ODC Dance Commons

ODC Dance Commons is a multi-purpose dance centre at 351 Shotwell Street in San Francisco's Mission District. Founded in 1971 by Artistic Director Brenda Way—who trained under the legendary George Balanchine—ODC began as the Oberlin Dance Collective and relocated to San Francisco by yellow school bus in 1976. The organisation has grown into a national institution with four interconnected programmes: a professional touring dance company, a school, a theater venue, and a health initiative.

ODC School and the Rhythm & Motion Dance Program offer 150+ classes a week, 365 days a year for ages 8 months to 98 years. Classes span contemporary, hip-hop, ballet, tap, afro-Haitian, pilates, bellydance, jazz, Latin, and social dance, with beginner, intermediate, and advanced options. In-person classes cost $23 per drop-in or $19–$21 per class on multi-class cards; online classes are $15 per session or $11.50–$13.50 per class on cards. Youth and teen programmes run year-round and include summer intensives: Summerdance (ages 8–12, full-day week-long sessions at $675 per week) and Summer Teen Lab (ages 13–17, four-week intensives at $675 per week with discounts for multi-week enrolment). New student special: $14 for your first class.

ODC/Dance Company is a ten-dancer professional ensemble that performs its repertory in two annual San Francisco home seasons—Dance Downtown and The Velveteen Rabbit—and tours nationally and internationally. The company has collaborated with composers Marcelo Zarvos, Bobby McFerrin, Zoë Keating, and others, and with visual artists including Andy Goldsworthy and Eleanor Coppola. Recent works include Collision Collapse and a Coda, Inkwell, and 10,000 Steps: A Dance About Its Own Making.

ODC Theater, located at 3153 17th Street, is a 170-seat venue hosting over 150 performances annually by local, regional, national and international artists. The space is available for rent for performances, fundraisers, private events, film screenings, and other uses. ODC was the first modern dance company in the United States to own its home facility; the Theater was built in 1979 and expanded in 2010. In 2005, ODC opened the Dance Commons; in 2022 the organisation acquired an adjacent 14,400 square foot building.

The Healthy Dancers' Clinic and ODC Health programmes support physical wellness and injury prevention across all ages and abilities. ODC Connect is a streaming platform offering dance films, classes, and interviews on demand. Arts Access provides subsidies for those for whom ticket and class prices are a barrier. The organisation also runs the Rhythm & Motion programme, a Pilates studio (Contrology Studio), and Robin's Café at the Dance Commons.

Walk into a busy, multi-storey dance building in the Mission. You'll find a welcoming front desk team, changing rooms and lockers (bring your own lock), showers, and drinking fountains. Classes range from toddlers to seniors, beginner to advanced. Beginners are explicitly welcomed across the schedule.

ODC employs a diverse faculty of teachers—both longstanding and newer—whose expertise spans classical, contemporary, hip-hop, and cultural dance forms. School Director is Kimi Okada. Artistic Director and Founder is Brenda Way. Co-Artistic Director is Mia J. Chong.

Beginner classes are a gateway to technique, self-expression and joy; all-level classes welcome newcomers; new student special at $14 for first class.