Hope Mohr Dance

What Hope Mohr Dance does

Hope Mohr Dance is a San Francisco-based non-profit contemporary dance organization founded by choreographer Hope Mohr in 2007 (formally launched with a 2008 home season) and now operating under the Bridge Live Arts umbrella. The company produces original choreographic works — including evening-length dance theater, performance installations, contact improvisation duets, and site-specific pieces — presented at theaters, museums, galleries, and universities. Its portfolio of more than 30 original works is grounded in interdisciplinary collaboration with visual artists (Ranu Mukherjee, Danae Mattes, Tracy Taylor Grubbs, Liam Everett, Matthew Ritchie) and literary adaptations of classical and contemporary texts (Sappho via Anne Carson, Euripides, Alice Notley, Ben Lerner, Mary Ruefle). The organization serves two primary customer segments: (1) presenting institutions — theaters, museums, galleries, and universities that commission and host performances — and (2) performing-arts audiences and community participants engaged through workshops, residencies, and social-practice programs.

The business model is a typical non-profit performing-arts revenue stack: foundation and government grants (San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation), ticket sales through venue box offices, institutional commissions for original works, individual donations supplemented by an annual benefit, and teaching/workshop fees. Go-to-market is event-driven: works premiere at Bay Area venues (ODC Theater, Joe Goode Annex, CounterPulse, Space 124) and tour to national partners (Moody Center for the Arts in Houston, Highways Performance Space in LA, Baltimore Museum of Art/Johns Hopkins, Southern Exposure, Shotgun Players). Marketing channels are largely earned-media driven (SF Chronicle, Dance Magazine, KQED, East Bay Times) supplemented by the company's own website, blog, and the 'the body is the brain' podcast. There is no proprietary technology platform, mobile app, or AI/data infrastructure; the technical core is the choreographic and improvisational practice of the artistic team. In 2020 the organization transitioned to a distributed-leadership model, and in 2023 Hope Mohr stepped out of the Co-Director role into Affiliated Artist status with Bridge Live Arts, which now stewards the broader organizational portfolio.

Name

Hope Mohr Dance

Legal name

Hope Mohr Dance

Website

https://hopemohr.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Hope Mohr Dance is a San Francisco-based non-profit contemporary dance organization that produces original choreographic works, performance installations, and community programs for presenting institutions, museums, universities, and performing-arts audiences. It now operates under the Bridge Live Arts umbrella.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Contemporary Dance Performance

NAICS

Dance Companies (711120), Fine Arts Schools (61161)

akta.pro primary industry

Contemporary & Modern Dance (MPAGADAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Dance Theatre (Narrative/Experimental) (MPAGADAC), Dance Education (Ballet, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, Cultural Dance) (EDAMAAAH)

Keywords

• Contemporary dance choreography
• Performing arts productions
• Dance theater performances
• Interdisciplinary performance art
• Community dance workshops

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Performance Revenue: Ticket sales from live performances at theaters, museums, and galleries. The company produces original works that are presented at various venues, with ticket revenue varying by venue and production.
2. Commissions: Original works commissioned by presenting institutions such as Moody Center for the Arts (Houston), galleries, and performance spaces.
3. Grants and Foundation Support: Funding from arts councils and foundations including San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and other philanthropic sources.
4. Individual Donations: Support from individual donors and patrons, including annual benefit events.
5. Teaching and Workshops: Revenue from teaching activities including master classes, workshops, and residency programs at universities and dance schools.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels8 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Hope Mohr Dance is a contemporary dance and choreography organization that creates and presents original dance theater works, performance installations, and social practice projects. The company produces evening-length pieces, site-specific installations, and collaborative projects integrating visual art, literature, and movement improvisation, presented at theaters, museums, and galleries. It also delivers community workshops, master classes, residencies, and a podcast on contemporary artmaking practice.

Product overview

Hope Mohr Dance is a contemporary dance and choreography organization founded in 2007, now operating as Bridge Live Arts. The organization offers a portfolio of distinct artistic programs including original dance theater performances (such as Ghost Period, Bacchae Before, extreme lyric I, and Horizon Stanzas), performance installations (score for transitional times, Ensemble for Nonlinear Time), community engagement initiatives (The Bridge Project with workshops and performances), and a podcast (the body is the brain). The core offering consists of original choreographic works ranging from intimate theater pieces to large-scale ensemble performances, supplemented by social practice projects, educational programs, and public talks. Performances are presented at various Bay Area venues and through national/international touring and commissions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Ghost Period An intimate original theater piece about menopause inspired by Mary Ruefle's essay 'Pause,' from My Private Property. Premieres May 27-30, 2026 at Space 124 in San Francisco, with support from a San Francisco Arts Commission grant and residencies at Montalvo Arts Center.
• score for transitional times A performance installation collaboration between Hope Mohr and Ranu Mukherjee featuring an international ensemble of four dancers. Features a scene coalescing and falling apart according to different time signatures, using visual scores on moveable screens that become part of the choreography.
• Partial View A long-form contact improvisation duet exploring the somatics and performance of partnering, inviting audiences to co-direct the score alongside performers.
• Horizon Stanzas Dance theater inspired by Alice Notley's feminist epic poem, 'The Descent of Alette,' featuring original cast Suzette Sagisi, Tegan Schwab-Alavi, and Belinda He.
• Float the Mark A long form improvised duet in response to Ranu Mukherjee's dance floor drawing, presented at Mills College Art Museum.
• Bacchae Before A dance theater project co-directed by Hope Mohr and Maxe Crandall, inspired by the tragedies of gender reveal parties and Anne Carson's Bakkhai. Trans-centered analysis of the classic text.
• Ensemble for Nonlinear Time A social practice project responding to rupture with imagination, developed through three-year collaboration with visual artist Ranu Mukherjee, anchored in embodied storytelling workshops for immigrant and refugee artists.
• extreme lyric I An intimate, evening-length work inspired by and based on Anne Carson's translations of Sappho, exploring feminist and queer forms of erotic independence and radical embodiment.
• Leaving the Atocha Station Experimental dance theater inspired by Ben Lerner's acclaimed novel, blending dance improvisation, monologue, and hallucinatory testimonial exploring the role of art in precarious times.
• the body is the brain podcast Conversations with artists and culture workers exploring the practice of contemporary artmaking, extending Hope Mohr's decades-long work as a community-based curator of live performance.

Quantifiable outcome

• Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Choreography (2020)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

19 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core, major and minor.

• Moody Center for the ArtsflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Commissioned score for transitional times; also commissioned The Exception to the Diagram collaboration with Matthew Ritchie.
• ODC TheatercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Long-standing Bay Area presenting partner that co-produced extreme lyric I and serves as venue for home seasons and premieres.
• CounterPulsecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-produced Precarious and continues to present company works; partner in experimental performance community.
• Joe Goode AnnexcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRegular presenting venue for premieres including Horizon Stanzas, Bacchae Before, and Ghost Period.
• Montalvo Arts CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProvided artist residencies including Lucas Artist Residency Program; supported Ghost Period development and other works.
• Ranu MukherjeeflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerOngoing cross-disciplinary collaboration since 2017 including Ensemble for Nonlinear Time, score for transitional times, and various museum performances. Deep creative partnership producing major commissioned works.
• Danae MattescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOngoing collaboration with sculptor featuring performances at di Rosa Center, studio practices, and works including Intertwine.
• Tracy Taylor GrubbscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing improvisational practice and collaboration including The Slow Line public installations and The Slow Line ensemble practice.
• Matthew RitchiemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCreated The Exception to the Diagram as part of Ritchie's residency at Moody Center for the Arts.
• Liam EverettmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpen rehearsals held at SFMOMA as part of Everett's SECA Award exhibit in 2017.
• LightfastminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art presenting Intertwine.
• 18th Street Arts CenterminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPresented Ensemble for Nonlinear Time and hosted Imagining Forests workshops for immigrant and refugee artists.
• ARTogetherminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for Imagining the Future workshops serving immigrant and refugee artists.
• FOR-SITE FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCreated Sanctuary performance for Fort Mason Chapel as part of FOR-SITE's Sanctuary exhibit.
• Bridge Live ArtsflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerIn 2020, HMD transitioned to Bridge Live Arts model with distributed leadership; continues to present company works including Partial View.
• Shotgun PlayerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-produced Antigonick dance theater production.
• Southern ExposureminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPresented premiere of Leaving the Atocha Station.
• Maxe CrandallcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-writer of extreme lyric I and co-director of Bacchae Before; ongoing creative collaborator.
• Zaccho Dance TheatreminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerArtist in Residency program supporting Horizon Stanzas.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• AXIS Dance Company: Oakland-based contemporary dance company with comparable organizational scale, disability-integrated choreography, and overlapping Bay Area commissioning and grant landscape.
• Joe Goode Performance Group: Bay Area dance-theater company operating out of Joe Goode Annex (a Hope Mohr presenting partner), with comparable fusion of dance, text, and social themes.
• Margaret Jenkins Dance Company: Long-running San Francisco-based contemporary dance company with similarly intellectual, interdisciplinary programming and comparable institutional commissioning model. Closest peer in scale, geography, and artistic positioning.
• Zaccho Dance Theatre: San Francisco site-specific and contemporary dance company with similar scale and Bay Area residency/community-engagement programming. Also an active artistic partner to Hope Mohr.
• ODC/Dance: Bay Area contemporary dance company of comparable scale with shared venue ecosystem (ODC Theater is both a customer and a direct competitor for the same Bay Area audience and grant pool).
• RAWdance: San Francisco contemporary dance company producing original choreographic works in similar experimental, interdisciplinary modes and sharing overlapping audience and presenting partners.
• Robert Moses' Kin: San Francisco-based contemporary dance company with overlapping artistic vocabulary (literary adaptation, narrative dance theater) and competition for the same regional grants and presenting slots.

Broad incumbents

• Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Larger, better-funded Bay Area contemporary dance company with broader audience reach and a dedicated home venue — represents the upper bound of what a Bay Area contemporary dance nonprofit can scale to.
• San Francisco Ballet: The largest and most institutionally entrenched Bay Area dance company and Hope Mohr's alma mater (S.F. Ballet School). Competes for top-of-funnel donor attention and prestige positioning in the regional dance ecosystem.

Emerging players

• Capacitor: Oakland-based contemporary dance company with interdisciplinary, science-infused choreography that overlaps thematically with Hope Mohr's intellectual framing, though at an earlier scale stage.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hope-mohr-dance

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hope Mohr Dance