EmSpace Dance presents
Keyhole Dances
September 20-28
Tickets on sale now!
Company
About EmSpace Dance
EmSpace Dance was founded in 1999 by artistic director Erin Mei-Ling Stuart. EmSpace Dance endeavors to create well-crafted and emotionally resonant dances that illuminate often overlooked aspects of everyday life. Finding inspiration in the details of the ordinary world, we make dances with humor, pathos, and the occasional Big Idea. Our dances combine quirky movement with lush dancing and high drama. We are pretty equally obsessed with form and detail and making dances that will be accessible to a broad audience. Recently, our interests have turned towards dances for spaces other than the stage, and dances created specifically for video.
We are committed to seeking out new collaborators in other fields, as well as working with highly individual dancers to continually enrich our art-making process and the resulting dances. Past collaborators include The Mountain Goats (music), Jonathan Norton (music), Lydia Daniller (photography), Clyde Sheets (lighting), Topher Keyes (music), Thomas Boyles (music and video), and Leighanne Martin (costumes).
EmSpace Dance has presented not-quite-annual home seasons in San Francisco at ODC Theater, Dance Mission Theater, CounterPulse, and Dancers' Group Studio Theater. The company has been seen in many Bay Area festivals and events including West Wave Dance Festival, The Yerba Buena Gardens Choreographers Festival, Kearny Street Workshop's APAture Festival, and The Hybrid Project at Intersection for the Arts. Beyond the Bay, EmSpace Dance has performed in The Rogue Performance Festival (Fresno, CA), The Monterey Dance Festival (Monterey, CA), and Artown (Reno, NV). In 2006, EmSpace Dance was an artist-in-residence at CounterPulse.
About Erin Mei-Ling Stuart
Artistic Director Erin Mei-Ling Stuart came to the Bay Area in 1992 to study classical viola at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Instead, she became a modern dancer, and has been dancing professionally in the Bay Area since 1995. Erin has danced with many Bay Area companies including Huckabay McAllister Dance, ESP Project, Stephen Pelton Dance Theater, Dance Elixir, Nancy Karp & Dancers, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Lizz Roman & Dancers, STEAMROLLER, Kneejerk Dance Project, POTRZEBIE, Flyaway Productions, OnSite Dance Company.
Erin started making dances in 1997. Prior to forming EmSpace Dance, Erin presented her work in the SF Lesbian & Gay Dance Festival, Women's Work at Venue 9, ODC's Wild Cabaret, and in showcases at Dancers' Group Studio Theater and Brady Street Dance Centre.
In 2004, Erin was in the first group of artists to receive a CHIME grant from Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. In 2007, Erin was a resident artist at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, where she started working with video and dance.
