Review: Jocelyn Reyes, REYES Dance presents ‘String Quartet No.ATE’ODC Theater, San Francisco – May 22-23, 2026

It’s official: I am a Jocelyn Reyes fangirl. Judging from the enthusiastic reception of to her latest REYES Dance piece String Quartet No.ATE (ATE), I am not alone. Time and again, Reyes crafts contemporary dance works which are choreographically interesting and cogent, without being simplistic.  Drawing on her own life experiences, she addresses societal problems with unflinching honesty, while using humor to soften the edges. Spanning generational and cultural divides, this technique invites greater introspection and reflection upon the universality of a topic.

Addressing the nature of obsession, ATE moves us from feelings of overwhelming fixation to a place of balance and control. It is a coda to a trio of autobiographical works which follow similar trajectories, including MAGOS (2019), LASOS (2022), and DIOS (2024). LASOS, explores childhood trauma and its insidious destructive effects on our adult selves and as I opined in my 2022 review, “packs an emotional punch.” In 2024 I wrote, “with DIOS, Reyes and her collaborators show us the complexity of balancing and reconciling the teachings and expectations of secular America with the rigid dogma of Catholicism.” Over the past 5 years, my respect for this young creator’s sophistication and artistic clarity has only grown.

Inspired by Reyes’s adult diagnosis with Type 2 diabetes and her path to transform patterns of eating inherited from her immigrant Latin American parents, ATE explores our relationship to food, pleasure, health and identity. I know that sounds heavy, but in Reyes’s hands the road to self-regulation is truly enjoyable. Setting her piece about eating to Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 and titling it String Quartet No.ATE (ATE), is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg (or banana in this case) in terms of Reyes’s cleverness. Offered as a stand-alone work, ATE is perfect at 45 minutes in length. Given its reliance on ever more impactful sight gags, more would be too much.

There is a sense of abundance and possibility to the ethereal space which Reyes, as scenic designer, and lighting designer Thomas Bowersox conjure with the help of San Francisco-based string quartet One Found Sound, who accompany the dance from their onstage corner location. A white dance floor surrounded by white translucent floor-to-ceiling drapes entirely transform the ODC Theater.   

Settling into silence, the stage now dimly lit, a dark mass pulses.  A tangle of black-clad bodies forms this clump. Bare arms and legs are evident but individuals are obscured.  The group-being gradually rises and falls. Its scale grows slowly, incrementally, while the spotlight it occupies expands and contracts with each shared “breath.”  The ominous opening minor chords of the Shostakovich introduce a melancholy blue light as the four-person lump evolves into a worm-like organism. A conga-line of dancers, heads tucked downward, process as one.  A small item is thrown onto the stage. It lands with a thump. The creature responds with cautious curiosity.  Fingers crawl like so many insect antennae., while heads swivel to maintain a myopic focus on this object of desire.  

ATE\String Quartet No. ATE. Photo by Robbie Sweeny

A push-me-pull-you of craving and denial ensures interspersed with savored moments of delicious satisfaction, which yield too soon to maniacal over-stimulated antics.  Punching, jumping, cavorting like children, the four experience sugar-rushes in their own unique ways.  This blast of physical energy well matches the vigor of the string quartet’s allegro molto, Shostakovich’s 2nd section, and Bowersox’s bright peachy ethos. Throughout ATE, the musicality of Reyes’s choreography is spot on.  

Confronting one’s less-healthful longings means fighting with one’s self, flip-flopping in a war of near constant inner strife.  Maya Mohsin embodies anguish as she reaches for and denies herself over and over.   As her colleagues (now expanded to a cast of six) emerge from the wings, costumed as the object for which she yearns, a comical nightmare comes to life, complete with a rollicking chase scene and a super-hero-worthy sequence of stage-clearing martial arts inspired takedowns.

String Quartet No. ATE. Photo by Robbie Sweeny

Slaying the proverbial dragon is not a one-time-only event, as temptations arrive unexpectedly.  I am reluctant to disclose more, for fear of ruining the delicious horror-movie-esque surprises. Suffice it to say that, on more than one occasion during ATE, I found myself laughing out loud, as some unexpected turn arose. And yet, it isn’t all fun and games. The magic of Reyes’s work is how she and her core collaborators, performers Mohsin, Madison Lindgren, Giovana Sales Nascimento da Silva and Giulia Sales Nascimento da Silva, use their bodies and their richly expressive faces to convey a range of emotions along their shared voyage from being controlled by an obsession to developing a healthy relationship with it.

May the autobiographical winds of Ms. Reyes’s musings continue to blow for many years to come.   Our Bay Area dance world is all the richer for her presence.

Review by Jen Norris May 25, 2026

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REYES Dance

String Quartet No.ATE 

ODC Theater

Thursday - Saturdays, 5/22 – 5/23/26 (5/21 Preview) at 7:30 pm

Concept & Direction:  Jocelyn Reyes

Performers: (dance quartet): Madison Lindgren, Maya Mohsin, Giovana Sales Nascimento da Silva and Giulia Sales Nascimento da Silva

Performers: (cameo trio) Jonathan Kim, David Le, Alejandra Preciado

Choreography:  Jocelyn Reyes in collaboration with the performers

String Quartet: One Found Sound

Music: Dimitri Shostakovich’s Strong Quartet No. 8 in C Minor

Arranged by Jocelyn Reyes

Lighting Design: Thomas Bowersox 

Costumes:  Assembled by Jocelyn Reyes, tailored by May Lee