Goldstar

The Akram Khan Company performs bahok at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The celebrated Bangladeshi-British choreographer created bahok in collaboration with the National Ballet of China and award-winning composer Nitin Sawhney. In this exhilarating and thought-provoking work, eight dancers from nations across the globe explore the possibilities and limits of communication between cultures. Learn more...

Brooklyn-based dance company Ronald K. Brown/Evidence present Brown's newest work, Two-Year-Old Gentlemen. Told through the company's trademark fusion of traditional African and contemporary dance coupled with the spoken word, Two-Year-Old Gentlemen was inspired by the relationship between Brown's nephew and his elderly grandfather. Learn more...

Pretentious, phony "artistes"? Guess what, it's nothing new! Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience pokes fun at the aesthetic movement that minced over England in the late 19th century, but it will stay timeless as long as there are self-serving pseudo-poets in the world... and gullible girls to worship them. Learn more...

This Bay Area holiday tradition returns with an updated program for 2009 featuring both traditional audience favorites and new choreography from Amy Seiwert, Robert Sund, and others. The Christmas Ballet balances classical Christmas pieces with charming, humorous and sexy contemporary dance in a program that is a magical treat for audiences of all ages. Learn more...

San Francisco Performances and YBCA join forces to present England's DV8 Physical Theatre, which returns with the Bay Area premiere of Artistic Director Lloyd Newson's poetic and unflinching exploration of tolerance, intolerance, religion and homosexuality. Inspired by hundreds of hours of interviews with people directly affected by these issues, To Be Straight With You includes dance, text, documentary, animation and film. Learn more...

Alonzo King LINES Ballet Fall Season 2009 presents dancers moving with intimacy and grace. This ballet program features a world premiere with original music by visionary jazz pianist Jason Moran, pairing his technical virtuosity with a cutting-edge approach to jazz in creation of his first ballet score and the MOROCCAN Project, featuring the vibrant drumming of Gnawa ceremonies, oud and violin performed live at all performances by El Hamideen. Learn more...

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company presents Jones' dance theater masterwork Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray. A 2007 Tony Award winner for Spring Awakening and one of America's leading choreographers, Jones has spent three years on the ambitious work, a tribute to the legacy and unrealized vision of Abraham Lincoln. Learn more...

The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company joins with China's Guangdong Modern Dance Company to perform the world premiere of Other Suns (A Trilogy) at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. For 35 years, Jenkins has been one of the Bay Area's most influential and innovative choreographers. The Paul Dresher Ensemble provides live music to accompany the dances. Learn more...

Liss Fain Dance presents their home season at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Known for their fusion of and bold experiemntation, they're one of the West Coast's most acclaimed dance ensembles. This show features the premiere of Into the Silence, plus a guest appearance by the Lublin Dance Theater of Poland. Learn more...

Professor Henry Higgins bets a colleague that he can transform a cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a high-society lady in Lerner and Loewe's musical My Fair Lady. The memorable score features such favorites as "The Rain in Spain," "I Could Have Danced All Night" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." Bay Area comedy institution and Broadway veteran Geoff Hoyle co-stars as Eliza's disreputable father, Alfred Doolittle. Learn more...

An international cast of dancers will perform world premiers by Artistic Director, Yuri Zhukov and guest choreographer, Hlin Diego. Pioneer Plaques 2009, was inspired by the 1972 and 1973 spacecraft launches of Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, respectively. Hlin Diego's work, Caught in the Square, will focus on fear, its origins, progressions and outcomes. Learn more...

The Bay Area's popular Smuin Ballet presents their spring season at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The program includes St. Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet, the last narrative work by company founder Michael Smuin, as well as the West Coast premiere of Trey McIntyre's The Naughty Boy, a tale of Cupid's exploits set to the music of Mozart. Learn more...

Paul Taylor has reinvented himself and the world of dance in a career that spans more than five decades and as many continents. San Francisco Performances welcomes the Paul Taylor Dance Company back to the Bay Area with premieres, revivals of important early works and Taylor's iconic Esplanade, which changed the world's view of what makes dance. Learn more...

Alonzo King's LINES Ballet presents their spring season. Their program is highlighted by Signs and Wonders; this acclaimed work, commissioned by Dance Theatre of Harlem, is a deeply moving dance set to the traditional music of Africa. The season also features the return of the popular duet Splash, as well as a world premiere. Learn more...

Canada's wild woman of contemporary dance, Marie Chouinard, has explored the poetics of the body in shockingly immediate, intelligible and ever-surprising ways. The Rite of Spring is built around solos -- seeking to awaken strong, clear movements in the intimate mystery of each dancer. Buzzing with animal-like energy, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, uses a gender-reversing solo-dancer to evoke the sensuality and raw energy of her fawn. Learn more...

Internationally acclaimed dancer/choreographer John Jasperse presents an exhilarating new evening-length work for five dancers, with an original score performed live on stage by multi-instrumentalist (and Mills College faculty member) Zeena Parkins. Misuse liable to prosecution promises to be a provocative and entertaining evening from this inspired dance originator. Learn more...

YBCA presents a new work from David Roussève/REALITY, one of the most important voices to emerge in contemporary American dance in recent history. An ode to those transcendental moments when joy and sorrow collide, Saudade -- a Portuguese word close to "bittersweet" -- is a compelling mix of theater, spoken dialogue, contemporary dance and the movement of Indonesia, India and West Africa. Learn more...

French conceptual choreographer Jérôme Bel restages his first encounter with Thai dancer Pichet Klunchun, a master of the classical thon form. Through a lively mix of physical demonstration and high-spirited verbal debate, Bel and Klunchun go on an eloquent and often humorous quest to understand each other's dance styles and traditions. Learn more...

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts welcomes Pappa Tarahumara. This acclaimed dance theater ensemble, one of Japan's most esteemed dance groups, presents director Hiroshi Koike's Ship In A View. This surreal and devastatingly beautiful spectacle draws on Koike's memories of his childhood in a Japanese seaside town. Learn more...

In the 18th century, the castrati were "sacred monsters" whose voices were surgically molded, represented a peak of artistry. Monsters and Prodigies is a humorous opera about this fascinating cultural phenomenon: talented child singers born in poverty who were castrated to preserve their soprano voices, and propelled to stardom in the frivolous courts of Europe. Learn more...

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents Japan Dance Now, an evening featuring three of Japan's most talented young choreographers. From Baby Q's stylized multimedia experiments, to Nibroll's visually striking evocation of youth culture, to the joyful pop sensibilities of Sennichimae Blue Sky Dance Club, the program showcases intriguing artists with a wildly creative edge. Learn more...

Gilbert & Sullivan's satirical "fairy opera" takes digs at British politics in the 1880s, but this illogical love story about what happens when a band of fairies take over Parliament still has relevance. Featuring the tongue-twisting tour de force "Nightmare Song," a pompous and dim-witted ruling elite, and a leading man who's half a fairy - from the waist up. Learn more...

This Bay Area tradition returns for a season of holiday fun and frolic set to both classic and contemporary musical selections that reflect the magic of the season. Both sacred and sentimental, The Christmas Ballet is a magical treat for audiences of all ages. The 2008 edition will feature new works by guest choreographers as well as returning favorites. Learn more...

Delve into the music of legendary American composer Elliott Carter, who turns 100 years old in December, with his piano works performed by longtime collaborator Ursula Oppens as part of a mini-festival at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum. Learn more...

Legendary American composer Elliott Carter, who turns 100 years old in December, is celebrated with a performance of his complete string quartets by the Pacifica Quartet as a part of a mini-festival at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum. Learn more...

Classic Chinese forms meet contemporary dance as Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company performs highlights from its critically acclaimed repertoire and presents the world premiere of a piece inspired by classical Chinese paintings and exploring the strength, complexity and inner beauty of the Chinese woman. Learn more...

Continuous City weaves together three story lines, including the journey of a traveling father and his daughter back home, tethered and transformed by speed, hypermodernity and failing cell phones. Featuring an interactive website and film clips taken in and around San Francisco, Continuous City illuminates our ever-increasing mash-up of global and local lives, of our real and networked experiences. Learn more...

Alonzo King's LINES Ballet performs at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Novellus Theatre. The famed group's program includes a world premiere work featuring live accompaniment by jazz legend Pharoah Sanders, who played extensively with John Coltrane in the 1960s. The program also includes a Pas de Deux featuring Muriel Maffre, and the return of King's acclaimed work String Quartet. Learn more...

Founded in 1992, Israel's Inbal Pinto Dance Company has toured throughout the world. In this event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, they'll perform Shaker, a startling and evocative full-length dance theater piece set inside a snow globe. Learn more...

Robert Moses, one of the Bay Area's most compelling choreographers, returns to YBCA with a new work, commissioned especially for Bay Area Now 5, about the divine impulse of artistic creation. This will be a special evening with one of the most acclaimed Bay Area contemporary dance companies to emerge in the past decade. Learn more...

Just back from a European tour, Liss Fain Dance premieres two new, exquisite works by Liss Fain, whose choreography is described as "shimmering" by Dance Magazine and "intimate and sensual" by Ballet Magazine. It's an evening of contemporary dance from a company known internationally for emotionally rich work. Learn more...

Very possibly the most popular musical comedy in the English language, The Mikado is a playful satire set in a fanciful (and wholly imaginary) Japan. When wandering minstrel Nanki-Poo falls in love with the beautiful Yum-Yum, fiancé to the recently appointed Lord High Executioner Ko-Ko, chaos, desperation and comical mayhem ensue in classic Gilbert and Sullivan style. Learn more...

Zhukov Dance Theatre presents Product 01, their debut performance. The company's founder, Yuri Zhukov, was a standout dancer for the Kirov Ballet and later made his name dancing for San Francisco Ballet; since his departure he has choreographed and designed sets for dance companies around the world. This evening of pieces choreographed by Zhukov features two world premieres and an international cast of dancers. Learn more...

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts welcomes the Kronos Quartet. This renowned ensemble is known for their fearless approach to new music. They'll be performing two concerts; on Friday, they'll present new music from Ethiopia, India, Palestine and Serbia, plus other works. Saturday's bill features sets by the Quartet and Afghan musician Homayoun Sakhi, plus the world premiere of Rangin Kaman (The Rainbow), with Salar Nader on tabla and Abbos Kosimov on doyra. Learn more...

Inspired by Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang, the critically acclaimed book about hip-hop music history, Marc Bamuthi Joseph presents the break/s, a multimedia journey through verse, contemporary dance and video that interweaves his personal story with the history of hip-hop. Learn more...

Joe Goode Performance Group presents the world premiere of Wonderboy, a new dance-theater work created in collaboration with acclaimed puppeteer Basil Twist, with music by singer/violinist Carla Kihlstedt and pianist/drummer Matthias Bossi. The company's 22nd annual home season program also includes excerpts from Goode's acclaimed work, Maverick Strain, a deconstruction of Arthur Miller's screenplay "The Misfits." Learn more...

Oust is a collaboration of San Francisco's Dandelion Dancetheater, Spain's Compañía Y and Canada's Jacques Poulin-Denis. It begins with the Buddhist concept that no solid, lasting self exists, and pulls from examples such as illegal immigration, refugee crises and wars that divide countries and ethnic groups. Oust is multilingual, incorporating text and audience instructions in English, Spanish, French and Sign Language. Learn more...

Speaking Chinese is a dance journey inspired by Love in a Fallen City, a 1943 novella by Chinese-American writer Zhang Ailing and featuring the orchestral and chamber music of Shanghai composer Zhu Jian'er. Combining text, movement, image and sound, this interdisciplinary work leads us through Ailing's "tales of love, longing and the shifting of endlessly treacherous shoals of family life." Learn more...

The Lamplighter's Gilbert & Sullivan: Straight Up, With A Twist! is the real story behind one of the greatest partnerships in theater history, told in their own words, with musical highlights from all 13 of their comic operas. You'll meet Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert, overhear their creative infighting, and enjoy a large selection of songs and choruses, both oft-performed favorites and beauties from infrequently staged productions. Learn more...

Spring 2008 will ring with the glory of Gershwin as Michael Smuin's classic Dancin' With Gershwin makes a welcome return. Broadway meets Ballet in this award-winning production richly costumed by Willa Kim under a glittering skyline designed by Rick Goodwin and brought to life in lights by Sara Linnie Slocum. Learn more...

Local choreographer Shinichi Iova-Koga, who founded the internationally collaborative troupe inkBoat, has earned a devoted following for his hybrid performance style -- a synthesis of traditional and experimental dance, Japanese Butoh and physical theater. c(H)ord binds the cacophony of lives erupting from the mud. Stained by ancestry, folk culture, wild nature and nostalgia, these creatures scuttle and crawl, tear at the earth and sing to the sky. Learn more...

Dramatic, speedy, athletic, highly theatrical and action-packed with surprises, this New York dance treasure has increased heart rates and garnered awards wherever it has traveled. Beyond the whir of movement and sound are a deep humanity, and the choreographer's keen grasp of expression and spirit, exceedingly rare in dance today. Learn more...

This unique project is setting the performance world abuzz for bringing together African and African-American dance companies--one all-male and one all-female--and two powerhouse choreographers. Germaine Acogny, the "mother of contemporary African dance," explores community and identity with Brooklyn-based, Bessie Award-winning choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, of Urban Bush Women. Learn more...

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents Shen Wei Dance Arts. The lyrical contemporary dance troupe presents "Re-", choreographer Wei's lyrical response to his journeys through Tibet. To the haunting chants of an exiled nun, dancers breeze across a mandala made of confetti, which is destroyed to make way for a moment of stirring stillness. Learn more...

Sleek, sexy, smart and a model large-scale dance company for the 21st century, Nacho Duato's ensemble is among the most revered and innovative groups in Europe. In Duato and Company's world, gravity, time and space are sublimely supplanted with breath-taking technique, original music and arresting theater. Learn more...

French-Vietnamese choreographer Ea Sola creates vital contemporary works grounded in the traditional culture, music, dance and history of Vietnam. Drought and Rain, Vol. 2 refracts the war through the memories of the next generation and spotlights the unique clash between local and Western culture in modern-day Vietnam. The performance features dancers from Vietnam National Opera Ballet-Hanoi and live music. Learn more...

This enchanting classic of children's literature is now a brilliant Tony Award-winning musical by a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, offering some of the most beautiful music ever written for Broadway. The story of an orphan's discovery of a magical locked garden holds tremendous appeal for adults and children alike. Learn more...

Enchanting, sparkling, fun and dramatic, The Christmas Ballet is a reflection of the very best of the season. The 2007 Christmas Ballet includes three new dances by Amy Seiwert, Shannon Hurlburt and Robert Sund, as well as three favorites from Smuin Ballet's archives--Blue Christmas, Winter Weather and Cajun Christmas--making wonderful additions to this Bay Area tradition. Learn more...

Alonzo King's Lines Ballet, the internationally acclaimed San Francisco-based dance company, highlights twenty-five years of creativity, innovation and collaboration with a series of performances at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The program will feature two world premiere ballets, with live music performed by Zakir Hussain and the Philharmonia Chamber Players. Learn more...