DJ Q&A

MK: I moved to San Mateo with my family when I was a teenager and started attending Aragon High School midway through my freshman year. We moved from Orange County and I remember finding our new postwar neighborhood very beautiful. When we moved in, our neighbors were mostly people who had lived there since the homes were built in the 1940s. It was a quiet, slow neighborhood and my sister and I loved that we could walk to the library downtown. Our parents still live there and during the pandemic we’ve been spending some quality time in their backyard.

DJ: When did you first connect with the world of dance?

MK: I started going to ballet classes when I was 5 because a friend of mine was going. Over the years, I fell in love with it and followed a pretty traditional ballet trajectory. When I graduated from high school, I joined a regional ballet company, but they folded a couple of years after I joined and I came home to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. That totally changed my life. It introduced me to the world of contemporary dance and helped me discover a passion for choreographing, directing and teaching. With the encouragement of the Conservatory, my sister, Shannon, and I started our own dance company, Sharp & Fine, and we’ve been collaborating on work together ever since.

DJ: How does RAWdance differ from other dance companies?

MK: I started working for RAWdance in 2017. RAWdance is an award-winning contemporary dance company known for transforming theaters and public spaces through a mix of performance, curation and collaboration. Our three Co-Artistic Directors—Ryan T. Smith, Wendy Rein and Katerina Wong — are incredible, adventurous artists and also true community builders who do an enormous amount to support other artists within the field. Their continual attention to creating opportunities for diverse creators and nurturing a diverse audience are inspiring, particularly in these challenging times.

DJ: What is your role in the company?

MK: I am the Coordinator and Co-Curator of RAWdance’s CONCEPT series. The CONCEPT series is an informal and intimate salon of contemporary dance that usually presents biannual pay-what-you-can performances by RAWdance and five guest choreographers at the Green Room in the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. Last August, we shifted the series online and presented a program of short dance films completed during shelter-in-place. We are excited to be presenting a second digital edition of the series with films by RAWdance and five new guest choreographers on March 26.

DJ: What are the challenges for dancers when they perform for film or digital format rather than in front of an audience?

MK: Creating dance for film requires choreographers to wrestle with challenges that are different from those that come with in-person performance. There are different visual considerations and a whole world of film-specific skills like editing that require artists to make different choices than they might if they were creating for an audience in a theater. However, I think that dancers and choreographers (and, at least with our CONCEPT series artists, they are often both!) are always striving to communicate ideas and feelings to an audience and that effort remains the same whether they’re working with a digital or in-person format. I’m really excited that the digital version of the CONCEPT series gives more artists a platform to share their film work.

DJ: RAWdance has an event coming up on March 26. How did it come together?

MK: The first digital edition of the CONCEPT series was very successful. We had over 200 households tuning in from 16 different states as well as abroad. We decided to present a second digital edition on March 26. The audience will be tuning in on Zoom to watch dance films by RAWdance and guest choreographers Erin Chih-Fang Yen, Call It Art, Gabriel Christian, Fullstop Dance and Claire Dean of A-Y/Dancers. Throughout the event, audience members will have opportunities to share impressions and feedback with the choreographers and after the films everyone is invited to join together for a DJ’ed dance party.

DJ: How can viewers take part?

MK: The CONCEPT series: Digital Edition 2 will be on Friday, March 26, at 6 p.m. PST on Zoom. It’s a pay-what-you-can event, with a suggested ticket price of $10-$25. Any profits will be shared equally among the participating guest artists. Viewers can get more information and buy tickets via the link on the RAWdance website: https://rawdance.org/events/concept-series-digital-2. I’d love to see some San Mateo folks there!

Susan Cohn is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the American Theatre Critics Association. She may be reached at susan@smdailyjournal.com.