We’ve changed our name from Encore.org to CoGenerate! Join us at cogenerate.org to bridge generational divides and co-create the future.

We’ve changed our name from Encore.org to CoGenerate! Join us at cogenerate.org to bridge generational divides and co-create the future.

LIV SCHAFFER

Director, Dance Generators
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
Instagram: @livschaffer / @dancegenerators

Using collaborative dance making and sharing as a vehicle for social change

“Dance is a vehicle for better understanding each other and advocating for a more just world. We shatter stereotypes about aging and inspire radical and meaningful reflections about what it means to be alive.”

ABOUT LIV

Liv Schaffer received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University of California in 2013, and has spent subsequent seasons performing with AXIS Dance Company, DanceWorks Chicago, The Dance Exchange, and Robert Moses’ Kin. 

Liv is a Community Engagement Artist with Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, where she designs and implements arts integration methods for public schools, healthcare settings, and other community partners. 

Liv was a 2019 Shawl-Anderson Dance Center Emerging Artist in Residence and a 2020 mentee of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company’s CHIME (Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange) program, a professional mentorship program for choreographers and movement-based artists. Liv’s choreography has been presented by DanceWorks Chicago, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival ChoreoFest by RAWdance SF, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Performance Series and Lab In Process Series. 

On faculty at the University of San Francisco, Liv teaches courses in contemporary dance, community engaged dance pedagogy, and directs the University’s intergenerational dance company, the Dance Generators. The company includes members ranging in age from 17 to 89 and uses collaborative dance making as a vehicle for social change and catalyzing perspective shifts on aging. 

Past and current partners of the Dance Generators include EAH Housing, Mercy Housing, Ruth’s Table, and San Francisco Village. The University of San Francisco named Liv a 2020 Lane Center Faculty Fellow, researching the relationship between Jesuit faith and her personal teaching philosophies, and a 2021 Community Engaged Learning Teaching Fellow, furthering the University’s off campus engagement. Since October of 2020, Liv has been a Program Director with EngAGE Inc., developing engagement opportunities in the arts, wellness, and lifelong learning for residents in low-income and senior housing facilities across the Bay Area.

Share This