
Press Room: Reviews & Coverage
New Dance Work Considers Service
Jean Schiffman, SF/ARTS
February 2019
“I always start a piece from something I’m thinking and asking questions about,” says dancer/choreographer Risa Jaroslow. She is sitting on the floor of a dance studio in Emeryville with five dancers, one monologist (Arisika Razak, a former nurse-midwife) and composer/vocalist Amy X Neuburg.
Touch Bass
Heather Desaulniers
April 27, 2017
In one of the most honest and pure performance collaborations I have seen so far this season, choreographer Risa Jaroslow and composer Lisa Mezzacappa birthed a rich, living environment for dancers Brendan Barthel, Tara McArthur, Lauren Simpson, musicians Mezzacappa, Eric Perney, Matt Small and three upright basses. The nine explored this democratic container of movement and sound, engaging with lush artistry...
Jaroslow & Dancers a welcome addition to Bay Area scene
Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Chronicle
October 16, 2015
It is not true that in the California dance world, all talent gravitates eastward. Two years ago, the acclaimed New York postmodernist dancer-choreographer Risa Jaroslow relocated to Oakland...the company has brought a distinctive quality to the scene. They should be around for a while.
Veteran New York choreographer reboots in Bay Area at 68
Claudia Bauer, San Francisco Chronicle
October 8, 2015
From Gold Rush prospectors to Beat poets to techies, San Francisco has always been a destination for pioneers and freedom seekers. Among the most recent arrivals is veteran choreographer Risa Jaroslow, an expatriate New Yorker with postmodern bona fides and a thirst for adventure.
Jaroslow dancers question nature of power
Andrea Pflaumer, Alex Hochman and Anita Katz, San Francisco Examiner
October 11, 2015
Resistance, a rallying cry for any number of sociopolitical groups in the Bay Area, gets a new twist in choreographer Risa Jaroslow’s West Coast premiere of “Resist/Surrender.”
Veteran Choreographers Bebe Miller and Risa Jaroslow Write Mysteries in Motion
Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice
November 19, 2008
"From the moment that Gabriel Forestieri, Luke Gutgsell, Elise Knudson, and Paul Singh enter with sideways, spread-eagled leaps—their bodies flying parallel to the floor, then crashing down—we're ready to follow them anywhere…all of them dance magnificently—bold in their energy, tender with one another."
What is Man?
Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice
December 5, 2006
It is...a holiday treat of sorts to see a piece in which serious issues are softened only by smart choreographic abstracting and re-molding...They look almost as if they were in an operating room-as if stereotypical masculinity were something that could be probed for, maybe excised-Whatever you think it means in terms of a message, the image burns itself into your brain, into your gut.
Feeling Whole in a Response to Sept. 11
Jennifer Dunning, New York Times
November 12, 2004
Exquisite, like a drop of air suspended in honey...Ms. Jaroslow's new "Whole Sky" creates an abstract community of dreamers in a dance built on people's responses when the choreographer asked what made them feel whole.
Review of 'Whole Sky'
Jim Dowling, Dance Magazine Online
December 2004
In her reassuringly titled Whole Sky, Risa Jaroslow evokes a wish to heal a broken skyline - and ourselves - suggesting that we can counter the world's dislocations by reaching out to those we've kept at a distance...Jaroslow displays a gift for affirming more in others than one would think likely or possible, and in the process, she shows how we can make ourselves whole.
Pick Your Community
Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice
April 15, 2003
Risa Jaroslow makes works about communities you can imagine living in. People who inhabit them dance together; they also know when to leave one another alone and when to step in to help. They can be feisty or serene...Their actions and physical dialogues are as fluent, variegated, and disciplined as the melodies we hear and the unseen musicians they embody.
Communities Centered
Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice
December 26, 2000
Risa Jaroslow choreographs as if the most important thing in the world were how and why someone takes another's hand or leans into another's embrace, as if her mission were to explore the common needs and visions that bring people together.