Transform, YBCA’s new festival, celebrates the power of ideas through transformative performance. Each fall and spring, we will convene leading contemporary artists for a provocative showcase of dance, theater, and music. Through these performances and a full schedule of participatory experiences, Transform brings artists and the public together in ways that can only happen at YBCA.

From the seven newly commissioned performances by prolific Bay Area artists—spanning from contemporary dance to experimental performance—to pop-up installations, community conversations, and even a late-night party that creates dance floor citizenship, each aspect of Transform will inspire and provoke you.

Featuring: Larry Arrington, Giacomo Castagnola, Embodiment Project, Fauxnique, Fogbeast, Jesse Hewit, Sandra Lawson Ndu, RAWdance, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Minoosh Zomorodinia

Giacomo Castagnola works in architecture, design, furniture, and public interventions. Responding to the question “Why Citizenship?” the space he’s creating will adapt to the variety of dance styles throughout the festival; each evening’s audience will experience a completely immersive environment. Castagnola’s set design also functions as an installation viewable to the public prior to each evening’s program. Currently, Castagnola works between Mexico City and San Francisco on exhibition architecture that investigates new ways to present material culture and art archives. Applying construction systems and modular devices that hack the body of the visitor to change the way it relates to space, he breaks the formal status of how one needs to behave, choreographing the body in a more casual manner.