Artists in Exile: 25-year Anniversary Screening

September 27th, 2025 at 1pm

Roxie
3117 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

The Roxie and CounterPulse join forces to present this 25th anniversary screening of Artists In Exile: A Story of Dance in San Francisco chronicles over forty years of dancemaking in the San Francisco/Bay Area. The film begins with the revolutionary Anna Halprin and highlights Bay Area choreographers who reflect a boundary-pushing spirit: Mangrove, Tumbleweed, ODC/San Francisco, Margaret Jenkins, Dance Brigade, Joe Goode, and Contraband. The film also addresses the special nature of the Bay Area’s social, political, and environmental climate; the marginalization of Bay Area artists due to the predominance of the New York dance establishment; and the unique and vital dance community that has existed and continues to grow.

There is an intriguing story of art making in San Francisco that can only be told by its main characters. Artists in Exile includes forty-three interviews with dance luminaries, choreographers, dancers, critics, and historians, as well as dance footage from over fifty concerts, ranging from in-your-face, in-the-street performances to elegantly staged full productions at major venues. Archival footage and photographs illustrate the rich heritage of dance in the Bay Area.

“Artists In Exile: A Story of Dance in San Francisco” chronicles over forty years of dancemaking in the San Francisco/Bay Area. The film begins with the revolutionary Anna Halprin and highlights Bay Area choreographers who reflect a boundary-pushing spirit: Mangrove, Tumbleweed, ODC/San Francisco, Margaret Jenkins, Dance Brigade, Joe Goode, and Contraband. The film also addresses the special nature of the Bay Area’s social, political, and environmental climate; the marginalization of Bay Area artists due to the predominance of the New York dance establishment; and the unique and vital dance community that has existed and continues to grow. There is an intriguing story of art making in San Francisco that can only be told by its main characters. “Artists in Exile” includes forty-three interviews with dance luminaries, choreographers, dancers, critics, and historians, as well as dance footage from over fifty concerts, ranging from in-your-face, in-the-street performances to elegantly staged full productions at major venues. Archival footage and photographs illustrate the rich heritage of dance in the Bay Area.

Please join us after the screening for a 15–20 minute post-show conversation with Joanna Haigood of Zaccho Dance Theatre and Dazaun Solyen. Together, they’ll reflect on the film and explore how the Bay Area dance landscape has evolved over the past two decades since the film’s original release.

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Click Here for a Full Lineup of CounterPulse Festival 2025 Artists!