WINNER – SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
2014 Isadora Duncan Dance Awards

“SAN FRANCISCO’S BEST DANCE COMPANY” -SF Weekly

“an epic work … powerful, moving, hilarious”
(Miami Herald)
“evocative, compelling, elegant”
(LA Weekly)
“trailblazing … powerful”
(Boston Bay Windows)
“poignant…heartbreak and eloquence”
(San Francisco Chronicle)
“wonderfully imaginative and powerful”
(The Advocate)
“inspired…charming, chilling, heart-rending”
(Miami Sun Post)
“virtuosic”
(SF Weekly)

Sean Dorsey Dance’s award-winning full-evening work The Secret History Of Love has now toured to 20 cities across the US. The project was awarded a Special Achievement Award at the 2014 Isadora Duncan Dance Awards.

The Secret History Of Love reveals the underground ways that LGBTQ people managed to survive and find love in decades past, despite tremendous obstacles. 1920′s speakeasies, wartime love affairs, police raids and steamy underground cabarets explode onstage in this powerful work by transgender trailblazer Sean Dorsey.

Dorsey created The Secret History Of Love through a 2-year LGBTQ Elders Oral History Project. The Secret History Of Love features the voices and remarkable real-life stories Dorsey recorded in these oral history interviews – along with powerful, moving and hilarious episodes from the LGBTQ community’s history of finding love and community, against enormous odds.

The Secret History Of Love features full-throttle dancing, riveting storytelling, luscious partnering, highly-physical theater and first-hand tales of tremendous risk, passionate love, impossible courage, heart-breaking loss, and bold resistance –revealing the great resiliency and strength of the human heart … even in the face of great danger and devastating violence.

The Secret History Of Love features a stellar cast of performers: Sean Dorsey, Juan De La Rosa, Brian Fisher, Nol Simonse and special musical guest Shawna Virago.

Dorsey says, “These stories belong to all of us, this is our shared history – everyone can relate to these profound, moving stories of love and perseverance.”

“The secret of Secret History is that it’s about all of us:
our vulnerability, our deep need to connect and the risks we take to do so,
how we’re all in the same rickety little boat, hoping to navigate to safe harbor.
It’s also about well-constructed dance, compelling storytelling,
and laugh-out-loud humor.”
(In Dance)
“the most imaginative and intriguing dance artist in the Bay Area” (Bay Area Reporter)
“exquisite…poignant and important” (BalletTanz)

The Secret History Of Love features original music by Jesse Olson Bay, Storm Miguel Florez, Alex Kelly, Ben Kessler, Jeffrey Alphonsus Mooney and Ramon and Jessica. Lighting Design by Clyde Sheets, Costume Design by Tiffany Amundson, Sound Engineering/Mixing by Laura Dean, Technical Direction by Emily Paulson.

The Secret History Of Love has toured to cities including Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, San Jose, Chico, Northampton, Bates College, Smith College and many other cities.

With his signature fusion of modern dance, storytelling and theater, Sean Dorsey is blazing a trail celebrated by critics and sold-out audiences alike. As the nation’s first transgender modern dance choreographer, Dorsey has been named “San Francisco’s Best Dance Company” (SF Weekly) and named in the nation’s “Top 25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. Dorsey has been awarded three Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, the Goldie Award for Performance, national commissions, and praise from New York to Los Angeles.

Sean Dorsey Dance is the resident dance company of Fresh Meat Productions. Fresh Meat Productions is an award-winning San Francisco non-profit arts organization that creates, presents and tours year-round transgender arts programs. Founded in 2002, Fresh Meat Productions’ programs include Sean Dorsey Dance, the popular annual Fresh Meat Festival of transgender and queer performance, and media arts events. Learn more at www.freshmeatproductions.org.

Read more about Sean Dorsey

The Secret History Of Love is presented by Fresh Meat Productions and was created with generous support from the Queer Cultural Center, The New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project (with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), the Creative Work Fund (a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund supported by generous grants from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation), the National Performance Network’s Creation Fund and Performance Residencies, the San Francisco Arts Commission, The Theater Offensive (Boston), and Links Hall (Chicago).

VENUEDATES
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (Dance Mission Theater)March 29-April 1, 2012
SANTA CRUZ, CA (University of Santa Cruz)May 5, 2012
MIAMI, FL (Out in the Tropics Festival - FundArte)May 12, 2012
BOSTON, MA (The Theater Offensive)May 17-19, 2012
SANTA MONICA, CA (Highways Performance Space)August 4-5, 2012
CHICAGO, IL (Links Hall)October 25-27, 2012
WHITEWATER, WI (Young Auditorium Theater)October 30, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO (Dance Mission Theater - home season)March 28-31, 2013
CHICO, CA (California State University, Chico)April 30, 2013
SAN JOSE, CA (University of San Jose)May 6, 2013
TAMPA, FL (Florida Dance Festival)June 27-29, 2013
SAN ANTONIO, TX (Jump-Start Performance Company)July 12-14, 2013
PHILADELPHIA, PA (The Painted Bride Art Center)October 11-14, 2013
NEW ORLEANS, LA (Civic Theater)December 13, 2013
PITTSBURGH, PA (Kelly-Strayhorn Theater)April 5-6, 2014
WASHINGTON, DC (Joe's Movement Emporium - presented by Dance Place)May 9-10, 2014
ATLANTA, GA (7 Stages)May 22-25, 2014
LEWISTON, ME (Bates College)Sept 22-26, 2014
Oct 6-10, 2014
NORTHAMPTON, CT (Smith College)Sept 29 - Oct 1, 2014