Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now (2027 Edition — Date TBA), San Francisco

A Bay Area Dance Institution, Two Decades Strong

Tucked into a converted church on 24th Street in San Francisco's Mission District, Dance Mission Theater hosts one of the Bay Area's most enduring showcases of Black contemporary dance: the Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now. Founded roughly two decades ago by choreographers Laura Elaine Ellis and Kendra Kimbrough Barnes of K*Star Productions, the festival has grown into a fixture of the Bay Area arts calendar, reaching its 21st iteration in 2026. This is the original San Francisco/Bay Area event — not to be confused with the newer, separately run Baltimore Black Choreographers Festival on the East Coast.

Heads up: as of publication, dates for the 2027 edition have not yet been announced. This guide is written as a bookmark-and-check-back resource — use the verified 2026 details below as an illustrative example of what to expect, and check back here (or the festival's official site) as 2027 dates are confirmed.

Event at a Glance

• Event: Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now (2027 Edition — Date TBA)
• Location: Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St, San Francisco, CA
• When: 2027 dates not yet announced. For reference, the 2026 edition ran across two weekends: February 21-22 and February 28-March 1, 2026.
• Price: $20-$35 in 2026 (advance/student/senior pricing typically lower, VIP reserved seating higher)
• Main Audience: Contemporary dance fans, Black arts and culture travelers, Bay Area locals, choreography students
• Travel Vibe: Intimate, artistic, community-rooted, walkable neighborhood arts scene

A Festival Built on Legacy

The Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now didn't start as a single splashy weekend — it started as a response to a gap. Black choreographers working in contemporary, post-modern, and West African-rooted dance traditions often found themselves under-programmed by mainstream dance presenters. Ellis and Kimbrough Barnes built a stage specifically for that work, and two decades later the festival remains one of the only recurring platforms of its kind on the West Coast. As Ellis has put it, the festival exists because "we are culture creatives, and our identity is in the doing" — a mission statement that still drives the programming choices every year.

The Multi-Week, Split-Weekend Format

Rather than a single night or a single weekend, Here & Now typically unfolds across multiple programs spread over several weeks — a format that lets the festival showcase far more choreographers than a one-night bill ever could. The 2026 edition, for example, presented 18 choreographers across two separate weekends (February 21-22, then February 28 through March 1), with each weekend featuring a distinct lineup of new and returning work. That's the model to expect going forward: plan on the festival spanning close to two weeks total once 2027 dates are announced, rather than a single isolated show.

The choreographic range is part of what makes the festival worth building a trip around. Recent editions have featured West African dance, jazz, post-modern movement, and contemporary ballet side by side on the same bill — a cross-section of Black dance practice that's rarely assembled in one place. Programming has also leaned into thematic threads; the 2026 edition centered identity and autobiography, with participating artists like Raissa Simpson noting that "Black art survives in the Bay Area because of our ability to collaborate." Most artists on the roster are Bay Area-based, though the festival has a track record of bringing in guest choreographers from Los Angeles and the East Coast, giving local audiences a broader lens on Black contemporary dance nationally.

Dance Mission Theater: The Venue Itself

Part of the festival's charm is its home. Dance Mission Theater is a small, black-box-style performance space inside a former church at 3316 24th Street — intimate enough that even back-row seats put you close to the stage, and unpretentious in a way that big-house dance venues rarely are. Because the space is small, seating for popular nights sells out; when 2027 dates are announced, expect the advance-ticket window to be your best shot at good seats, especially for opening-weekend programs.

Planning a San Francisco Arts-and-Culture City Break

Even with 2027 dates still TBA, it's worth building out the trip framework now so you can move fast once tickets go on sale. Dance Mission Theater sits in the heart of the Mission District, one of San Francisco's most walkable and culturally rich neighborhoods — think blocks of vivid murals (Balmy Alley and Clarion Alley are a short walk away), some of the city's best taquerias and Latin American bakeries, and an easy BART or Muni ride to downtown.

A few practical tips for building this into a fuller trip:

Fly into SFO or Oakland (OAK). Oakland is often cheaper and puts you close to the East Bay's own thriving Black arts and culture scene if you want to extend the trip across the bay.

Pair it with other Black arts institutions. The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) downtown and the African American Art & Culture Complex are natural add-ons for a culture-focused long weekend, and both are a short transit ride from the Mission.

Stay in or near the Mission District. Walking distance to the venue means you're not racing traffic or rideshare surge pricing to make curtain time on a February weeknight.

Book lodging and flights as soon as dates drop. February in San Francisco isn't peak tourist season, so rates are generally reasonable — but a festival weekend can still tighten availability in the immediate neighborhood.

Why This Belongs on Your Black Travel Bucket List

This isn't a mass-market festival, and that's exactly the appeal. Here & Now is a rare chance to see a genuinely deep bench of Black contemporary choreography — not a single showcase act, but 15-20 distinct artists and companies across multiple nights — in an intimate room where you're never more than a few rows from the stage. For travelers building a niche, culturally rich itinerary around Black arts rather than the usual tourist checklist, it's a strong, low-cost anchor for a San Francisco long weekend, and it plugs neatly into the Bay Area's wider network of Black cultural institutions.

Bookmark This Page

Because 2027 dates haven't been announced yet, the smartest move right now is simply to bookmark this guide and check back. We'll update this page the moment new dates, lineup details, or ticket links are confirmed for the next edition. In the meantime, keep an eye on the festival's official channels for the announcement.

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