Since she was four years old, Vanessa Sanchez has been dancing. What began as ballet, lyrical, and tap classes grew into training at Dance Mission and eventually led her to Brava Theater — her current artistic home in San Francisco’s Mission District.
“The Mission is the community that gave me a voice as an artist,” Sanchez says.
But it wasn’t until college that her relationship with dance truly changed. At San Francisco State, she enrolled in a class rooted in the African diaspora, taught with live drumming.
“It changed my entire life,” she says.
In that class, Sanchez began studying the shared history between tap and Afro-Caribbean dance. She discovered that Son Jarocho — a traditional dance form from southern Veracruz, where her family is from — blends Indigenous and African traditions with Spanish influence, shaped by colonization. She was drawn in by the intricate footwork, and by the stories layered within the rhythms.
In her twenties, Sanchez danced on the side when possible before moving to Veracruz to study dance full time. “There was a turning point,” she says, “all I did was dance.” She toured with a company, got paid for her work, and realized she didn’t want dance to be something she did on the side. She wanted it to be her life.
When she returned to San Francisco, she committed fully. She founded La Mezcla, a dance company focused on telling stories that are often overlooked by mainstream media.
Whether it’s a full production, a street performance, or a community workshop, Sanchez centers her work on the communities she comes from. She’s interested in what those communities want to see — and in raising questions about labor, migration, and identity.
“These are the stories where I see myself, my family, and my community,” Sanchez said, adding that dance is not only art, but a “tool for education and impact.”
She has long used dance as a form of resistance and active community building. “You’re not just watching a movie,” she says of her performances. “You’re feeling and collectively creating these rhythms, even if you’re not on stage with us.”
Audiences are invited into the performance, co-telling the story through clapping and other forms of “noise-making.” Sanchez describes how, across history, silencing has been used to oppress marginalized communities. Through her work, she and her audiences break that silence — not just imagining a new reality, but building it together.
This year, Sanchez was named a Rainin Arts Dance Fellow, one of just four Bay Area artists honored across Dance, Film, Public Space, and Theater. The fellowship, administered by United States Artists, provides unrestricted $100,000 grants and recognizes artists whose work anchors in local communities and pushes the boundaries of creative expression.
“It’s a huge honor,” she says. “Every single dance artist who’s received this award is someone I look up to.”
But what means most to Sanchez is what the recognition represents.
“The communities I’m working to support are being seen,” she says. “It makes me feel confident that we (La Mezcla) are having the impact we intend to have.”
Amid the accolades, Sanchez remains grounded: training, creating and staying rooted in the Mission.
“My work is a reflection of the community,” she says. Even more than a reflection, it enacts community. “We want to hear you. We want you to be a part of this.”
