Dancing with Muni is a documentary that tells a public art success story of an unlikely 20 year collaboration between Epiphany Dance Theater, an arts non-profit and the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni). An annual free dance theater event which spanned two decades from 2004—2024, San Francisco Trolley Dances (SFTD) was a curation of diverse performing genres amplified by large scale, site-specific public or private spaces. The film explores the powerful impact of this steadfast collaboration upon a city, a community, its artists, and audiences consisting of all ages, social-economic and cultural backgrounds. Dancing with Muni celebrates the journey of a cherished event, showcasing a record of a changing city in which we love, live and dance, while also acknowledging the abiding power of public art in an age of increasing privatization.

There have been over 1,000 artists who have taken part in San Francisco Trolley Dance since its inception, this film includes archival footage paired with commentary from some of the transit officials, tour guides, choreographers and art-goers in addition to Director/Curator Kim Epifano, and Epiphany Managing Director Zoë Klein. The film was edited by Loren Robertson Productions.

“SFTD is the most delectable moveable dance feast of the season,” wrote Andrew Gilbert for the Bay Area News Group. “Using the city as both a backdrop and unpredictable character, the peripatetic event ushers many of the Bay Area’s top dance companies off the stage and onto the street.”

Credits

Directed by Kim Epifano
Edited by Loren Robertson Productions
Produced by Epiphany Dance Theater with Kim Epifano & Zoë Klein

Specifications