Oregon ArtsWatch

ArtsWatch Archive


Dance Weekly: Traveling in place

By Jamuna Chiarini
January 7, 2016
Culture, Dance

It’s an eclectic weekend, my favorite kind, and strangely it’s also a great weekend for staying put in one location and letting the entertainment come to you. The weekend includes a slew of dance films from around the globe, seven new dances and a guest appearance by singer-songwriter k.d.lang.

Contact Dance Film Festival
Presented by BodyVox and Northwest Film Center
January 7-9
Bodyvox Dance Center, 1201 NW 17th Ave
Northwest Film Center, Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave (inside Portland Art Museum)
Bodyvox Dance Center, 17th and NW Northrup, and the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium

Teaming up with the Northwest Film Center and long-time collaborator Mitchell Rose, BodyVox artistic director Jamey Hampton is offering six screenings of hand-picked dance films with two showings each night-one at 7 pm and the other at 9 pm. The films will be simultaneously screened at both the BodyVox Dance Center and the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. All films will screen in both locations.

The shows include an evening of films selected by filmmaker Mitchell Rose, a frequent BodyVox collaborator, and another of international films. The feature-length films include “Paul Taylor Creative Domain,” an intimate film focusing on modern dance icon Paul Taylor and his dancers during the creation of a new work called “Rashomon.” The dance explores the recollections of three tragically entangled characters, each believing only in their own memory of events. And the film is about how dances come to be.

Trash Dance Still – Performers and Choreographer Allison Orr Take a Bow. Courtesy of Andrew Garrison.

Trash Dance Still – Performers and Choreographer Allison Orr Take a Bow. Courtesy of Andrew Garrison.

Trash Dance” is a beautifully choreographed dance for garbage trucks and sanitation workers choreographed by Allison Orr. And “Balletlujah” celebrates singer-songwriter k.d. lang through the development of her relationship with Alberta Ballet Artistic Director Jean Grand-Maître as they work together to create a new ballet. On Saturday night at BodyVox, k.d.lang and producer Heather Edwards will introduce both screenings of “Balletlujah.”

Pacific Dance Makers
Produced and curated by Éowyn Emerald
January 8-9
Reed College Performing Arts Building, Massee Performance Lab, SE Botsford Dr
The fourth installment of Pacific Dance Makers, an evening of choreographic works featuring a variety of NorthWest choreographers curated by Portland dancer and choreographer Éowyn Emerald, opens Friday night.

Pacific Dance Makers. Photo by David Krebs.

Pacific Dance Makers. Photo by David Krebs.

This year’s choreographers include Anna Conner and Brandin Steffensen from Seattle and Anne Mueller, Carla Mann, Éowyn Emerald, DarVejon Jones, and Carlyn Hudson from Portland.

Seattle choreographer Anna Conner who debuted an electric and powerful duet in the second Pacific Dance Makers will be returning with a solo, “The Machine,” created in collaboration with Katie Wyeth and Marlys Yvonne and performed by Katie Wyeth. “The Machine” explores humanity as a great machine and humans as the unstoppable, inexhaustible gears.

Seattle dancer/choreographer Brandin Steffensen along with dancers Suzanne Chi, Luke Gutgsell, and Ben Martens will present “Pentamode a Foursome,” a dance generated using five archetypical modes of relationship: active, passive, enhanced, provoked, inhibited.

Anne Mueller, the co-artistic director of The Portland Ballet, will present “Hold, Sway,” a trio based on a list of 12 verbs and rhythm.

Carla Mann, long time Portland dancer/choreographer and Professor of Dance at Reed College, presents “Ching,” a film in collaboration with Northwest Dance Project’s Ching Ching Wong revealing Wong’s personal experiences in life and dance.

African American choreographer Dar Vejon Jones will present “Yanvalloux Rendezvous,” a contemporary manifestation of the Haitian creation myth featuring dancers from Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theatre, whom you can also see next weekend in their own concert, “Ancestry in Motion.”

Éowyn Emerald in collaboration with Portland lighting designer James Mapes will present a quartet exploring narrative through color and light, revealing and uniting.

Carlyn Hudson, the co-founder of SubRosa Dance Collective, will present an excerpt from “Foibles,” a choreographic work exploring the idea of the weakest point. SubRosa will also be performing in The Fertile Ground Festival beginning on June 21.

Coming up

Eowyn Emerald & Dancers the company will be performing January 14-16, reprising their 2014 Edinburg Festival Fringe show.

Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theatre directed by Oluyinka Akinjiola will present its second evening-length concert, “Ancestry in Motion,” January 15-17.

Forever Tango will be performing at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on January 15 and will feature Dancing with the Stars dancers Anna Trebunskaya and Dmitry Chaplin.

Fertile Ground Festival of New Works will begin January 21, featuring 11 days of new work in theatre, music, and dance. This year’s festival will feature choreography by SubRosa Dance Collective, Portland Bellydance Guild, Polaris Dance Theatre, NW Dance Fusion, Echo Theatre Company Circus Arts and r: ad, a new dance company directed by Alexander Dones.

Oregon ArtsWatch Archives