Our resident dance company Sean Dorsey Dance (SDD) creates, performs and tours original work by Artistic Director Sean Dorsey. Dorsey is an award-winning transgender and queer choreographer, dancer, educator and activist.
Sean Dorsey Dance creates deeply human dance-theater – a powerful fusion of full-throttle dance, intimate storytelling, exquisite queer partnering and theater.
Highly physical, accessible, rooted in story, and danced with precision and guts and deep humanity, Sean Dorsey Dance’s works have been praised as “exquisite…poignant and important” (BalletTanz), “trailblazing” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “evocative, compelling, elegant” (LA Weekly).
Sean Dorsey Dance performs at home in San Francisco, CA USA – and is available for national and international touring and teaching bookings. Sean Dorsey is also available for artistic residencies, teaching residencies, and speaking engagements. SDD additionally leads trans and LGBTQI+ community engagement, and advocates for intersectional Trans justice in Dance.
Learn more about Sean Dorsey Dance, their new project “The Lost Art of Dreaming“, and upcoming performances, classes and events by visiting our sibling website:
“luscious, intricate and deeply human dances”
(Bay Times)
Artistic Director Sean Dorsey
2020 Doris Duke Artist
Dance/USA Artist Fellow
Sean Dorsey is a San Francisco-based choreographer, dancer, writer, teaching artist and cultural activist. Recognized as the U.S.’ first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer, Dorsey has toured his work to more than 30 cities across the US and abroad – and taught with his explicitly trans-positive pedagogy in more than 35 cities.
Dorsey is a 2020 Doris Duke Artist and an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow. He has been awarded five Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and the Goldie Award for Performance. In 2009, Dorsey was named in Dance Magazine’s “25 To Watch;” in 2019, he became the first openly-transgender person on the cover of Dance Magazine.
A longtime social practice artist, Dorsey creates his works over 2-3 years in deep relationship with/in community.
Dorsey has been awarded support by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, National Performance Network, Dance/USA, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, California Arts Council, Creative Work Fund, Fleishhacker Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Nicholas B. Ottaway Foundation and Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.
Dorsey has been awarded commissions from American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), Queer Cultural Center (San Francisco), 7 Stages (Atlanta), Maui Arts & Cultural Center (Maui), Velocity Dance Center (Seattle) Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles), The Theater Offensive (Boston), Links Hall (Chicago), Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission and James Irvine Foundation.
Sean Dorsey Dance’s New Project “The Lost Art of Dreaming“
Sean Dorsey Dance’s new multi-year project The Lost Art of Dreaming is an invitation to embrace expansive imagination, reconnect with longing, connect with joy and pleasure, and propel ourselves toward loving Futures.
THE LOST ART OF DREAMING is now on an international tour (its world premiere performances were November 18-20, 2022 at Z Space (San Francisco, CA). Visit Sean Dorsey Dance’s calendar page to see where we’re touring next!
THE LOST ART OF DREAMING project also features community conversations, dance films, DREAM LABS, Postcards From The Future, The Futurist Pledge, The Dictionary Of Joy & Pleasure … and so much more! Join our email list for updates or visit our sibling website SeanDorseyDance.com for more info.
