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Weekend Dance: It’s all about community

By Jamuna Chiarini
June 25, 2015
Dance

I have been thinking a lot about community lately, what it means, why I want it, how to change it for the better. We collect around ideas and values and create communities with like minded people, big, small, micro and sometimes solo. Energy and ideas move differently when you have a community of people to bounce them off of. That’s what we have this week, collections of people around ideas—politics, poetry, history, culture, collaboration, music—and it’s rich.

ICONS
Rejoice: Diaspora Dance Theater
A Performance Works NW/Alembic Co-Production
June 26-28
Performance Works NorthWest, 4625 SE 67th Ave.
An evening of dance and live music guided by the poetry of Maya Angelou, touching on cultural icons from “sacred to secular, historic to fantasized, and political to social” with choreography by Oluyinka Akinjiola, Uriah Boyd, and Jamie Minkus. Guest artists include Donna Mation and Kemba Shannon with live music by Jeff Burres, Simon Lucas, and Andy Sterling.

Northwest Dance Project in rehearsal./

Northwest Dance Project in rehearsal./

Summer Splendors with Chamber Music Northwest
NW Dance Project
June 26-28
Lincoln Hall, PSU, 1620 SW Park Ave.
Pianist Yekwon Sunwoo of Chamber Music Northwest in collaboration with contemporary choreographers Sarah Slipper, Lucas Crandall, Rachel Erdos and Tracey Durbin, will perform Chopin’s complete Preludes. This will likely one of the top events of Chamber Music Northwest’s summer festival.

SubRosa Dance Collective
June 26-28
The Headwaters Theater, 55 NE Farragut
SubRosa Dance Collective is a contemporary dance company comprising seven eclectic, multi-talented women dancer/choreographers (one collaborates long distance from Japan). Formed in 2011, they work in dance, film, photography and live performing and have self-produced and performed in dance festivals throughout Portland. SubRosa strives to showcase how a “village” of artists can do so much more together, in tandem, in communication, and in support of and with each other.

The Collective, Carlyn Hudson, Cerrin Lathrop, Jessica Evans, Kailee McMurran, Lena Traenkenschuh & Zahra Banzi with guest artist Kate Rafter, Artistic Director of Automal, will delve into the world of self-criticism, “peering in at our shortcomings, our perceived gritty-bits of self that often lay like dim pools, untouched, mirroring a rendering of ourselves that is often fearsome and cold.”

Themes within the concert range from “the sometimes sadness of twerking” in Kate Rafter’s piece, “What is the Sound of One Ass-Cheek Clapping,” to an examination of the experience of women in the military by Cerrin Lathrop called “Good Citizen.”

If you’re lucky, you might be able to get a taste of baked goods in the air wafting over the train tracks to the Headwater theater from the Nabisco factory next door while you wait in line.

Hand2Mouth Crystal Anniversary Party
8 pm, June 27
Shaking The Tree Theatre & Studio, 823 SE Grant St
Theater/performance company Hand2Mouth celebrates its 15th anniversary with a gala hosted by Live Wire’s Jason Rouse with performances by Action/Adventure Theatre, Holcombe Waller, Joaquin Lopez, Liminal,Linda Austin, Pepper Pepper, Push Leg, Seth Nehil and Electric Meat Parade.

Emily Schultz of Moxie Contemporary Ballet/Photo by Lindsay Hille

Emily Schultz of Moxie Contemporary Ballet/Photo by Lindsay Hille

Moxie Contemporary Ballet Grand Opening
June 27
Studio Performance 9:30 am
Grand Opening Reception 11:00am-1:00pm
Moxie Contemporary Ballet School, 7504 SW Bridgeport Rd.
Moxie Contemporary Ballet, directed by Gina Candland, is the new kid in town. After the debut at the Newmark Theater two weeks ago with the program a la mode , they are ready to debut their new school and company home. This Saturday will be the grand opening with a one-hour studio demonstration performance by students at the school and a short performance of three pieces by the company. A reception will follow with light snacks and refreshments, raffle and a Bounce House for the kids.

MOXIE’s mission is to fuse classical athleticism with innovative, artistically fashion forward repertoire from guest artists around the world.

Pure Surface + À reading
6 pm June 28
Valentine’s, 232 SW Ankeny
Curated by Stacey Tran and Danielle Ross, Pure Surface is a performance series interested in encouraging cross-disciplinary practice and performance by bringing together movement, text and film in the spirit of improvised collaboration. Each month a new group of artists is brought together in the intimate, open air setting of Valentine’s, and performance is made.

This months artists are Taka Yamamoto (dance), Sidony O’Neal (poetry) and Jesse Mejia (film) with readings by Josh Lubin and Jen Coleman. “Walking and parading we mix the surface of the earth, though we might intend that march’s purpose as ordination. Color marks exchange. It is border-work. Mixture is our calling.” (Lisa Robertson, Occasional Work and Seven Walks from the Office for Soft Architecture).

The Shanghai Children’s Palace
Hosted by Polaris Dance Theater
10:30 am July 2
Art & Communication Academy, 11375 SW Center St in Beaverton.
Polaris Dance Theater, in a cultural exchange with Shanghai Children’s Palace Child Welfare Institute of Shanghai, China, will be hosting the group of 42 girls, ages 10 – 12, from Shanghai, China, for three days of dance classes and city tours, culminating at the end with a public performance.

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