arts@sfbg.com

DANCE What a stellar idea to premiere a work called No Hero the weekend after Independence Day. There are no brass bands, flag waving-exercises, or fireworks in Foundry artistic director-choreographer Alex Ketley's delightful and at times funny stage and video creation, which returns to Z Space August 1. Yet Hero is piece of pure Americana, a tender and amusing tribute to ordinary people and the role that dance may or may not play in their lives.Read more »

arts@sfbg.com

DANCE If you've ever had to create a multi-course meal from random fridge contents, or pulled together a smashing outfit moments before a big party, you are well familiar with the fine art of making do.Read more »

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arts@sfbg.com

DANCE Moving, especially when it's not by choice, is never fun. Losing your home after some 30 years of relative comfort and security is really the pits. That's how I felt when I heard that the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival — my first encounter with the Bay Area's voluptuous dance culture — would not be able to continue performing at the Palace of Fine Arts because of the Doyle Drive reconstruction.Read more »

DANCE Complaining about the quality of public schools is about as ubiquitous as whining about MUNI. Admittedly, the quality of the former has a bigger impact on our future than having to wait for the N another 10 minutes. The good news is that the San Francisco Unified School District is not nearly as bad as its reputation; talk to some parents who have kids in it. While its art components are woefully underfunded, at least they exist. The yearly "Young at Art" exhibit at the de Young Museum (through Sun/20) has a selection from this year's crop.Read more »

arts@sfbg.com

DANCE How do you keep a performance festival alive in a city known for its fractured arts community? A place where officialdom is not exactly ready to jump on the bandwagon, especially when belt-tightening by cutting the arts has become a national sport? Simple. You enlist the people who have always been the arts' biggest supporters — the artists themselves. They know how to work with limited resources; they are risk-takers and have accepted that what they love to do will never make them rich.Read more »

DANCE David Zambrano: never heard of him? That just means you're not a member of the international dance community, where he is a superstar. Accolades, particularly about his teaching, flood the internet; phrases like "genius," "not to be missed," and "has changed my life" abound. The only complaint I could find was from a disgruntled student who said "the class was so full that I could barely see the teacher."Read more »

DANCE Jodi Lomask has always been comfortable with both science and art. Perhaps that's not surprising for someone who grew up with a physicist father and a visual artist mother — hanging around with his friends who would came to visit in Connecticut, and going with her to galleries and openings. Still, it's not every child who, when trying to make sense of the world, was also "making dances" in her mind.Read more »

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arts@sfbg.com

DANCE Strange how being "of a certain age" can bring so much uncertainty along with it. In the installment of Berlin-based choreographer Silke Z.'s "Just Between Us — The Generation Project" making its US premiere at CounterPULSE this weekend, two guys, at least, will move boldly forward into the middle ages.Read more »