This weekend reveals three important aspects of the life cycle of dance that make it possible for it to thrive: curatorial vision/support, dance research and the presentation of new work.

Curator and dance artist Subashini Ganesan will open up her program New Expressive Works (N.E.W.) on Saturday at 810 SE Belmont St, sharing with the public the many programs and artists that flourish under that roof through a sampling of classes and a performance by dancer Stephanie Lanckton and musician Roland Toledo in the early evening. You can find the full schedule of events online on the N.E.W. website.

N.E.W. was created by Ganeshan in 2012 in the old Zoomtopia building and provides a twice yearly residency program, subsidized rehearsal and performance spaces, and a variety of dance and movement classes that represent a multitude of philosophies and cultures. Ganesan’s curatorial vision is based on her personal lens as a female immigrant from South Asian and aims to encourages multi-cultural representation and cross-cultural dialogue within the N.E.W. programming.

On Tuesday Ganesan was featured on KBOO’s program Stage and Studio with Dmae Roberts where she spoke to Roberts in depth about the history of her relationship to the building that houses N.E.W. and N.E.W.’s programming and contribution to the Portland community. You can listen to that program here.

Also this weekend, works in progress by choreographers Eliza Larson, Taylor Eggan and Daniel Addy will perform at FLOCK Dance Center in North Portland, and visiting Alembic Artist Margit Galanter from Oakland, California, will begin the Portland chapter of her research into Cave Forms at Performance Works NW—an ongoing work that is mediated through cloth, movement, writing, and video editing. Over the three weeks that she is here, Galanter will open up her rehearsals to the public in participatory, hour-long “caving sessions.” Reservations are required. Check out Performance Works NW/Linda Austin Dance website for the full schedule of events, more information on Galanter and her process, and the Visiting Alembic Artists program.

At the bottom of this week’s DanceWatch, I have listed all of the dance performances that I am aware of from now until December so that you may plan your lives accordingly, and not miss a thing. Enjoy!

Performances this week

Photo courtesy of New Expressive Works.

Open House at New Expressive Works
2-6 pm August 27
5:45 pm performance by Stephanie Lanckton & Roland Toledo
New Expressive Works, 810 SE Belmont St

See above.

Eliza Larson. Photo by Bill Watt.

Late Summer Harvest: A Showing of Two Works in Progress
Choreographers Eliza Larson, Taylor Eggan and Daniel Addy
7:30 pm August 27
FLOCK Dance Center, 8371 N Interstate Ave. #4
Eliza Larson, an independent dancer, choreographer, and writer based in Portland, will present In Circadia, a dance that examines the different states of being within the sleep cycle. She will be joined by choreographers Taylor Eggan and Daniel Addy who will investigates the ideologies of success and heterosexual white masculinity and their inherent self-destructiveness in their new work, Aglaeca. Eggan is a dance artist and scholar and Addy is a dance artist with a 20-year contribution to the Portland dance scene focusing on film, photography and design for dance.

Cave Forms by Margit Galanter. Photo by Avery Hudson.

Visiting Alembic Artist Margit Galanter
Performance Works NW/Linda Austin Dance
August 25-September 11
Performance Works NW, 4625 SE 67th Ave

See above.

Upcoming Performances

* Performances in bold are Portland based choreographers/companies

September 8-18, TBA: 16, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
October 6-8, Diavolo-Architecture in Motion, White Bird
September 10, Collection, NW Dance Project
October 7-25, Fuse-Portland Dance Portrait, Jingzi Zhao
October 8-15, Giants, Oregon Ballet Theatre
October 13-15, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, White Bird
October 13-15, Bolero, NW Dance Project
October 20-29, BloodyVox, BodyVox
October 20-22, Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak, White Bird
October 21-22, Lines of Pull, The Holding Project
October 28-30, INCIPIO, PDX Contemporary Ballet
November 3-12, Reclaimed, Polaris Dance Theatre
November 4-6, Obstacles and Victory Songs, Stephanie Lavon Trotter and Dora Gaskill
November 11-13, Epoch, Jamuna Chiarini and push/FOLD-Samuel Hobbs
November 12-20, the last bell rings for you, Linda Austin Dance
November 17-19, Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group, White Bird
December 2-4, N.E.W. Expressive Works Residency Performance, Dana Detweiler, James Healey, Jessica Hightower, and Renee Sills
December 8-10, In Good Company, NW Dance Project
December 8-10, ARCANE COLLECTIVE, Presented by BodyVox
December 10-26, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, Oregon Ballet Theatre
December 15-17, Complicated Woman, Katie Scherman/2016 Alembic Resident Artist
December 18, Gifts, a film by Clare Whistler/2015 Performance Works NW visiting artist