Founded in 1984, Anne Bluethenthal’s ABD PRODUCTIONS was committed to inspiring social change through the arts. For four decades the women- and queer-centered multi-ethnic company based in San Francisco produced new dance works created in collaboration with diverse communities. Growing from deep investigations into the language of movement, the resulting dance works were eloquent, bold, and subversive acts of art.

ABD Productions presented over 200 public performances locally and internationally at venues which included: the International Festival of Movement and Dance on the Volga (Russia), the Feminist Art Conference in Toronto, San Francisco Trolley Dances, Ohio State University, and the American Dance Guild Festival (New York), among many others. Under Bluethenthal’s artistic leadership, ABD received many awards and honors, including the 2019 YBCA 100, San Francisco Weekly’s Black Box, San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Goldie Award for Achievement in Dance, and the Rhinette Award for Best Choreography. Bluethenthal’s work was also honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship.

After three decades of generating work in conversation with issues of social justice and ecological sustainability, in 2010 Bluethenthal felt drawn to understand what it would mean to create art with the community members directly impacted by the subject of the work. What began as a single conversation in the tenant lounge of San Francisco’s historic Senator Hotel (a Tenderloin supportive housing residence) about the conditions within the supportive housing site, grew into an enduring relational, community-driven collaborative ensemble called SKYWATCHERS. Today, Tenderloin-based artistic leadership works in close collaboration with professional artists from across the Bay Area in a process that’s rooted in the ethos that large-scale social change begins with intimate, interpersonal relationships. Learn more about SKYWATCHERS HERE.