ODC was founded in 1971 by choreographer Brenda Way at Oberlin College in Ohio. The operation moved to San Francisco in ’76 and shortly after became the first modern dance company in the nation to buy its own building. They have since expanded to become the largest contemporary dance center on the West Coast with the completion of its two-facility arts campus.
The 36,000 square feet campus is comprised of the Dance Commons, which opened in 2005, and the ODC Theater, which opens in 2010 after a 9-million dollar expansion and renovation. This allows ODC to be a major presenting venue as well as accommodate a dance company and a dance school, which offers about 200 classes each week.
ODC Theater’s grand opening takes place on Thursday, September 30, 2010 with the debut of Way’s Architecture of Light, a site-specific work developed in collaboration with KT Nelson. The piece will invite the audience to see and interact with the facility as a frame for artistic investigation. KQED Arts gets a sneak peak of the theater before the grand opening.