‘Dance at the Odyssey’ Expands to 2 stages in 9th Year Jan. 8 – Feb. 15

Curated by series co-founder Barbara Muller-Wittmann, the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble has announced the ninth season of their annual and extremely popular Dance at the Odyssey festival. Now known as the place to be to view new work by cutting edge Los Angeles based dance artists, Dance at the Odyssey has doubled the number of offerings with performances taking place concurrently in two theaters, Odyssey 2 and Odyssey 3, from January 8 through February 15, 2026. Tickets are now on sale.

Choreographers featured on Dance at the Odyssey 2026 include Neaz Kohani’s SHE IS MY SISTER, Owen Scarlett’s GASP (premiere), Teresa Toogie Barcelo’s SOUNDBODY (premiere), Hunter Wayne Foster’s Corrigan (premiere), Camila Arana’s For Better of For Worse, Kevin Williamson’s two works blue and beast, a dance film presented by Dare to Dance in Public, TAQ Dance’s full-evening Cue (premiere), Rosanna Gamson/World Wide’s Clever Ideas for Smaller Rooms (premiere), Marcella Lewis’ Spectacle of Ritual, Dancing Through Prison Walls’ FREEDOM TIME, Marianna Varviani and Selcouth Dance Theatre’s Default: Joy (premiere), Intrepid Dance Project’s Silent Fiction (premiere), and Hannah Millar and Imprints One World (premiere)

There will also be two workshops offered on this year’s Dance at the Odyssey festival. Workshop for choreographers (not open to the public): Less Hot Air About Dance is an un-curated opportunity for choreographers to show in-process projects at any point in their development for constructive critique. Presented by RGWW (Rosanna Gamson / World Wide) (Jan. 15-18); and Embodied Voice, The Voice of Release, a two-day transformative workshop led by vocalist, performer and guide Julianna Bloodgood, presented in collaboration with Galiana&Nikolchev’s The Useless Room (Feb. 6-8).

The full schedule is listed below.

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble was founded in 1969 by Ron Sossi, who remained at the company’s helm for 56 years until his death at the age of 85. The company remains one of Los Angeles’ most vibrant and adventurous under the current leadership of artistic director Beth Hogan, who co-founded the Dance at the Odyssey series with Barbara Műller-Wittmann in 2017.

SCHEDULE AND DETAILS

• Jan. 8 through Jan. 11

Odyssey 2
Choreographer Neaz Kohani blends dance, spoken word and live music in SHE IS MY SISTER to explore the persecution and resilience of female wisdom keepers and traditional healers. Lush meadows, melodic birds and a familiar yet unfamiliar world await when two creatures embark on a journey of self-discovery and mutual understanding in the world premiere of GASP from choreographer Owen Scarlett. (Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Odyssey 3
Choreographer Teresa Toogie Barcelo and composer Joe Berry of electronic band M83 return to Dance at the Odyssey with the world premiere of SOUNDBODY, a duet that draws on telepathy, psychoacoustics and ritual to merge movement, breath and sound into a hypnotic field of resonance and intuitive exchange. (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.)

• Jan. 15 through Jan. 18

Odyssey 2
Inspired by his time spent at Corriganville Park in Simi Valley, a public park and former movie ranch, choreographer Hunter Wayne Foster’s world premiere of Corrigan is his re-imagining of what might take place behind-the-scenes of an unpolished and unfiltered Hollywood movie set. For Better or For Worse, choreographed by Camila Arana, dissects love’s most exquisite brutality — the ache of devotion, the beauty in destruction, the tenderness that cuts both ways. (Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Odyssey 3
Los Angeles dancemaker and Lester Horton Award recipient Kevin Williamson presents two premieres: blue and beasts. In blue, Williamson and celebrated pianist Hao Huang meditate on the confines and nuance of despair as Williamson spirals through a mirage of characters and Huang brings the haunting compositions of Ryuichi Sakomoto to life. In beasts, a trio of seekers (performers Divya Ahuja, Rian Alcid and Sasha Marlan–Librett) cultivate a movement language that is as ferocious as it is scared. (Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.)

Odyssey 3
Workshop for choreographers (not open to the public): Less Hot Air About Dance is an uncurated opportunity for choreographers to show in-process projects at any point in their development for constructive critique. Presented by RGWW (Rosanna Gamson / World Wide) with support from Los Angeles County Arts & Culture and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The workshop is limited to eight participants, first come-first served. The sign-up fee is $10. (Sunday from 3 p.m.-7 p.m.)

• Jan. 22 through Jan. 25

Odyssey 2
Dare to Dance in Public presents official festival selections and award-winning films that explore the intersection of dance, camera, and what it means to be alive and human in the world today. (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Odyssey 3
TAQ Dance presents the evening-length premiere of Cue, a funny and unsettling meta-theatrical dance-theater piece choreographed and directed by Sasha Marlan–Librett (returning with her own work after performing in Kevin Williamson’s beasts the week prior). The audience is invited into a performance of a rehearsal where, beholden to their own high standards and an unfolding script, four performers rehearse, repeat, forget and question their actions and lines. (Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.)

• Jan. 30 through Feb. 1

Odyssey 2
RGWW (Rosanna Gamson / World Wide) presents the world premiere of Clever Ideas for Smaller Rooms, chamber works by choreographers Rosanna Gamson, Marissa Brown, Hanna Tzong-Han Wu and Gretchen Ackerman, and a duet by Chelsea Roquero and Ryan Ruiz. (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Odyssey 3
After developing two early versions of Spectacle of Ritual at previous Dance at the Odyssey festivals and watching the work evolve and grow, choreographer Marcella Lewis returns with the world premiere of the completed piece in its full form. (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 6 p.m.)

• Feb. 6 through Feb. 8

Odyssey 2
Dancing Through Prison Walls, a California-based abolitionist project whose mission is to dance, choreograph and tell stories within embodied carceral landscapes to amplify the voices of incarcerated people and address mass incarceration, returns to Dance at the Odyssey with FREEDOM TIME, performed by formerly incarcerated and “free world” members of the Dancing Through Prison Walls community: Mohamed Abo-Bargs, Suchi Branfman, Jay Carlon, Selina Ho, Kenji Igus, Brianna Mims, Amy Oden, Terry Sakamoto and Tom Tsai. (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Odyssey 3
Choreographer Marianna Varviani and Selcouth Dance Theatre return to Dance at the Odyssey with the world premiere of Default: Joy. Performed and co-created by Simon Chernow, Tyler Law and Maya Peterson and featuring original music composed by Yvonne Yifeng Yuan, this intensely physical dance-theater work draws from Greek traditional dances, communal celebration rituals and intimate personal gestures to channel collective energy into movement. (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Odyssey 3
Embodied Voice, The Voice of Release, a two-day transformative workshop led by vocalist, performer and guide Julianna Bloodgood, presented in collaboration with Galiana&Nikolchev‘s The Useless Room. Advance sign-up is required for this two-day immersive experience offering an embodied approach to vocal training, utilizing somatic practices and vocal technique to bring about the awareness, awakening and activation of our authentic voices. Limited to 15 participants. Sign-up fee: $200. (Saturday from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and Sunday from 5 p.m.-9 p.m.)

• Feb. 13 through Feb. 15

Odyssey 2
Intrepid Dance Project presents the world premiere of Silent Fiction, a new work exploring the world of old-time cinema devised and directed by Jennifer Jonassen in collaboration with the company (Rachel Carlson-Zuniga, Nate DeLuca, Ari DeSano, Loreena Garcia, Doug Goldstein, Lise Hart, Juan D. Mendoza, Oneiros Villarreal-Burns). (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Odyssey 3
Choreographer Hannah Millar and Imprints returns to Dance at the Odyssey with the world premiere of One World, featuring a special performance of Way In Over My Head choreographed by Peter Chu. What kind of world do you want to create? Through visceral movement and raw storytelling, One World invites the audience to feel, to awaken, and to remember that the world we imagine together can become the one we live in. (Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.)

The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025. Free parking is available in on-site lot. All tickets are $25, with an additional $3 per ticket fee if using a credit card. For more information and to purchase tickets, call (310) 477-2055 or go to OdysseyTheatre.com.

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Written and compiled for LA Dance Chronicle from press release by Lucy Pollak.

Featured image: Marcella Lewis – Spectacle of Ritual – Photo by Sylvia Drav.