Founded in 1971 by Artistic Director Brenda Way who trained under the legendary George Balanchine, ODC (Oberlin Dance Collective—named after Oberlin College in Ohio where Way was on faculty) loaded up a yellow school bus and relocated to San Francisco in 1976. Her goal was to ground the company in a dynamic pluralistic urban setting. ODC was one of the first American companies to return, after a decade of pedestrian exploration, to virtuosic technique in contemporary dance and to commit major resources to interdisciplinary collaboration and musical commissions for the repertory.
ODC/Dance Company of ten world-class dancers performs its imaginative repertory for more than 50,000 people annually. In addition to two annual home seasons in San Francisco (Dance Downtown and its holiday production, The Velveteen Rabbit), recent highlights include appearances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival in New York, MODAFE Festival in Seoul Korea, Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, and past standing-room-only engagements in Europe, Russia, and Asia. Way’s work was selected by Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) for the Inaugural Dancemotion Tour in 2010.
The company has been widely recognized for its rigorous technique and for its numerous groundbreaking collaborations with, among others, composers Marcelo Zarvos, Bobby McFerrin, Zoë Keating, Zap Mama, Pamela Z and Paul Dresher, writer/singer Rinde Eckert; actors Bill Irwin, Geoff Hoyle and Robin Williams; visual artists Andy Goldsworthy, Wayne Thiebaud, Jim Campbell and Eleanor Coppola; and welder/bike designer Max Chen.
ODC is known nationally for entrepreneurial savvy and was the first modern dance company in the United States to own its home facility, the ODC Theater. In 2005, ODC expanded its campus to include the ODC Dance Commons, which houses ODC/Dance, ODC School, a Pilates studio, and a Healthy Dancers’ Clinic.
