Oregon ArtsWatch

ArtsWatch Archive


DanceWatch: Paul Taylor takes White Bird back to the beginning

By Jamuna Chiarini
October 11, 2017
Dance

Jamuna Chiarini

This week in Oregon, dance delivers. Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to Portland thanks to White Bird, an evening of conversation and performance with Espacio Flamenco, and Nicolo Fonte’s Rhapsody in Blue continues for a second weekend at Oregon Ballet Theatre. The Northwest Screendance Exposition opens in Eugene featuring an evening of Portland films, and Nartana Kuchipudi presents Sri Krishna Satya. So much dance goodness in this beautiful week.

Looking back, Bob Hicks reviewed the work of Complexion Contemporary Ballet last week in The Complexion of the Times, and Matthew Andrews reviewed Narayana Katha in Narayana Katha Bharatanatyam review: enchanting dreamscape.

Performances this week

Rhapsody in Blue by Nicolo Fonte. Photo courtesy of Oregon Ballet Theatre.

Rhapsody In Blue (World Premiere) and Never Stop Falling (in Love)
Choreography by Nicolo Fonte
Performed by Oregon Ballet Theatre, directed by Kevin Irving
October 7-14
Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St.
See above.
Rhapsody In Blue, a collaboration between Oregon Ballet Theatre resident choreographer Nicolo Fonte and Pink Martini founder Thomas Lauderdale continues for a second weekend, along with Never Stop Falling (in Love), Fonte’s 2014 work created for Oregon Ballet Theatre’s 25th anniversary. It features Pink Martini singer China Forbes and a medley of Pink Martini songs.

Two weeks ago I sat in on a rehearsal for Rhapsody In Blue. The costumes for Rhapsody are a gorgeous, textural mix of electric blues in satins, laces, brocades, and matte cottons, with swirling skirts, and tailored suits, evoking decadent sumptuousness and ease. The movement, like the chosen color, is also electric and explosive, shooting out from the dancer’s centers like arrows, creating dramatic, stretched lines with arms and legs. It sweeps and falls, rebounds and flies, describing the music and the space around the notes perfectly. Sometimes the dancing is large and uses the whole cast, and sometimes it is quiet and uses a single gesture. It’s a beautiful, dynamic work that might make you see/hear Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue in a whole new light.

Diálogos: An evening of flamenco conversation and performance. Photo courtesy of Espacio Flamenco Portland.

Diálogos: An evening of flamenco conversation and performance
Presented by Espacio Flamenco Portland
Featuring Alfonso Cid (singer), Jed Miley (guitarist), Lillie Last (dancer), Christina Lorentz (dancer), Brenna McDonald (dancer), and Nick Hutcheson (percussionist)
October 11
7 pm Lecture Demonstration
8 pm Performance
McMenamins Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St.

In celebration of the flamenco language that links singing, guitar, dance, and percussion, Espacio Flamenco Portland presents Diálogos: An evening of flamenco conversation and performance— a combination lecture demonstration and performance presenting world-renowned flamenco guest artists alongside some of Portland’s finest Flamenco artists.

In a pre-show interactive lecture/demonstration, professional flamenco singer Alfonso Cid will take the audience on a historical journey of flamenco, discuss differences in styles, talk techniques behind the vocals, guitar playing and dance, and introduce some of Flamenco’s most influential artists.

Arden Court, Syzygy, and Piazzolla Caldera
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Presented by White Bird
October 12-14
Newmark Theatre, Portland’5, 1111 SW Broadway
Celebrating full circle, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, who performed for White Bird’s first season, returns to perform three classic Taylor works, two of which appeared on White Bird’s inaugural program in October 1997—Arden Court and Piazzolla Caldera.

Arden Court, set to the Baroque composition of William Boyce, was originally choreographed in 1981. According to Anna Kisselgoff for the New York Times, the piece is a “continuum of non-stop movement.” Clive Barnes for The New York Post wrote that “[Arden Court is] one of the few great art works created in [the 20th] century.”

Syzygy, from 1987, hurls dancers across the stage like orbiting and eclipsing planets to a commissioned score by Donald York. ArtsWatch executive editor Barry Johnson, at the time with The Oregonian, wrote that it is: “Full of utterly brilliant and seemingly disconnected shards of choreography. A full-throttle exercise in physicality, loose-limbed and speedy… It simply continues to increase its velocity, its sense of elfin delight, as the dance goes by. Leaves the audience gasping for more.”

Piazzolla Caldera, Taylor’s tribute to the Argentine tango, from 1997, danced to Astor Piazzolla’s seductive music, captures the culture and dance of tango without a single authentic tango step.

Taylor trained with Martha Graham and José Limón, joining the the Graham Dance Company as a soloist in 1955. He also worked with Merce Cunningham and George Balanchine who created the solo work Episodes for Taylor as a 1959 New York City Ballet guest artist.

His choreographic career began in 1954 and his work became hugely influential to the advancement of modern dance in the 20th and 21st centuries, inspiring dance and choreographers worldwide.

In an interview with Jeffrey Brown for PBS, Taylor talked about his work and said, “Well, you see, dance, I think, consciously or unconsciously symbolizes life. And it reflects the human condition, or it can. It tells us the joys, the sorrows, the fallacies, the idiocies, the brilliance, anything human.”

Robert Battle, the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is recorded on video on the company’s Vimeo channel talking about how Taylor’s work has influenced his own work, and about setting Piazzolla Caldera on Ailey in his inaugural season as artistic director in 2011. You can see that video here and also an excerpt of the Ailey company performing Taylor’s Arden Court here.

A still from Libera, a film by Walter Yamazaki. Photo courtesy of The NW Screendance Exposition.

The Northwest Screendance Exposition-Eugene
Founded and Directed by John Watson
Presented by the University of Oregon Department of Dance
October 13-14
University of Oregon Department of Dance, Dougherty Dance Theatre, 1484 University St.
7:30 pm October 13, The Portland Project – films from Portland screendance film makers
10:00 am October 14, So This is Screendance! Seminar/workshop led by John Watson and Shannon Mockli (Free)
4:30 pm October 14, The Juried Films, Part 1
7:30 pm October 14, The Juried Films, Part 2

Curated by founder and director John Watson, this annual Eugene-based screendance festival celebrates artistic collaborations between dancers, choreographers, filmmakers, and sound artists on film.

The festival includes 24 films by filmmakers living in Canada, China, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, UK and the USA.

The Portland Project which opens the festival on Friday October 14, will feature four films by Portland filmmakers; Eric Nordstrom’s Moving History: Portland Contemporary Dance Past and Present, Fuchsia Lin’s Crystals of Transformation, Gabriel Shalom’s Warehouse Samba, and Living The Room by SubRosa Dance Collective.

ArtsWatch’s Gary Ferrington based in Eugene previewed the entire festival, which you can read here.

Sri Krishna Satya-Thematic Dance Ballet. Photo courtesy of Nartana Kuchipudi.

Sri Krishna Satya-Thematic Dance Ballet
Hosted by Nartana Kuchipudi
3 pm October 14
Portland Community College Rock Creek, 17705 NW Springville Road

Presenting Sri Krishna Satya, a Kuchipudi dance ballet about Lord Krishna and his wife Satyabhama, produced, directed and presented by Guru Sri.Pasumarthy Vekateswara Sarma, performed by the students of Anuradha Ganesh.

Kuchipudi is one of the eight major Indian classical dance forms originating from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The style is a blend of dance and drama, has similar costumes to Bharatanatyam, and is known for it’s plate and pot dances where the dancer performs while standing on a brass plate while balancing a pot on her head.

Upcoming Performances

October
October 19-21, Wen Wei Wang (World Premiere), Luca Signoretti (World Premiere), At Some Hour You Return by Jirí Pokorný, NW Dance Project
OCT 20-22, Abominable, Taylor A. Eggån and Daniel Addy
October 20-22, Uprise, Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theater
October 22, Le Corsaire, Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema Live from Moscow
October 26, Cocktail Hour: The Show, choreography by Marilyn Klaus, presented by Seacoast Entertainment Association
October 26-November 5, Diva Practice (Solo), Kaj-anne Pepper
October 26-28, Dancenorth Australia, presented by White Bird
October 27-29, Nous, on va danser, Nancy Ellis
October 31, Opus Cactus, MOMIX, Eugene

November
November 2-10, Avalanche, Polaris Dance Theatre, Robert Guitron
November 3-5, Converge, PDX Contemporary Ballet
November 4, ICONIC, A Fundraiser to support Performance Works NW Programming
November 9-12, When We, Allie Hankins & Rachael Dichter, a PWNW Alembic Co-Production
November 15, The Hip Hop Nutcracker Featuring MC Kurtis Blow, Decadancetheatre
November 16-18, L-E-V, presented by White Bird
November 24-26, The Enchanted Toyshop by John Clifford, Tourbillon by Anne Mueller, performed by the PSU Orchestra and The Portland Ballet
November 26, The Taming Of The Shrew, Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema Live from Moscow
November 30-December 9, Lexicon (world premiere), BodyVox

December
December 7-9, Bolero, Ihsan Rustem, NW Dance Project
December 8-9, The Nutcracker with Chamber Ballet of Corvallis, Rainbow Dance Theatre, Corvallis
December 9-24, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Oregon Ballet Theatre
December 13-17, a world, a world (work-in-progress), Linda Austin Dance, PWNW
December 17, The Nutcracker, Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema Live from Moscow
December 22-24, The Nutcracker with Orchestra Next, Eugene Ballet Company, Eugene

January
January 18-28, Fertile Ground Festival of New Work/Groovin’ Greenhouse
January 25-27, Rennie Harris Puremovement, presented by White Bird
January 28, Garden of Earthly Delights with Salem Concert Band (World premiere), Rainbow Dance Theatre, Independence

February
February 1-10, The skinner|kirk DANCE ENSEMBLE, presented by BodyVox
February 4, The Lady Of The Camellias, Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema Live from Moscow
February 17-18, Pink Martini, Eugene Ballet Company, Eugene
February 21, Mark Morris Dance Group, presented by White Bird
February 23-25, Configure, PDX Contemporary Ballet
February 24-March 4, Alice (in wonderland), choreography by Septime Webre, performed by Oregon Ballet Theatre

March
March 1-3, Urban Bush Women, presented by White Bird
March 4, The Flames Of Paris, Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema Live from Moscow
March 8-10, Jessica Lang Dance, presented by White Bird
March 14, Compañia Jesús Carmona, presented by White Bird
March 15-17, World Premiere’s by Sarah Slipper and Cayetano Soto, NW Dance Project
March 22-24, To Have It All, choreography by Katie Scherman, presented by BodyVox

April
April 4, iLumiDance, Rainbow Dance Theatre, Corvallis
April 5, Earth Angel and other repertory works, Rainbow Dance Theatre, Corvallis
April 5-7, Stephen Petronio Company, presented by White Bird
April 8, Giselle, Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema Live from Moscow
April 12-14, Contact Dance Film Festival, presented by BodyVox and Northwest Film Center
Apr 14-25, Peer Gynt with Orchestra Next, Eugene Ballet Company, Eugene
April 12-21, Man/Woman, choreography by Mikhail Fokine, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Nicolo Fonte, James Canfield, Jiří Kylián, performed by Oregon Ballet Theatre
April 20-29, X-Posed, Polaris Dance Theatre, Robert Guitron
April 24-25, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, presented by White Bird
April 24-25, The Wind and the Wild, BodyVox and Chamber Music Northwest

May
May 4-5, Current/Classic, The Portland Ballet
May 10-12, New work premiere, Rainbow Dance Theatre, Western Oregon University, Monmouth
May 10-19, Rain & Roses (world premiere), BodyVox
May 11-13, Compose, PDX Contemporary Ballet
May 16, Ballet Hispȧnico, presented by White Bird
May 23-June 3, Closer, original works by the dancers of Oregon Ballet Theatre

June
June 8-10, Up Close, The Portland Ballet
June 10, Coppelia, Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema Live from Moscow
June 14-16, World Premiere – Ihsan Rustem, MemoryHouse – Sarah Slipper, NW Dance Project
June 24, Salem World Beat, Rainbow Dance Theatre, Salem

 

Oregon ArtsWatch Archives