As a modern dance choreographer and as a transgender person, Sean Dorsey felt irresistibly drawn to San Francisco with its history of trans and queer resistance and culture. But the city he moved to in the early 2000s was not the city he had envisioned. He discovered he was the only openly trans modern dancer and no one was putting trans artists on stage. Dorsey spent the next two decades championing trans and queer performing arts in the city, hand in hand with his life partner, the musician, filmmaker and transgender activist Shawna Virago. Their Fresh Meat Festival is in its 21st season of showcasing trans and queer performance; Sean Dorsey Dance has toured innovative modern dance to more than 30 cities in the U.S. and abroad; and accolades have arrived in the form of prestigious national awards, commissions and grants.

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KQED Arts’ award-winning video series #IfCitiesCouldDance​ is back for a fifth season, with new episodes, dance tutorials and shorts dropping every other Wednesday. In each episode, meet dancers from across the country representing their city’s signature moves.
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More about this episode:
In Sean Dorsey’s latest work, The Lost Art of Dreaming, he encourages trans and nonbinary people to claim their right to a life they love, in contrast to the hateful cultural messaging and escalating attacks and U.S. policies against LGBTQ+ communities. Dreaming invites community members to imagine expansive futures that are joyful and liberated. Experience Dorsey and members of Sean Dorsey Dance perform excerpts from The Lost Art of Dreaming in some of San Francisco’s most inspiring settings—Twin Peaks, Hillpoint Park, and the Cliff House above Ocean Beach. The Lost Art of Dreaming premieres November 17–20 at Z Space in San Francisco.

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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:58 Before Stonewall: San Francisco trans & queer history of resistance
01:43 Dance Scene at John McLaren Park
02:24 Excerpt from “Boys in Trouble” by Sean Dorsey Dance
03:31 Sean’s early days in San Francisco
04:24 Fresh Meat Festival and Productions
05:20 The rise of anti-trans attacks and dance scene at Hillpoint Park
06:07 Dance scene at John McLaren Park and Twin Peaks
06:41 The Lost Art of Dreaming
07:24 Héctor, Will and Nol share their dreams and experiences with Sean Dorsey Dance
08:10 Sean Dorsey Dance accomplishments
08:43 An invitation to dream expansively
09:17 Credits

Featured Performers: Sean Dorsey, Héctor Jaime, Nol Simonse, Will Woodward

Additional Featured Dancers and Performers:
Brian Fisher, Shawna Virago, kNOwShade Vogue Ensemble, Javier Stell-Fresquez and Ivy Monteiro, Randy Ford and J Mase III, Angelica & Jahaira, Juan De La Rosa

🖼️ Featured Murals and Public Art: Josh Katz, Tanya Wischerath, Simón Malvaez, J Manuel Carmona

Featured archival materials:
- KQED Archives: the National Gender-Sexual Identification Council, held at Glide Memorial Church on Wednesday January 7, 1970.
- GLBT Historical Society: the Raymond Broshears papers (1996-03); the Henri Leleu papers (1997-13); the Crawford Barton papers (1993-11)
- Sean Dorsey Dance
- Fresh Meat Productions
- Rapt Productions

Accessibility provided by the Described and Captioned Media Program (www.dcmp.org), funded by the US Department of Education (www.ed.gov).
Captioning: Rick Goldman
Captioning QC: Rebecca Phelps
Audio Description Scriptwriter: Valerie Hunter
Audio Description Voice Over Artist: Debbie Grattan
Audio Description Editor: Heather Warren
Accessibility Engineering: Kyle Sisk

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