept the energy alive later in the show with a fusion of samba and contemporary. From thrilling lifts to mimed air-guitar on Damasceno\u2019s leg, the partner work was electrifying. The space was so intimate that as Santana performed his flurry of footwork, his panting was audible, his sweat visible and, of course, the joy was palpable.<\/p>\n
Some performances tried to get intimate on an emotional level. Bhumi B Patel began her piece with a meditation, urging audience members to close their eyes and imagine their ancestors. After continually reminding her audience to take breaths, she transitioned into her piece \u201cThe Tides From Orbit,\u201d which was performed to a narration about her experience as a queer Southeast Asian woman and her research on femme lesbians during the AIDS crisis. She concluded her performance by singing along to \u201cMove to the Moon\u201d by Matt Nathanson, belting, \u201cWe\u2019ll move to the moon if they won\u2019t make room here for us.\u201d Although its wildly different sections brought some confusion, the 12-minute performance stayed true to PUSH\u2019s mission of providing people of color a safe space for expression and illuminating diverse narratives through dance.<\/p>\n
Gayle showcased her work to close Program B. Originally created to honor her grandmother\u2019s unrealized dream of being a professional dancer, her piece \u201cStardust\u201d became more about relying on community and dance to find joy after loss. Under a soft blue glow that represented Gayle\u2019s grandmother, dancers of PUSH helped bring her piece, rooted in grief, to life. The all-Black ensemble started with their hands above their hearts before moving through foundational modern steps. They added passion to their pass\u00e9s while the male dancers lifted each other into the air, casting beautiful shadows on the walls. For Gayle, though, finding refuge in the dance community extends beyond the stage.<\/p>\n
In May 2025, at least 28 San Francisco arts organizations lost their National Endowment for the Arts grants as the federal government rolled back funding and halted support for companies with \u201cdiversity, equity, and inclusion\u201d programs. Fortunately, PUSH is endowed locally by San Francisco Arts Commission and Grants for the Arts, and continues to thrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cRaissa, the director, is really wanting to be pivotal in being the West Coast sanctuary for people of color to express themselves and create their work,\u201d Gayle said in conversation with The Daily Californian on the importance of dance in upholding the Bay Area\u2019s marginalized voices. \u201cThe dance scene has been slightly gentrified \u2014 hate to say it. And with funding cuts from the government, there\u2019s a lot of uncertainty for artists right now, especially artists of color.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s PUSHfest successfully brought together a lineup of dances expressing diverse narratives and unbridled joy in marginalized communities. With organizers such as Gayle and her company still maintaining elements of the Bay\u2019s rich and varied culture, it\u2019s comforting to have spaces such as the Sanctuary platforming the pulse of San Francisco\u2019s dance scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Oct. 3 and 4, PUSH Dance Company held its ninth annual PUSHfest, proving that San Francisco\u2019s dance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[192423,192424,184,764,192431,192430,6908,192427,192425,192437,192429,192432,192433,32223,192420,192421,192422,101,192436,103,102,104,106,105,192435,192426,192428,192434,78005],"class_list":["post-494824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-ashley-gayle","tag-ayo-walker","tag-bay-area","tag-berkeley","tag-bhumi-b-patel","tag-brasarte","tag-brazil","tag-caricatureography","tag-columbia-college-chicago","tag-grants-for-the-arts","tag-jaguar-santana","tag-matt-nathanson","tag-move-to-the-moon","tag-national-endowment-for-the-arts","tag-push-dance-company","tag-pushfest","tag-pushlab","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-arts-commission-and-grants-for-the-arts","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-stardust","tag-sula","tag-tainah-damasceno","tag-tides-from-orbit","tag-toni-morrison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}