Audio Description & ASL for Smuin’s Dance Series 2

Smuin’s 31st season comes to a close with Dance Series 2, featuring a World Premiere, a Company Premiere, and the return of two audience favorites.

Audio Description for Dance Series 2 – Sunday, May 4, at 2:00 pm

There will be Audio Description, as well as a pre-show Haptic Access Tour, at the performance on Sunday, May 4, at 2:00 pm.

 

ASL for Dance Series 2 – Friday, May 2, at 7:30 pm

There will be ASL interpretation at the performance on Friday, May 2, at 7:30 pm.

 

Purchase Tickets

Smuin Box Office a 415-912-1899

Or email at boxoffice@smuinballet.org

 

Short Show Description

Haptic Access Tour

Arrive by 12:45 pm on Sunday, May 4, for a 15 minute live pre-show tour that allows patrons to experience—through touch and their own movement— the space, performers, costumes, and objects in addition to key movement elements in the performance. Patrons should gather in the lobby of the Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA at 12:30 pm. The haptic access tour will begin at 12:45 pm.

About the Program

Exciting premieres and old favorites define Dance Series 2. Artistic Director Amy Seiwert creates a World Premiere, her 13th ballet for the Company. Trey McIntyre returns to Smuin with the Bay Area premiere of his Wild Sweet Love, an ode to the ups and downs of love set to a range of music from Mendelssohn to Queen. McIntyre’s “fertility of invention and modernity of spirit” (The New York Times) is no stranger to Smuin, and we’re delighted to add another of his ballets to our repertory. Completing the program is a pair of favorites: Michael Smuin’s Rodin-inspired The Eternal Idol, originally choreographed for American Ballet Theatre superstars Cynthia Gregory and Ivan Nagy and Smuin Alum Rex Wheeler’s spritely, springy Sinfonietta.

For more information, to book a spot in a Haptic Access Tour, or to reserve a headset please call:  415-912-1899

Note to group organizers: We currently have a total of 20 headsets available. We recommend that you ask people to reserve them. To date we have not had more AD users than we could accommodate. If you believe that you will have more AD users than this (i.e. you are working with a school group or organization) please let us know ASAP. We can purchase more receivers and headsets, but it takes up to a week for us to receive shipment.

 

Date and Time

For Audio Description:  5/04/2025 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM

For ASL:  5/02/2025 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Show Length

The show is 2 hours long and 3 and a half hours long if you join for the Haptic Access Tour on Sunday, May 4.

Location of event

Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA

700 Howard Street, San Francisco, California 94103

Contact

For more information, please contact the Smuin Box Office at 415-912-1899.

Gravity Access Service

The audio described performance is possible through a partnership with Gravity Access Services.

Your Gravity Audio Describer is

Ian Buchanan

About Audio Described Performances

For audience members who are blind or visually impaired, Smuin Contemporary Ballet partners with Gravity Access Services to offer live audio description and haptic access tours for selected performances. Audio description is a live audio track spoken by a professional audio describer to audience members with visual impairments through a wireless headset system. It provides clear and engaging descriptions of the meaningful visual details of a performance. Haptic access tours (20-30 minutes) are a live pre-show tour that allows patrons to experience—through touch and their own movement— the space, performers, costumes and objects in addition to key movement elements in the performance.

Your ASL Interpreters is

Cathleen Riddley