Sailing Away: A Live Dance Performance on Market Street October 7, 2010

Zaccho Dance Theatre will perform the world premiere of Sailing Away, a site-specific dance performance on Market Street exploring the history of African Americans’ early contributions to the development of San Francisco. The performance is being presented as part of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Art on Market Street Temporary Projects Program, which commissions interdisciplinary projects from Bay Area artists annually. Sailing Away tells the story of eight prominent African Americans who lived and worked near Market Street during the mid-nineteenth century and of the events leading up to the mass exodus of African Americans from San Francisco in 1858. Market Street will provide the backdrop as performers enact historical narratives through a series of gestures and activities incorporating sites and monuments located between Powell and First streets. Through character interactions, audience members will get a feel for 19th-century commercial life on the city’s most important thoroughfare, which was once home to myriad African American-owned enterprises.

Official Website: http://www.sfartscommission.org/pubartcollection/pubart-press-releases/2010/08/09/market-street-dance-performance/