DANSE LUMIÈRE

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Danse Lumière creates dance theater linking the arts, environment, and humanity. Founded as Anima Mundi by Kathryn Roszak in 1995, and renamed in 2006, the company is best known for adapting outstanding works of literature for the stage, giving new form and added context to these works through a fusion of dance, music, and theater, often focusing on some of the most pressing social issues of our time. The company has collaborated with writers Gary Snyder, Tomas Tranströmer, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Isabel Allende as well as created works inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke and Emily Dickinson. Artistic Director Kathryn Roszak is the founder of the annual Women Directors, Choreographers, and Composers Residency held at Djerassi Resident Artist Program in Woodside, CA.

 

The company has performed at La MaMa Theater and 92Y in New York City; the Smithsonian Institution and George Washington University, Washington D.C.; Copenhagen Cultural Festival, Denmark; Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona; University of San Francisco; Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Berkeley City Club; and many other venues.

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The company's performance of "Pensive Spring: A Portrait of Emily Dickinson" at the Cal Performances "Fall Free for All" in Berkeley was noted by Rita Felciano in the San Francisco Bay Guardian as one of the top ten dance performances of 2011.

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In 2012 Danse Lumière was selected as an official participant in the Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary Festival, performing "BridgeDance" at Crissy Field, with the span as backdrop, and also at Union Square Live. Company dancers were joined by students from our Dance Program for Children and Teens.

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More recently, Danse Lumière premiered "Secrets on the Way," inspired by the poetry of 2011 Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer.

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Details on these and other works can be found at the Performances links to the right.

Links to video excerpts of selected performances are included on our Media page.

Ms. Roszak and the company have received grants and awards from the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Laurance S. Rockefeller, the Goethe Institut, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Royal Norwegian Consulate and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, and Zellerbach Family Fund, among others.

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Business and individual donations are, of course, always welcome, and are tax deductible through our fiscal sponsor; please see the Donate page.