News
WEAVING THE GENERATIONS TOGETHER THROUGH “QUILTED ANCESTORS”
September 11, 2023 | dancersgroup.org
Dancers Liv Schaffer, Dazaun Soleyn, Sebastian Le, and Natalya Shoaf dance with quilted sculptures as part of Adia Millett’s Wisdom Keepers exhibition opening at the Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose. Wisdom Keepers explores the parallels between a craftswoman and a warrior with the intention of preserving the community and culture of our ancestors while integrating those teachings in our everyday lives.
Reflection: Dance generators-Pause to Bridge
March 4, 2023 | jen-norris-dance-rev.com
Dance Generators, an intergenerational dance company housed at the University of San Francisco, brings together artists ranging in age from 18 to 90 for choreographic experimentation at ODC Theater. In this review, audience member, Jen Norris, shares her perspective of the performance Pause to Bridge.
An intergenerational afternoon
March 23, 2023 | medium.com
Dance Generators, the University of San Francisco’s intergenerational dance company, features performers who range in age from 19 to 91. They are currently directed by Liv Schaffer. Schaffer introduced this showing as a “peek into the process” and a collaboration with fellow USF professor Dazaun Soleyn. In this review audience member Rowena, helps share her take and message of the performance pause to bridge.
Crossing Generational Boundaries Through Dance
November 16, 2022 | sffoghorn.com
In today’s society the ability to form bonds between different generations is usually formed by current family ties. If one does not have that ability to form such bonds then it rarely done at all. As a result different generations often miss the ability to connect and share their different lived experiences. Dance Generators is a company that focuses on closing these generational gaps through shared movement and creativity. Through shared dance, members have the ability to create a deeper connection that sometimes words cannot express.
Legends walk among us: A reflection on the Cycle we dance, generation after generation
September 27, 2022 | dancersgroup.org
Dance Generators Director, Liv Schaffer, reflects on the inherent values of intergenerational dance practice while sharing thoughts on mortality, time, and the cyclical influence of both dance and aging. Featured in the Fall 2022 of In Dance published by Dancer’s Group
Bill Haskel and Liv Schaffer: an intergenerational conversation
August 15 2022 | ArchiveStoryCorp.com
Board of Directors Storytelling Project: Our first StoryCorps conversation is between SFV Board Co-chair Bill Haskell (77) and Board member Liv Schaffer (31). In this inspiring conversation, Bill and Liv talked about many things including people who have been instrumental in their lives, losing parents at a young age, opening the first AIDS hospice in the United States, and much more!
who in our society gets to dance
June 27 2022 | EngagedAging.org
Have you ever thought about who in our society gets to dance? These photos capture dancers ranging in age from 20 to 89 years old coming together to shatter stereotypes about aging and encourage communities to move! Pictured here are Dance Generators company members during their recent performance at ODC Theater in San Francisco. This piece explored ideas of family paradigm, inheritance, and co-generational social healing.
What makes an intergenerational dance company so special? these photos explain in a way words cant.
April 18 2022 | Encore.org
“Our bodies hold the experiences and stress of the past two years with limited social connection,” Schaffer says. “Now we are returning to live and in-person performance with a vibrancy informed by awareness of what we’ve been missing. The power of the Dance Generators lies not only in our ability to facilitate connections across generations, but to infuse our audiences with a connection to the ephemeral and precious nature of both dance and the human experience.”
“Opinion: How to Teach Gen Z to have real conversations with older adults” By Melanie Valasquez
March 14 2022 | SF Examiner
Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), the most-attacked generation on the internet, are known for their bitter resentment toward millennials. Millennials (1981–1996), for their part, are now the butt of Gen Z (1997–2012) jokes more than Baby Boomers are. Gen X (1965–1980) might be next in the lineup of age groups to be attacked because they are the parents of Gen Z. And finally, the Silent Generation (1928–1945) is disregarded by and quite literally silent to Gen Zers.
