In 1979, Goode began synthesizing a genre of dance theater that combined text, gestures, and humor with his own deeply physical, high velocity dancing. In 1986, Joe Goode Performance Group (JGPG) incorporated as a non-profit organization with the mission of providing a support structure for the artistic work of Joe Goode. Over the past twenty years the company has performed annually in the San Francisco Bay Area and has toured extensively throughout the U.S. JGPG has appeared in Canada, Europe, South America, the Middle East and Africa, including the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater, September 1999.

Accomplishments during the past decade have been numerous. In 1998, JGPG premiered Deeply There (stories of a neighborhood), at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, site of the company’s annual San Francisco Home Season. In this work, Goode explored the havoc of the AIDS epidemic, examining the many unlikely alliances and alternate family structures born out of necessity with the urban AIDS culture. One of Goode’s seminal and most critically acclaimed works, Deeply There won a 1999 New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”). New York Times critic Jennifer Dunning likened the effect of the work to the ache at the heart of James Agee’s novel “A Death in the Family,” further praising Goode’s piece as “fresh, touching and wickedly funny.”

Over the next several years, Goode began to explore a single theme over consecutive seasons, seeking to expand on a viewpoint through different textures and styles. With an interest in both choreography and writing, Goode premiered a commissioned play, The Body Familiar, at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco to critical acclaim in 2003. Both The Body Familiar and Transparent Body (2001) dealt with intuition. Mythic, Montana (2002), Goode’s take on Greek mythology through the eyes of American culture was the catalyst for a subsequent trilogy—Folk (2003), grace (2004) and Hometown (2005). This “Folk Series,” offered a broad look at ordinary people who live extraordinary lives, with special attention given to people who live in unconventional settings in the margins of society.

The critically acclaimed Stay Together, a premiere for the 20th Anniversary Season in 2006, was a collaborative effort with composer and music director of the San Francisco Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas about the challenges of keeping sane as an individual, an artist, and a member of a relationship in the complicated 21st century. It was paired with a revival of Deeply There. Steven Winn, Chronicle arts and culture critic, wrote “For those who have followed Goode’s brand of theatrical wizardry over the years, Stay Together is a fitting and gratifying way to mark his company’s 20th anniversary.”

For its 2007 Home Season, JGPG shifted from presenting dance theater on a proscenium stage to a performance installation. Humansville brought audiences on an intimate journey through the hidden codes and meanings of human expression—both what can separate us, and connect us. In Humansville, the audience was able to proceed through multiple rooms, encircled by video, dance and music, which wrapped around them in an exploration of the flailing, absurd condition of being human. Utilizing its celebrated fusion of theater, humor and high velocity dance, the company collaborated with video artist Austin Forbord and renowned composer/performer Joan Jeanrenaud to create an immersive and deeply moving theatrical experience. Mark Tyler, writing for KQED, says “Joe Goode performances are always full of surprise, but Humansville was TRANSCENDANT.”

Humansville was the latest of JGPG’s string of innovative performance installations. In 2003 As Beauty Subsides was commissioned by the Fowler Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles as a part of “From the Verandah: Art Buddhism Presence.” The Krannert Museum at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign commissioned and produced Goode’s installation work, About What’s Underneath in October 1999. Other installations include a commission by The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/M.H. de Young Memorial Museum for World AIDS Day 1991, and a 1989 commission by San Francisco’s Capp Street Project.