Choreographers
Season 8:
Z Space
july 10-13, 2025
JA COLLECTIVE
WORLD PREMIERE
BUILDING ON THE SUCCESSES OF SEASON 7, WE ARE THRILLED TO WELCOME BACK WEST COAST RISING STARS JORDAN JOHNSON AND AIDAN CARBERRY OF JA COLLECTIVE FOR A WORLD PREMIERE. JA COLLECTIVE’S SIGNATURE STYLE — A STRIKING BLEND OF HIGHLY PHYSICAL MOVEMENT LANGUAGE AND ASTONISHINGLY IMMERSIVE SOUNDSCAPES — CONTINUES TO PUSH ARTISTIC BOUNDARIES AND CAPTIVATE AUDIENCES.
“The program’s centerpiece, a premiere by Los Angeles-based JA Collective, was the purest, smartest, faith-in-humanity-restoring variety of movement play.”
-Rachel Howard, Datebook, San Francisco Chronicle, November 11, 2024 On JA Collective’s Season 7 World Premiere, impact III.
JA Collective is a creative collaboration between Los Angeles natives Jordan Johnson and Aidan Carberry. JA Collective was formed at the University of Southern California when Jordan and Aidan found themselves drawn to making work together. Aidan’s strong background in various hip-hop forms and acting, plus Jordan’s contemporary dance and theater background led them to develop a unique collective style. They are known commercially for their work with the band half•alive for which they’ve created international touring shows, music videos and TV performances. JA has worked with Future, Frank Ocean, Taika Waititi, Mike Mills, Margaret Qualley, Paul McCartney, Olivia Wilde, and Shia Labeouf, and more in collaboration. Jordan and Aidan have contributed choreography and perform in William Forsythe’s work Friends of Forsythe, which continues to tour the world. Through JA’s continual play in different realms of dance and multidisciplinary forms, they hope to challenge and positively impact the community around them.
Photo: Skye Schmidt Varga
EMMA PORTNER
elephant
Bay Area Debut and North American Premiere
IN ANOTHER EXCITING FIRST, SFDANCEWORKS WILL BE THE FIRST WEST COAST COMPANY TO PRESENT THE WORK OF THE ENIGMATIC EMMA PORTNER. RENOWNED FOR HER MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTISTRY, EMMA HAS MADE WAVES ACROSS FILM, FASHION, AND THE PERFORMING ARTS, WITH COMMISSIONS FROM COMPANIES LIKE THE PARIS OPERA BALLET AND THE NORWEGIAN NATIONAL BALLET. THIS SEASON, SHE WILL PERFORM IN HER OWN WORK, A DUET TITLED “ELEPHANT” ALONGSIDE LEGENDARY SF ARTIST AND LONGTIME SFDANCEWORKS COLLABORATOR BABATUNJI JOHNSON — A PERFORMANCE SURE TO BE BOTH HYPNOTIC AND DEEPLY MOVING.
Emma Portner is an enigmatic director-choreographer, dancer, and actor known for her inimitable movement quality and complex devotion to the craft. An Olivier Award nominee, she has been hailed by The New York Times as “beguiling” and recognized by critics as "from another planet.” Born in 1994, she trained at the National Ballet of Canada and The Ailey School in New York. By age 20, she had choreographed the West End musical Bat Out of Hell—becoming the youngest woman in history to do so—and garnered millions of views for her dance on film work. She has created with artists including Doechii, Maggie Rogers, FKA Twigs, Blood Orange, and Sylvan Esso. Her choreography has been commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada, The Norwegian National Ballet, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, Jacob’s Pillow, and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Recent stage work includes Forever, Maybe (Göteborg), Bathtub Ballet (Royal Swedish Ballet), and islands (National Ballet of Canada), presented alongside works by Crystal Pite and Jiří Kylián. Portner portrayed Gozer the Gozerian in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and stars in A24’s I Saw the TV Glow (2024), directed by Jane Schoenbrun. She continues to merge classical rigor with experimental form across stage, film, music and installation.
Photo Credit: David Kim
YUE YIN
A Measureable Existence
Bay Area Premiere
OUR DEDICATION TO SUPPORTING EMERGING VOICES GOES HAND IN HAND WITH PRESENTING WORKS BY GLOBAL LEADERS. WE ARE PROUD TO WELCOME THE RETURN OF YUE YIN WITH “A MEASURABLE EXISTENCE”, A 17-MINUTE, INTENSELY PHYSICAL DUET FOR TWO MEN THAT EXEMPLIFIES HER DISTINCTIVE CHOREOGRAPHIC VOICE.
Yue Yin is a choreographer, founder and artistic director of YY Dance Company and the creator of FoCo Technique™, a unique contemporary form of dance movement rooted in Chinese classical and folk dance melded with the complexity and diverse influences of the immigrant experience. She began her training in Chinese classical and folk dance in Shanghai, China at the prestigious Shanghai Dance Academy and completed her MFA in dance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2008. In 2018, Yin founded YYDC, a non-profit contemporary dance company dedicated to the teaching, production and performance of her original choreographic work. The overall vision for YYDC is to showcase this signature, diverse movement style in original, emotionally charged and culturally influential performances nationally and internationally.
In addition YYDC: creates original commissioned and repertory works for a wide range of companies and schools including Martha Graham Dance Company, Gibney Company, Philadelphia Ballet, Boston Ballet, BalletMet, Limon Dance Company, Balletto Teatro di Torino, Oregon Ballet Theater, NW Dance Project, Whim W’him, Bruce Wood Dance, Ririe Woodbury Dance Company, 10 Hairy Legs, New Dialect, Backhausdance and more.
YYDC works with educational institutions such as Juilliard School of Dance, Tisch School of the Arts, Princeton, USC Kaufman School of Dance, Purchase, Marymount, George Mason, Point Park, West Michigan and more. Yin teaches regular classes in FoCo Technique™ to dancers and general public alike and cultivates a broader interest in contemporary dance by presenting artistically engaging, culturally and socially conscious works.
Yue Yin was the recipient of the 2021 Harkness Promise Award. This prestigious award recognizes her innovation in choreography and education. She was the winner of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 2015 International Commissioning Project, winner of the 2015 BalletX Choreographic Fellowship, and winner of Northwest Dance Project’s 5th Annual Pretty Creatives International Choreographic Competition in 2013. Yin’s work has been commissioned from acclaimed organizations such as Gibney Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, Oregon Ballet Theater, NW Dance Project, BalletMet, Boston Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Limon Dance Company, Alberta Ballet, Balletto Teatro di Torino, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Juilliard School for Dance, USC Kaufman School of Dance, Tisch School of The Arts, Princeton and more.
Photo Credit: Steven Trumon Gray