=HISTORY =PRESS QUOTES =HIGHLIGHTS =RECOMMENDATION

Rita Felciano - SF Bay Guardian = 7.19.2006
"RAWdance's Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith are high-stakes gamblers [, ... who] exemplified the vitality of local dance."

Rachel Howard - In Dance = 5.2008
"...this "home for grassroots art and culture" in San Francisco is the place to catch ... the edgy, chic modern/ballet style of RAWdance"

Joe Landini - Bay Area Reporter = 6.1.2006
"[RAWdance] has made a big splash this year.[...] Co-Directed by Ryan Smith and Wendy Rein, this is a seriously sexy company that knows they're sexy and aren't afraid to show it."

Rachel Howard - SF Chronicle = 1.29.2006
"Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein's young company creates visceral movement for intimate spaces."

Rita Felciano - danceviewtimes.com = 12.2.2007
(Click here for the full review of RAWdance's new CONCEPT series.)

"The evening was short, sweet and savvy."

"The fast-paced Accused took full advantage of the space's odd dimensions by sending its five dancers loping up and down this "runway" arrangement. [...] the piece developed a claustrophobic sense of energy being forced into a channel, like storm water shooting down a creek."

"After 5:00 Duet [...] pitted Smith and Rein against each other in a power struggle that started out on a comically macabre note. With Smith plopped in an easy chair, glass and bottle in hand, Rein draped herself over his shoulders, her tentacle limbs keeping bottle and glass from his lips. On the floor, their encounters became increasingly intense, yanking and throwing each others with moments of standoffs being less a truce than an opportunity to catch their breath to go at each other even more fiercely. At the end you were left with the uneasy feeling not of closure but of an endlessly repeating cycle of fights for survival."

"A trio, Schematic Process, for Smith, Rein and Laura Sharp fascinated with its stiff-legged, angular and robotic verticality, the formality of its design and the purity of its execution. The piece worked from a clearly defined concept and consistently held to it. Stripped down and bare, this was a dance of lines and angles of the body, the geometry of the physical in space. Even hops and trembles were images of exactitude; progressions could have been charted on graph paper."

Joe Landini - Bay Area Reporter = 11.29.2007
"[RAWdance's CONCEPT series] is bound to be the quintessential San Francisco experience of traveling to a new neighborhood and discovering a hidden jewel in the city."

Rita Felciano - SF Bay Guardian = 1.20.2005
"The evening's best work came from new kids on the block, Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein's RAWdance. Un[covered] was a funny, drum-tight, and oddly sensual quintet in which artifice transcended itself."

Sonia Reiter - IN DANCE = 12.2007
"What if going to a dance concert were more like going to the movies? You could sit back and relax, eat and drink and, get to see all the action up close. With [...] the CONCEPT Series, produced by RAWdance's Artistic Directors, Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein, we may get our chance. [...] Creating an event that is low cost, low tech and gives the community a chance to come together, not just to watch the show and go home but perhaps to also get enough of a caffeine buzz to talk about what they've just seen, seems like a pretty great idea."

Rita Felciano - danceviewtimes.com = 2.3.2006
"...Ryan T. Smith and Dudley Flores slapped and flipped each other against a wall. Exposing tenderness and lust, this pairing sizzled with danger, aggression and curiosity."

Rachel Howard - SF Chronicle = 7.18.2006
"Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein's RAWdance [...] premiere Drained sent the choreographers plus Dudley Flores and Laura Sharp slicing through the air with machete-sharp legs and arms. [...] It was sexy and solid."

Rita Felciano - SF Bay Guardian = 1.2006
"Per-verses takes on pornography: appreciatively, humorously, and analytically."

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© RAWdance, 2005 = Header image by RJ Muna