836M Gallery transitions to a living laboratory of artistic incubation for resident artists Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith, founders of RAWdance.

Formed in 2004, RAWdance is an award-winning contemporary dance company based in SanFrancisco. Through the unique partnership of Co-Artistic Directors Ryan Smith and Wendy Rein, the company has earned a reputation for its nuanced, crafted performances that consistently push into exciting new territory. SF Weekly dubbed the company’s work “edgy, sexy inventive fare designed to speak to audiences.” Critical Dance has described it as “experimental work done brilliantly.”

Drawing inspiration from the French Natural History Museum’s La Salle des Espèces Menacéeset Disparues (gallery of endangered and extinct species), this performance installation fromRAWdance and its collaborators will mine the tales of creatures from the natural world now lost, and reflect on the passing of a generation of groundbreaking dance makers. Among other questions, it asks:

“How do we keep their essence alive?”

The gallery itself becomes an immersive space and stage for this evolving-in-real-time collaboration with celebrated scenic designer/engineer Sean Riley. It will include a company of six dancers in a project that advances a set of physical and visual responses to questions of extinction and de-extinction, loss and legacy.

Live weekly installation and rehearsals began March 15 and continue on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-7 pm, Fridays from 12-3 pm, with a final and finished performance June 3, 2016.