Joe Goode

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

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."

Early life and education Joe Goode was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1951. He graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1973.

Career 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.

San Francisco 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. . ."

Goode was a professor in Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley for 23 years, retiring in 2024.

In 2025, Goode premiered the immersive theater work Are You Okay? at the Rincon Center in San Francisco. This work received an Izzie award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design.

Awards

New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award, 1998

Creative work

Stanley, 1983 Humansville, 2007 As We Go, 2023 Are You Okay?, 2025