CounterPULSE, a nonprofit San Francisco performance group, is celebrating its fourth anniversary at its art space this weekend in conjunction with May Day, the international labor holiday.
The group’s executive director, Jessica Robinson, said May Day is a perfect time for celebration with the weekend performances and musical acts.
"Performing this year are some of the luminaries of the Bay Area contemporary dance and performance scene. Their work is celebrative, provocative, and transformative," Robinson said. "It’s what defines the essence of CounterPULSE!"
Twenty-six companies, including over 100 artists, will descend on CounterPULSE for three nights of celebration and fundraising to help keep its doors open for another year. The performances will include modern and contemporary dance companies, drag queens, beatboxers, hip hop artists, choral groups, classical Indian dance, opera, and even sketch comedy.
CounterPULSE’s lively traditional "auction of the bills," asks audience members to bid on the opportunity to pay for the space’s utilities and other expenses for a month. The Friday and Saturday performances conclude with a free dance party until midnight with DJ’s Durt and Bunnystyle.
The group was formally organized in 2002 as a merger of 848 Community Space with its funding partner Bay Area Center for Art and Technology. The new organization moved to its present, bigger space in 2005, an ADA-accessible facility in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.
CounterPULSE said its purpose to serve as an "incubator for the creation of socially relevant, community-based art and culture."
"We work towards a world that celebrates diversity of race, class, cultural heritage, artistic expression, ability, gender identity and sexual orientation," the CounterPULSE website says. "We strive to create an environment that is physically and economically accessible to everyone."
The group also promotes educational dialogue about San Francisco’s multicultural history, through a series of conversations called Public Talks.