Brenda Way, Artistic Director of ODC/Dance, received her early training at The School of American Ballet and Ballet Arts in New York City. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of ODC Dance and creator of the ODC Theater and ODC Dance Commons, a community performance venue and new training facility in San Francisco's Mission District. Way launched ODC and an inter-arts department at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in the late 60's before relocating to the Bay Area in 1976. She has choreographed some 76 pieces over the last 35 years. Among her commissions are Unintended Consequences: A Meditation (2008) Equal Justice Society; Life is a House (2008) San Francisco Girls Chorus; On a Train Heading South (2005) CSU Monterey Bay; Remnants of Song (2002) Stanford Lively Arts; Scissors Paper Stone (1994) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Western Women (1993) Cal Performances, Rutgers University and Jacob’s Pillow; Ghosts of an Old Ceremony (1991)Walker Art Center and The Minnesota Orchestra; Krazy Kat (1990) San Francisco Ballet; This Point in Time (1987) Oakland Ballet; Tamina (1986) San Francisco Performances; and Invisible Cities (1985) for Stanford Lively Arts and the Robotics Research Laboratory.
Way is a national spokesperson for dance, has published widely, and has received numerous awards and 30 years of support from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a 2000 recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and was recently invited to be a Resident of the Arts at the American Academy in Rome. Way holds a PhD in aesthetics and is the mother of four children.
