Sarah Bush Dance Project is stepping into a milestone year: our 20th season!
For nearly two decades, SBDP has created bold, interdisciplinary dance rooted in social justice, queer identity, community, collaboration, and the belief that art can help us imagine and build a more liberated and joyful world.
Twenty seasons of dancing. Twenty seasons of storytelling. Twenty seasons of bringing artists and audiences together. Twenty seasons of experimentation, risk-taking, research, and connection.
And we’re not slowing down now.
In many ways, 2026 has felt like spring training. We’ve spent the year researching, experimenting, GATHERing, practicing, playing, performing, and building toward what comes next. Now, we’re stepping up to the plate for 2027.
Photography of (left to right): Jetta Martin, Richelle Donigan, KJ Dahlaw, Frances Teves, Sarah Bush, at San Francisco Library Day
Where we’ve been
This year, SBDP continued creating opportunities for people to dance, connect, remember, and celebrate together.
Throughout 2026, our work included four DYKON Story Hours highlighting queer elders and community history, GATHER events in homes and community spaces, public collaborations with the California Academy of Sciences and San Francisco Public Library, softball practices, ongoing research into Bay Area dyke history, and the continued development of The Dyke HERstory Dance Tour.
In October, years of research and relationship-building took the field with PITCH, the pilot performance of The Dyke HERstory Dance Tour at Mosswood Park. Dance, storytelling, music, softball, and the lives of five Bay Area dyke ancestors came together in one afternoon of performance and play.
Photography of (left to right): KJ Dahlaw, Risa Ofelia, Richelle Donigan, Jetta Martin, and Frances Teves Sedayao by Margo Dean
Alongside PITCH, we celebrated Sarah Bush’s 50th Birthday Serenade at Hella Bees, bringing artists, longtime supporters, friends, and new faces together to dance, celebrate, and raise nearly $2,500 for SBDP!
Our work also traveled far beyond the places where we gathered in person. Over the past year, SBDP’s work received more than 314,000 views across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, and our email community has grown to more than 1,300 subscribers.
Each performance, conversation, gathering, digital connection, and research day has helped us build toward what comes next.
Photo of KJ Dahlaw portraying Tala Brandeis at PITCH by Chris Raponi
Where we’re going
Our 20th season will be one of SBDP’s biggest yet.
A major focus will be the continued development of The Dyke HERstory Dance Tour, our multiyear project exploring Bay Area queer and dyke history through dance, archival research, oral histories, storytelling, and place-based performance.
Building the next phase of this project means more research, conversations, DYKON Story Hours, a Sapphic Book Study, opportunities to learn from queer elders and artists, community learning, rehearsals, dancers, sound artists, designers, costumes, venues, production, and outreach.
It also means continuing the programs that keep SBDP connected to our broader community, including GATHER, public programming such as softball games, and new ways of bringing people together through movement and shared herstory.
Behind every performance, event, and gathering is the less visible work that makes everything else possible: administration, marketing, operations, fundraising, grant writing, planning, artist coordination, and relationship-building. That work is the heartbeat that allows SBDP to keep moving.
Our goal is $10,000.
This year, we’re asking our community to help us raise $10,000 as we enter our 20th season.
Your gift will help SBDP:
Continue developing The Dyke HERstory Dance Tour
Pay dancers, designers, artists, and collaborators
Continue GATHER and other community programming
Support research, rehearsals, production, and outreach
Fund the staff who keep SBDP running, including marketing, operations, fundraising, and grant writing
Build stronger organizational capacity as we prepare for our next chapter
Reaching this goal helps SBDP maintain momentum instead of stopping and restarting between projects. It gives our artists and staff more time to prepare, strengthens our outreach and community programming, and gives SBDP the organizational foundation we need to take on an ambitious 20th season.
Softball game at PITCH, 10/11/26 at Mosswood Park
Join the team
Great work doesn’t happen because of one person. It takes dancers and designers. Researchers and storytellers. Coaches and cheerleaders. Staff and volunteers. Audiences, collaborators, donors, and community members. Everyone brings their own strengths, bravery, passion, and commitment to a shared vision. We back each other up.
As SBDP prepares for our 20th season, we invite you to join the team. Whether you give $10, $50, $100, $500, or more, your gift helps keep artists working, programs moving, research growing, and SBDP ready for what comes next.
Help us step up to the plate for Season 20. Support SBDP today and help make our 20th season possible.
