Brandon “Private” Freeman and Rachel Furst of ODC
"Veronica & Vincent”
Choreography: Amy Seiwert
Inspired by a true life relationship and set to a musical score of the same name, "Veronica and Vincent" was composed by Daniel Bernard Roumain. Daniel did a recorded interview with an elder from the neighborhood he grew up in, recounting - with some regret - her relationship with her deceased husband. Daniel then edited that text and interspersed it with his original violin composition. "Veronica and Vincent" explores the longing for connection and the nostalgia that can arise when that opportunity is no longer available.
Amy Seiwert enjoyed a nineteen-year performing career dancing with the Smuin, LA Chamber, and Sacramento Ballets.
As a dancer with Smuin Ballet, she became involved with the “Protégé Program,” where her choreography was mentored by the late Michael Smuin, and she became Choreographer in Residence there upon her retirement from dancing in 2008. Named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine, her first full evening of choreography was named one of the “Top 10” dance events of 2007 by the SF Chronicle.
Twice, she has worked with dancers from the New York City Ballet, participating in the NY Choreography Institute. Collaborations include works with visual designers Marc Morozumi and Matthew Antaky, composers Daniel Bernard Roumain and Mason Bates, media designer Frieder Weiss, and spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph.
She is honored to have been an Artist in Residence at ODC Theater from 2013-15 and the first National Artist in Residence with the Joyce Theater in 2017. She has worked in the repertory of Ballet Austin, BalletMet, BalletX, Smuin, Washington, Atlanta, Oakland, Sacramento, Colorado, Louisville, Cincinnati, Carolina, Oklahoma City, Dayton, Milwaukee, and American Repertory Ballets, as well as Robert Moses KIN.
From July 2018 to July 2020, Seiwert was the Artistic Director of Sacramento Ballet.
Seiwert is currently the Artistic Director of Smuin Contemporary Ballet.
Rachel Furst is from Baltimore, MD, where she began her dance training in competitive dance and then formally trained at the Baltimore School for the Arts. In 2012, she was awarded the Dizzy Feet Foundation Award and also began her professional dance career at Amy Seiwert’s Imagery. In 2013, she graduated summa sum laude with a BFA and minor in psychology from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA program at Dominican University of California. Rachel also danced with Smuin Contemporary Ballet and Dawson Dance SF before joining ODC/Dance in 2016. During the pandemic, Rachel worked as a rehab trainer at Active Care Physical Therapy, where she found a deep passion for helping others heal. Those skills have helped her grow as a physical artist, and she feels immensely grateful to conjoin that experience with her dancing as she nourishes her artistic home at ODC.
Brandon W. Freeman - Better known as “Private” hails from Colorado. He is an ODC veteran having first joined the company in 1996 - and has passionately danced, coached, taught, choreographed, and championed for ODC ever since! He has also been a guest artist, collaborator, and choreographer for many other Colorado and Bay Area companies and schools, and was a Principal Dancer in the movie, “The Matrix 2: Reloaded”. Private has always brought his outside experiences back to his artistic home to enrich and deepen his contributions to ODC. Nominated multiple times, Mr. Freeman received Isadora Duncan Dance Awards for Ensemble Performance in 2002 with Brian Fisher (Sonya Delwaide), 2012 with Katie Faulkner (Little Seismic Dance), and 2014 with Katherine Wells (Imagery) Notably, Private received a nomination for Individual Performance in 2004 for his role, which he helped to create, in Brenda Way’s masterpiece, Investigating Grace. As a teacher, incorporating ODC's values, he enjoys teaching ballet and modern dance technique as well as Dance for Parkinson’s Disease. Mr. Freeman also has had the honor of being entrusted by Val Caniparoli to set Mr. Caniparoli’s work on Singapore Dance Theater and Ballet X in Philadelphia.
Private seeks to exhaust the joys of life! He is a woodworker, oil painter, voice actor, a poet, and an actor. He has solo flown an airplane; and served honorably as a Sergeant in the Army National Guard for 11 years.