PUSH Dance Company

08/28/2026

Thriller Workshop with Ronnie Reddick 🎃💀 All levels welcome

https://www.pushdance.org/workshops
Have Halloween plans yet? Master the iconic moves from Michael Jackson's Thriller with choreographer Ronnie Reddick, who danced with both Michael and Janet Jackson! 🎪 Costumes highly encouraged — best costume 👻 wins a prize! Workshop builds to a live performance at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

WORKSHOPS
🗓️ 6pm Wednesdays: Oct 14, 21, 28
📍 The Sanctuary, 447 Minna St

PEREFORMANCE
🗓️ Sat, Oct 31 @ 3pm
📍 Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

💵 $35 drop-in / $75 full workshop ($25/class)

Spots are limited — don't miss your chance to dance like the King of Pop 👉 pushdance.org/workshops

Hosted by PUSH Dance Company and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

08/28/2026

💃 IN CONVERSATION: Ayo Walker

PUSHfest Artist 2026: Ayo & Company 🎭

📅 Program B: Saturday, October 3
📅 Program D: Sunday, October 4
🕒 Doors open at 2:30pm | Show @ 3pm
📍 Black Box Theater, 447 Minna Street, San Francisco

Sula
Choreography by Ayo Walker

Founded in 2011 by choreographer, scholar, and educator Dr. Ayo Walker, Ayo & Company (formerly LJ Boogie & Company) is a Chicago-based contemporary performance collective and research laboratory that assembles artists according to the needs of each creative endeavor. Since reemerging at the 5th Annual PUSH Dance Festival in 2018, Walker has developed Caricatureography, an original choreographic methodology exploring how iconic literary characters can be embodied through dance.

📱 Social:

🌟 MASTERCLASS ALERT 🌟
10:00am Saturday, Oct 3
Ayo is also teaching a masterclass during the festival — no ballet, just contemporary and Africanist-rooted movement straight from her own practice! Details TBD, stay tuned. 👀

Tell us a little bit about your dance background.

I came to dance as both an artist and a researcher, so choreography and scholarship have always informed one another in my practice. As a choreographer, educator, and performance studies scholar, I'm interested in how movement carries history, culture, and memory—particularly within Black dance aesthetics. That curiosity eventually led me to develop Caricatureography, an original choreographic approach that explores literary characters through embodied interpretation rather than literal storytelling.

What are the major sources of inspiration for your choreography? What are you curious about?

I'm continually inspired by Black literature, Black social dance, and the countless ways culture is carried in our bodies. I'm curious about the relationship between movement and meaning—how choreography can become another form of reading, writing, and remembering.

Want more? 📖 Read the full interview: https://www.pushdance.org/ayopf26/

08/24/2026

✨ PUSHfest is BACK for its 9th year! ✨'

Join us October 3-4, 2026 at the Black Box Theater (447 Minna St, SoMa) for four electric programs featuring 11 choreographers from across the country — plus world premieres from our own Raissa Simpson, Resident Company pateldanceworks, and Dr. Ayo Walker of Ayo & Co.

🩰 Kick things off Saturday at 10am with a masterclass led by Dr. Ayo Walker

🎭 Catch Programs A-D across the weekend
🎉 Close it out Sunday at 4pm with our Gala Afterparty — wear your fall colors (mustard, terracotta, pumpkin, rust — whatever you've got!)

Tickets: $30 advance / $35 at the door / $25 seniors & students / Fast Pass $55 / Festival Pass $100. Groups of 10+ save 10%.

Grab yours now 🔗 www.pushdance.org/festival

08/17/2026

PUSH Youth Program begins August 24!

Our youth classes offer young students an introduction to foundational movement principles within a nurturing and structured framework. Taught by professionals across contemporary and hip hop, students develop rhythm, musicality, and spatial awareness while experiencing the sheer joy of movement together. At this stage of training, dance supports creative confidence, ensemble sensibility, and artistic curiosity. These classes prepare students for future technique training while engaging the individual, igniting the creative process, and deepening a lifelong relationship with dance.

Fall Class Series:

🐻 Primary (5–6 yrs)
Contemporary — Series starts Tue, 8/25
Hip Hop — Series starts Tue, 8/25

🐨 Mini (7–9 yrs)
Contemporary 1 — Series starts Thu, 8/27
Hip Hop — Series starts Thu, 8/27

🐣 Coming Soon: Baby & Me, Creative Movement and more!

🔗 https://push.union.site/events?event_category_id=push-dance-company-youth-program

Insta: link in bio

08/16/2026

🔥 CALLING ALL DANCERS 🔥

Carmen Crockett's PUSHLab performance workshop is officially OPEN for registration! 💃🕺

A soulful blend of old-school hip hop and modern dance for all ages and backgrounds — culminating in a professional performance on the PUSHfest stage.

📅 Wednesday, 6:00PM | All Levels

📍 The Sanctuary — 447 Minna St, SF

🎭 Performance at PUSHfest, Oct 3 & 4 — Black Box Theater

Save $60 | Use code: PERFORM26

✨ All ages & backgrounds welcome, no experience necessary

8 weeks of workshops + tech rehearsal + your moment on the PUSHfest stage. This is more than a class — it's a full performance journey.

Register here 🔗

https://push.union.site/events/push-dance-company-hip-hop-modern-fusion-pushlab-performance-workshop-series

08/14/2026

🎭 WE'RE HIRING: Backstage Manager for PUSHfest 🎭

PUSH Dance Company is looking for a calm, organized, detail-loving leader to be the backbone of PUSHfest 2026!

📍 Black Box Theater, 447 Minna St, SF

🗓️ Festival Week: Oct 1–4
⏱️ ~20 hours, contract
💰 $25/hr or $500 flat rate

As BSM, you'll be the go-to point of contact for 10+ choreographers and their dancers, support our Artistic Director & Associate Artistic Director through tech rehearsals, call places, keep backstage running smoothly, and help reset the space for classes after the final bow.

✨ Ideal for someone who:
- Thrives behind the scenes
-Has stage management or live production experience
-Anticipates needs before being asked
-Stays cool under pressure

📩 To apply: send a cover letter + resume to mailto:[email protected]

08/04/2026

Roll Out Your Yoga Mat With Us!

Join us for Community Yoga at The Sanctuary, a relaxed, welcoming hour to breathe, stretch, and connect right here in SoMa.

This class is pay-what-you-can, donation-based, so cost is never a barrier to showing up. Drop-ins and beginners are always welcome, no experience or commitment needed, just come as you are.

📍 The Sanctuary, 447 Minna St, SoMa
🗓️ Fridays @ 9am
💵 Pay-what-you-can (suggested donation: $10)

Bring a friend and you dance for free! Write us a recommendation and receive a free class on us!

The Sanctuary is home to PUSH Dance Company. We love opening our space to the community. Come stretch it out with us!

Register here: pushdance.org/classes

07/30/2026

✨ "A heartfelt and spiritual piece" — that's how Jen Norris described PUSH Dance Company's Stardust at YB ChoreoFest 2026, performed against the backdrop of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Fountain.

We are honored to have co-curated the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival's ChoreoFest with David Herrera Performance Company for the past four years.

Congratulations to our Associate Artistic Director Ashley Gayle along with Jeremy Brooks, Ethan Clyde Dennis, Erik K. Raymond Lee & Jeremie Secrease, on an audience favorite during the last week's festival program.

Catch more site-specific dance at ChoreoFest Program B, Saturday, Aug 1 at Yerba Buena Gardens — free admission. 🌊💃

JOIN us for WEEK 2
📅 Saturday, August 1, 2026
🕑 2pm, FREE
Works by La Mezcla, David Herrera Performance Company, A. Spearman & Co., and Ishami Dance Company.

READ the REVIEW of WEEK 1 – JULY 25, 2026 below.
Week 1 artists: Yeni Lucero & Dancers, Sharp & Fine, BrasArte, and PUSH Dance Company.

📸: J. Norris | Full review: Jen Norris Dance Reviews

The experience of site-specific dance is richest when the dance and the location feel inexorably connected. Gratifyingly, this is the case with quartet of dances on YBG Choreofest Program A.ChoreoFest, now in its 9th year, is an outdoor festival of contemporary dance. It invites an array of Bay Area...

07/28/2026

🪔 Modern Natya Performance Workshop with Swetha Prabakaran

📅 Thursdays, starting August 13
🕕 6:00–7:30 PM | 8 weeks

pushdance.org/workshops

🔥 Workshops culminate October 3 & 4 during PUSHfest Dance Festival

Join us for an 8-week Modern Natya workshop fusing post-modern fluidity with Bharatanatyam technique, improvisation, and contemporary movement vocabulary — designed for all levels. 💃

🏗️ Foundations

We'll build technique each week through warm-ups, Bharatanatyam fundamentals, and improvisational exploration — grounding contemporary movement in classical form.

🎭 Choreography & Performance

As the weeks progress, we'll apply what we've learned into original choreography, with a focus on artistry, fluidity, and stage presence — building toward a live performance at PUSHfest. ✨

Whether you're new to Bharatanatyam or looking to deepen your practice, this workshop offers a welcoming space to learn, grow, and perform.

THE SANCTUARY
447 Minna St, SF

📍 Reserve your spot today!

07/27/2026

🌍 Afrofusion Workshop with Yeni Lucero
📍 The Sanctuary, 447 Minna St, SF
🌐 pushdance.org/workshop

This class explores a fusion of Afro Urban disciplines (Afro House, Afrobeats), traditional West African dance, and the foundations of Contemporary and Hip-Hop.

Ms. Lucero's approach emphasizes cultural context, musicality, storytelling, and embodied movement. Students will explore rhythmic textures while developing an authentic connection to their own movement and cultivating a deeper mind-body connection. ✨

🌟 About Yeni Lucero

Born in Chalchuapa, El Salvador, Yeni Lucero began her training in West African dance at age 15. She earned a BA in Dance and Choreography from San Francisco State University, studying Haitian Dance, the Dunham Technique, Limón, Ballet, Congolese Dance, and Jazz, and briefly continued her training at The Ailey School.

Her performance credits include Ron K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Robert Moses' Kin, Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble, Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, Paco Gomes, Alayo Dance Company, and Annie Rosenthal & Delina Patrice. She has appeared in multiple music videos and collaborated with Kev Choice and the San Francisco Symphony.

Yeni has taught throughout the Bay Area and internationally — including Sonoma State University, Pixar Animation Studios, LINES Dance Center, Adobe, BottleRock Festival, Elmhurst Community Prep Middle School, Cox Academy, the San Francisco Salsa Rueda Festival, and the National Dance Company of Mozambique. She currently leads the Middle School Dance Program at Crystal Springs Uplands School.

📍 Reserve your spot today!