Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Black Futures Artist in Residence Program is open to diverse voices, emerging and established, called to express the Black experience through an arts practice that inspires dialogue and builds community. Our goal is to support artists at all points of their process and to give them an opportunity to conduct in depth research without the pressure of presenting a completed work by the end of the residency.
Zaccho Dance Theatre is thrilled to announce the 2nd Round of Black Futures residencies awarded to four outstanding San Francisco and Bay Area performing artists. The Black Futures Artists in Residence Program offers a monetary stipend, free studio space, production and marketing support, mentorship, and community engagement opportunities. Performing artists in the fields of dance, theater and music are recognized at all stages of their careers.
Oakland native, Antoine Hunter aka Purple Fire Crow is an award-winning and internationally known African-American, Indigenous, Deaf, Disabled choreographer, dancer, actor, instructor, speaker, producer, and Deaf advocate. He creates opportunities for Disabled, Deaf, and hearing artists, produces Deaf-friendly events, and founded the Urban Jazz Dance Company in 2007 and Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival in 2013. Awards have included the 2021 Dance Teacher Award, 2019 National Dance/USA fellowship recognized by the Mayor of Oakland, 2018 inaugural Jeanette Lomujo Bremond Humanity Arts Award, and 2017 Isadora Duncan (Izzie) for BAIDDF.
Toni Jean Cannon is a black trans masculine person who has dedicated his body to performing circus arts, using the Chinese pole act as one of his instruments in reconciling his gender identity. Toni started his circus career later in life; however, this hasn’t stopped him from diving deep into his new found love and passion — consistently finding new ways to express himself through acrobatics. The first years of his career were spent with Master Lu Yi learning disciplines like acrobatics, duo’s / trio’s acrobatics, and Chinese pole. Performances have included Aerial Animations, Topsy Turvy Circus, This is Acrosanct, Witchtech, Circus Bella, and the San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival.
Susana Arenas Pedroso is an internationally recognized AfroCuban folkloric and popular dancer. Born in Havana, Cuba, Pedroso began her career in dance at age twelve at La Casa de Cultura de Matanzas. She danced professionally for 17 years in Cuba with popular, folkloric, and theatrical performing groups, including Havana’s famed Raíces Profundas. Since her arrival in the United States in 1998, Pedroso has performed and choreographed works that have been exhibited throughout the USA, Mexico, Cuba, and Hong Kong, including with Richard O'Neal’s Jarocho, a work that looked at Mexico’s African roots. Pedroso formed Arenas Dance Company in 2004 to preserve and promote culturally-rooted, ever evolving folkloric and popular (i.e. social) Cuban dance traditions, while also embracing creative innovation and hybridity.
Dazaun Soleyn is the Artistic Director of dazaun.dance. He graduated as the University of South Florida’s Outstanding Graduate with a BFA in Modern Dance Performance and Choreography. Upon graduation, Dazaun was accepted as a Trainee at the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program (LBTP). With an intention to create holistic art that aims to illuminate the dynamic fullness of the human experience, Dazaun has been actively presenting work in the Bay Area since Fall 2014. His teaching credits include the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program, University of South Florida, Cal State University East Bay, Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program, Dance Mission Theater, and ODC Commons.
What is the Dream Keeper Initiative?
Inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem of the same name, the Dream Keeper Initiative is a new, citywide effort to reinvest $120 million over the next two years from law enforcement into San Francisco’s Black and African American community. This initiative is part of Mayor London N. Breed’s roadmap for reforming public safety and addressing structural inequities in San Francisco.
The Dream Keeper by Langston Hughes
“Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamers,
Bring me all of your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.”
