Joe Goode (choreographer)

Joe Goode (1951) is an American choreographer, director, performer, and writer known for creating multidimensional performance works, often about identity and interpersonal relationships in contemporary times.

Joe Goode was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1951.

He graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1973.

After college, Goode moved to New York to join the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

In 1973 he relocated to San Francisco and joined the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company.

In 1983 he premiered his first independent choreographic work Stanley in San Francisco.

Goode founded Joe Goode Performance Works in 1986.

Goode is "widely known as an innovator in the field of dance for his willingness to collide movement with spoken word, song, and visual imagery."

A 1999 review of Gender Heros describes Goode's process, "Joe Goode based “Gender Heroes Part I” on interviews conducted with Bay Area community members from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, ranging from elderly persons and first-generation Americans to transgendered individuals and cross-dressers. This world premiere explores the social and cultural forces that influence gender, and the expectations of men and women in our communities. Through dance and spoken word, the piece uses the collected narratives to offer a glimpse into the personal journey toward one's gender identity."

Goode became a tenured professor of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley upon joining the faculty in 2001.

SF Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic, Steven Winn, calls Goode's 2008 Wonderboy an, "achingly tender new dance theater piece . . . in one of those passages of innocent joy that Goode can conjure like no one else."

He claims, "Goode's work often skates on, and over, the line of preciousness. . ."