Dance

Video: Portland's Jefferson Dancers Tour China

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:39:00 -0700

At the end of March, twenty-two Jefferson Dancers loaded into a plane, crossed the Pacific, and touched down as one of the first U.S dance companies, and the first Portland company period, to tour China. A world away from their subterranean studios at Jeff (which they’ve dubbed “the dungeon”), they suddenly found themselves performing before sold out crowds in state of the art performance halls in Shanghai, Nanjing, Tianjin, and Xuzhou, to say nothing of being mobbed like rock stars and seeing their photos on billboards all over the cities.

The Jefferson Dancers
Newmark Theatre
May 1–4The 14- to 18-year-old students, many of whom had never been outside America, also found themselves struggling with the language barrier, difficult working conditions, and the dilemma of what to do when recognizable animal body parts end up in your soup. While some received calls from home about getting into colleges like Juilliard and Stanford, one dancer who was adopted from China had a chance to reflect on how her life could have been very different. This is the story of their journey.

Photography by Portland's Creative Laureate, Julie Keefe.

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White Bird Finale Preview: Paul Taylor, Circa, and the 2013–2014 Season

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 22:08:00 -0700

Image: Courtesy White Bird

White Bird co-Founders Paul King (left) and Walter Jaffe (right) receive the 2012 William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters' president, Mario Garcia Durham (center), in New York.

But for a fluke of friendship and a few extra pounds, White Bird might have been a chocolate truffle company instead of the sole dance-only promoter west of the Rockies.

Partners Walter Jaffe and Paul King first moved to Portland in 1996 with the intention of going into the food business. After looking at starting a gourmet takeout joint (Elephant’s beat them to the punch), they looked at buying a chocolatier. “I weighed 325 pounds,” says King, who’s a Cordon Bleu–trained chef. “So I was thinking, this is a bad idea…”

Jaffe had sat on the board of the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York, where they’d lived before Portland. In 1997, the company contacted Jaffe before a west coast trip to say that he and King should present a performance in Portland. Neither had any idea what to do, but they asked for help, created a logo, and bravely (foolishly?) booked the Schnitzer, hoping that if they scheduled it, an audience would come. Fourteen hundred people turned out, and White Bird Dance was born—although it took them five years to feel confident enough to add ‘Dance’ at the end, thinking all along that eventually the audience would stop showing up and they would turn back to chocolate.

Paul Taylor Dance Company
Newmark Theatre
Apr 4–6

“Most organizations start off small—as a vision and a small core group that nurtures it from infancy to full grown,” says King. “White Bird was full grown from the beginning. We were in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall—the size of Carnegie Hall. We always appeared to be an organization that had been around a long time, but in reality there were just two guys and a bird.”

Feathered Follies
White Bird Gala
The Castaway
Apr 7

Over the past 15 years, the pair has presented over 160 companies. As we reach the grand finale of their 15th anniversary season with the return of the company that started it all, Paul Taylor, the White Bird name is now known and beloved in the dance community around the world. Indeed, as other dance presenters have disappeared—the total count in the US fell from 36 in the 1970s to just over a dozen now—Portland finds itself the lone (and lucky) American stop for many international companies thanks to King’ and Jaffe’s perseverance.

Circa
Newmark Theatre
Apr 10–13

If Sam Adams were still mayor, he would no doubt dub the upcoming week White Bird Dance Extravaganza Week. In addition to the Paul Taylor Company’s run tonight through Saturday, White Bird hosts its first gala in five years, Feathered Follies, on Sunday to give its first awards: a lifetime achievement award to Taylor and the new $15,000 Barney Choreographer prize to Alonzo King. And then next week, it presents the virtuosic Australian circus troupe, Circa.

Jaffe and King sat down with me in their West Hills home, the downstairs of which houses the office, to take a little memory voyage through the past 15 years, before giving a preview of the season to come.

Image: Aaron Scott

Walter Jaffe at his desk surrounded by signed posters from the 160-plus dance companies they've presented, beginning with Paul Taylor in the upper right.

After the success of the first Taylor performance, Jaffe and King thought they’d try another: Steve Petronio (above: middle poster second to the right) at the Newmark in May 1997. Then they did the world premiere of Bodyvox (above: bottom right poster), which has gone on to be one of Portland’s longest running and most successful companies. “We had 760 subscribers the first season,” says King. “At the end of that first year, as a special event, we brought in two nights of White Oak with Mikhail Baryshnikov. We went from 760 to 1800 subscribers.”

Their next big step came with the creation of their second subscription: the White Bird/PSU Dance Series at Lincoln Hall, which they started with the Trisha Brown Dance Company in 2000. “It was a very deliberate choice because of her close connections to the Northwest and here in Portland,” says Jaffe. “She was very instrumental for dance at Reed. And one of the first performances of [her seminal piece] Set/Reset was here in Portland at the Portland Center for Visual Arts.” Brown returned last October as another bookend in the anniversary season.

Image: Courtesy White Bird

Choreographer Trisha Brown holding Barney, the inspiration for and CEO of White Bird.

In 2001, White Bird gave a $40,000 commission to Brown to create her 9/11 piece, Geometry of Quiet. “We paid that off for a long time,” laughs King. “But part of our mission is we believe in commissioning. Every Portland artist we do, we commission the work.” In addition to Bodyvox, the lucky local artists have included Gregg Bielemeier, Skinner/Kirk, Northwest Dance Project, Teeth, and many others. Overall, the organization has commissioned 29 works, has a $100,000 commissioning fund, and just created the annual $15,000 Barney choreography prize.

Image: Courtesy Teeth

Teeth's divisive Uncaged performance 'Make/Believe.'

Perhaps the pair’s most ambitious early commission was 2001’s Spirits by local puppeteer Michael Curry. “The dance wasn’t so great, but the puppets were amazing,” says Jaffe. “That really stretched us because we were producing that show instead of just presenting.” With that season’s addition of the PSU series, the pair had gone from six shows to 14, and they finally hired their first employee. “It was the most stressful year,” says King. “I went back up to 290 pounds.”

Image: Courtesy Michael Curry Designs

Michael Curry's fantastical human driven puppets in 'Spirits.'

In 2008, Lincoln Hall closed for seismic upgrading, leaving the White Bird/PSU Dance series homeless. “We decided to move around to alternative spaces and renamed it White Bird Uncaged,” says Jaffe. “That was a huge challenge and experiment in a way. We were doing extremely well—selling out. So what would it mean to go outside the boxes?” Uncaged started at Reed with Kidd Pivot, and then traveled across the city, from the Portland Opera’s studio space to the YMCA to the dance pavillion at Oaks Park. In each venue, they had to bring in raisers, all the sound and lighting equipment, and, in some cases, even their own generators.

Image: Courtesy White Bird

Local dance veterans Tere Mathern and Minh Tran in their 2010 Uncaged duet.

In 2010, they returned to Lincoln Hall but kept the name Uncaged. “It wouldn’t only mean alternative spaces, but that the work itself was uncaged,” says King. “That’s the mandate of the series: to try to find work that pushes buttons and that’s provocative and exciting. The big challenge is how to remain uncaged and go back in the cage.”

Image: Courtesy Carolyn S. Campbell

Some 160 non-dancers rehearsed twice a week for 10 weeks to perform the 30-minute line dance 'Le Grand Continental' at Pioneer Square.

Besides commissioning new work, another primary focus for White Bird is community engagement and making dance accessible. This has taken the form of yearly curriculums developed in partnership with Portland Public Schools, which bring students in for regular free matinees, as well as the NEST program (No Empty Seats Today), which gives unused subscriber seats to health services nonprofits.

Their community engagement reached a new critical mass with the opening performance of this season, Le Grand Continental. Over 160 Portlanders of all ages, shapes, sizes, and skill levels spent multiple hours a week over 10 weeks to rehearse 30 minutes of choreography from Montreal-based choreographer Sylvian Émard. The result was the biggest line dance Portland has ever seen. “I was so proud of those 160 people that stuck with this,” says King. “They became a family. We had people that said they were suffering from depression or a breakup, and that this really helped them. It’s become like a really good cult.”

For something that started as a happenstance, one-time risk, White Bird has grown into one of the country's most respected dance presenters, even winning the Association of Performing Arts Presenters' programming award last year. Looking forward to next season, which sees the return of many of the presenter's favorite companies as well as some ambitious new ones, it's clear that Jaffe and King have no intention of closing up the coop anytime soon.

“Wally and I, we feel very fortunate to work together—we’ve been together 31 years,” says King. “This has become our life’s work: we don’t get a salary, we work out of our home, we’re the biggest contributors to White Bird. It’s a huge undertaking. You could say our collective middle name is excess. But we always said, if the audience doesn’t want it, they won’t come. It's the audience and the community that keeps us going.”

White Bird Season 2013–2014 Preview

White Bird Dance Series

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet
Sep 25
This will be the third visit by this major, ballet-based contemporary dance company. The performance will include the work of the exciting young choreographer Norbert de la Cruz, who has worked with Northwest Dance Project.
Compagnie Maguy Marin
Oct 10–12
“We first presented Compagnie Maguy Marin in ‘01/’02, and it was probably the most divisive experience our audiences ever had,” says Jaffe. “They basically had dancers in circles dressed in jeans who would walk over to electric guitars and make awful noises. Some audience left; other people said this was by far the best thing they’d ever seen. There were arguments afterward.” Jaffe says Salves, this US premiere by the important French choreographer, is like a rollercoaster into a house of mystery—and far more accessible.
Sydney Dance Company
Oct 23
Oz’s leading contemporary dance company returns after six years with a new artistic director, Rafael Bonachela, to perform in front of a pulsing LED matrix. “This is all out dance,” says Jaffe.
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
Feb 26, 2014
Called “the country’s most innovative contemporary ballet troupe” by the New York Times, Cedar Lake returns after a prominent appearance in The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. The company will feature work by two choreographers White Bird audiences know well: Canada’s Crystal Pite, who runs the fantastic Kidd Pivot company that was at the Newmark last year, and Great Britain’s Hofesh Shechter.
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre
Mar 4, 2014
Based in Taiwan, Cloud Gate is the most important contemporary dance company in Asia. For what Jaffe sees as one of the most exciting event in the series, the company will fill the Keller stage with three-and-a-half tons of rice for a performance evoking a spiritual pilgrimage that is sheer, breathtaking spectacle.
Ballet Hispanico
Apr 30, 2014
Returning after a ten year absence, New York’s Ballet Hispanico, which focuses on dance from Spanish speaking countries, brings with it a new artistic director, Eduardo Vilaro, and company member Jessica Alejandra Wyatt, the daughter of one of Portland’s most beloved ballet teachers, Elena Carter.

Uncaged Series

Lucy Guerin Inc.
Oct 17–19
Having been presented by PICA twice, this aussie's company makes its White Bird debut (she did, however, have work in Baryshnikov’s White Oak show). “She’s amazingly innovative,” Jaffe says. “This piece is called Weather and is inspired by weather patterns.”
Phillip Adams Balletlab
Jan 23–25, 2014
“We’re calling this season an Aussie festival, because there’re three Australian companies,” laughs Jaffe. Inspired by the impact of the body under catastrophes and by crash victims, Adams’s dance-theater piece, Amplification, involves skidding, sliding, and crashing into a world of body bags, pain, healing, reality, and unreality. “It’s very abstract,” Jaffe continues. “It will push people’s buttons for sure.”
Stephen Petronio Company
Mar 6–8, 2014
For his fifth White Bird performance, Petronio will present his newest work, Like Lazarus Did. Exploring themes of death and resurrection, the piece will rise from Petronio’s athletic dancers, the Pacific Youth Choir, the composer Son Lux, and visuals from artist Janine Antoni.
Emio Greco|PC
Apr 10–12, 2014
Inspired by the 1960 Italian boxing film Rocco and His Brothers, the Amsterdam-based company will create a boxing ring on the Newmark stage and then give audience members an opportunity to sit ringside as four dancers perform as alter egos of the boxers.

White Bird Exclusive Events

Union Tanguera
Nov 21–24
Portland loves tango. This French tango company of mostly Argentinian dancer knows how to tango.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Apr 2, 2014
The men in tutus return to Portland for one night at the Schnitzer. “Inevitably they’ll do the Dying Swan and their version of Swan Lake,” says Jaffe. “They’ll also do riffs on Cunningam and Jerome Robbins. But really they do classical ballet, they do it well, and they make it very funny.”

Review: NW Dance Project’s ‘Spring Performances’

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:11:00 -0700

Image: Blaine Truitt Covert

Ching Ching Wong and Franco Nieto in the world premiere of Patrick Delcroix's "Drifting Thoughts"

With the Waterfront transformed into a botanical wonderland of pink cherry blossoms and temperatures expected to hit the 70s this weekend, Portland is ready for some fresh new dance. With two world premieres and the return of Wen Wei Wang's Chi, Northwest Dance Project’s Spring Performancesgive us just that.

The opener, Chi, makes it clear from the onset that it’s not all sunshine and flowers, however. Set to the dissonant sounds of echoing strings and the haunting clip of voices by Georgio Magnanensi, it feels more like you’re looking at nature under an electron microscope. In one movement, the dancers crowded together in a singular circle of light at center stage, buzzing like molecules. Throughout the piece, they mimed cradling an orb of energy in their hands, carrying it with them, passing it back and forth, and otherwise embodying it in undulating movements reminiscent of Tai Chi. There was a strong sense of groundedness and connection to the earth as movements emanated from and returned back to deep grand pliés. As enjoyable as it was to see the muscles of the dancers emphasized by the minimal (but powerful) lighting effects by Jeff Forbes, the chaotic music grew exhausting, and Wang’s ending of casting the dancers as silhouettes in the bright light of the backdrop scrim was a phenomenal close that could’ve come earlier.

Artistic director Sarah Slipper’s Oxford theater background shined through in her world premiere Casual Act, inspired by Harold Pinter’s drama Betrayal. A minimal set by Jon Plueard divided the stage into three wedge-shaped rooms and then rotated like a revolving door, revealing three dramas that unfolded separately before beginning to interweave through window and doors.

Without speaking, five dancer/actors portray a story of extramarital affairs based on the playwright’s seven-year affair with a BBC Television presenter. Princess Grace Award–winner Andrea Parson excelled at portraying Emma, the dark haired, black-clothed temptress, through her burst of villainous laughter as well as a stealthy use of the set itself. After escaping her abusive husband (Elijah Labay), with whom duets consisted of abusive wrist grabbing and groping, she haunted and lured her lover (Franco Nieto) away from his wife (Lindsey McGill). The climax arrived when the two kissed and a loud crash of glass signified the break of the window that had separated them. Watching Casual Act one almost forgot the dancers weren’t expressing themselves with language, as their movements so clearly and beautifully relay the drama of the story.

Northwest Dance Project
Newmark Theatre
March 28–30After the dark, intense music in Chi and the emotionally fraught plot of Casual Act, Francis Delcroix’s Drifting Thoughts opened with a most welcome upbeat energy: rhythmic drums evoking a sexy night club in the likes of French Algiers. Drifting is the French knight’s third world premiere choreographed for NWDP, and the audience was more than happy to see him once again taking full advantage of the dancers’ expert technique while celebrating their ability to get funky and take themselves less seriously. Despite her dainty figure, Parson was especially irresistible to watch as she committed fully to the booty shaking. Audience members hooted and hollered at the finish of the first duet, enthused by the psychological break from the previous pieces and joining in on the fun of Delcroix’s fast-paced athletic choreography.

The bright lights and joyful, overtly sexual opening movement gave way to a more sedate piece with melancholic blue lighting, exploring dramatic content more on par with Slipper’s piece. However, the tone abruptly transitioned back into an almost animalistic state as an orgiastic quartet had three male dancers tossing the petite Ching Ching Wong through the air, manipulating her like a toy before freezing—a power-shift occurring as Wong threw her hands in the air sending them crashing to the ground in her wake.

All in all, it was a lovely show that will leave you eager for a stroll in the freshly-warmed Portland night to talk about relationships and the dramas of the human condition with your fellow audience members. Or with the dancers and choreographers themselves, if you stick around the ArtBar for a drink or two.

Win Tickets to NW Dance Project's Spring Show

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:59:00 -0700

Image: Blaine Truitt Covert

Northwest Dance Projects two Princess Grace Award–winners, Andrea Parson and Franko Nieto, in last fall's 'New Now Wow' performance.

Local choreographer Sarah Slipper and her globetrotting Northwest Dance Project like to work with sharp people. Sharp dancers, specifically. And over the years they’ve wracked up quite a few hotshot young choreographers as friends through their commitment to performing world premiere works. For their spring concert this year, In Good Company: New Works and Vintage Vinyl, the company is calling on a couple of these besties. In addition to a new creation from Slipper, there’ll be a new piece by returning choreographer Patrick Delcroix, who was not only called “the fastest dancer on the planet” by the Los Angeles Times, but also happens to be a French knight. And then the company will pull a vintage favorite by Wen Wei Wang from its closet, because, like all fashionable ensembles, the best style often comes from offsetting the cutting edge with a well-polished treasure or two.

As part of our Spring Arts Guide giveaways, we’re offering a pair of tickets to one lucky winner for a performance of your choosing.

This contest is now over.

This contest closes Monday, March 25 at noon. In Good Company runs March 28–30 at the Newmark Theatre. For ticket info, visit our calendar listing.

Review: White Bird’s MOMIX

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:16:00 -0800

All photos courtesy White Bird.

One of the most magical moments in Momix’s Botanica performance that opened last night at the Newmark was one of its simplest. A dancer entered wearing what can only be described as a beaded lampshade on her head, where the strands of beads hung almost to her feet, like she had wrapped herself in those seventies beaded door hangings. But immediately she began twirling, and the strands shot out around her, spinning with such centrifugal force that they transformed into a shimmering halo that she deftly manipulated to rise and fall, whipping up and down and changing its plane. For minutes she spun, an ecstatic whirling dervish of modern dance.

MOMIX
Feb 27–Mar 2
Newmark Theatre
White Bird Dance

Momix bills itself as an “illusionist” dance company, and indeed the company explores and transforms the forms of its 10 dancers with every piece, using fantastical puppetry, costumes, and lighting. Founded by artistic director Moses Pendleton, the company’s method grows from his years with the legendary dance troupe Pilobolus and (one would guess) that company’s inception in the psychedelic early seventies. Pendleton was raised on a dairy farm in Vermont and later gained acclaim for the giant sunflower garden he planted at his home in Connecticut, and his inspiration from the natural, phenomenal world shapes every aspect of Botanica, from the animal sounds in the sound track to the projections of plants and flowers. But his artistic visions as a choreographer would fall flat without a cast of technically skilled dancers.

Momix brings Botanica to life through pleasing modern lines, fluidity of movement, and moments of great power and athletic strength. One female dancer appeared atop a mirror that sloped toward the audience, her body, adorned only by strong light and shadow, so perfectly reflected in it that there appeared to be two identical dancers joined together at the center, creating something far more abstract: a dancing Rorschach print.

Yet in the majority of the evening’s works, the choreography was not your typical modern company’s expression of an emotion or philosophical concept. These performers smiled and laughed, grimaced and yelled, giving up all inhibition and fully committing to their characters. A man walking around stage pecking his head, elbows jerking and wrists on hips like a strutting rooster, would look pretty silly if he didn’t totally lose himself in the absurdity of it all. The audience must be equally willing to give themselves up to the illusion. Although at times, it goes overboard, particularly in a number where the men are dancing bees—a wonderful idea that bees actually dance to communicate—but the dancers so over exaggerate their silent screams and gnashing teeth that it feels more like satire.

The company’s secret weapon comes in the form of puppets by the Scappoose, Washington–based puppet master Michael Curry. His skeleton triceratops is every bit as impressive as the horses in the touring Broadway production of War Horse. With only one person operating it, it walks, opens and closes its mouth, curls its tail, and carries a woman on its back. Curry, whose talents have been lent to everything from the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and Superbowl to the Lion King, also contributed two breathtaking structures of wood swathed in silky white fabric to the evening’s works. Both pieces were controlled by dancers but took on a life of their own, appearing to breathe as they swept across the floor, at times growing to the full height and width of the stage, and evoking a sense of eerie all knowingness.

Unfortunately, the sound design and projections were so distracting at times that they sabotaged the beauty of the pieces. Interweaving sound bytes from the natural world, Pendleton’s musical score traveled from Peter Gabriel’s “The Heat” to the female Irish ensemble Celtic Woman, but dwelled far too firmly in the New Age sound of the 90s. The projections, also by Pendleton, tended towards screen-saver style photos of flowers and plants that added an ugh-worthy literalness to pieces that would otherwise be beautiful with simple, evocative lighting. Both had the unfortunate effect of adding a dated quality to the show.

Nonetheless, there were moments of definite and exquisite beauty that created an exciting, even mystical world. It’s an experience not to be passed up.

For more on Portland arts and culture, sign up for our weekly On The Town newsletter, subscribe to our RSS feed, and follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt. Visit our Arts & Entertainment Calendar for our editors’ event picks.

Win Tickets to OBT's Swan Lake

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:28:00 -0800

Principal dancer Xuan Cheng. Photo by Andy Batt

[Ed. Note: Read our full review of Swan Lake.]

Swan Lake, the first ballet by composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, numbers among the greatest story ballets of all time. It has everything a proper fable needs: an enduring love story, evil sorcery, an original controversy (the first ballerina to play our heroine, Odette, was pulled because she’d accepted expensive jewelry from a Moscow official, only to sell it and marry a fellow danseur). And it has been performed basically nonstop from its 1876 debut, including adaptations like Matthew Bourne’s popular male-only production, and, of course, the film Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky, starring Natalie Portman (and creepy, hand-painted contacts from Southern Oregon’s Kevin Carter).

Oregon Ballet Theatre first tackled the ballet in 2006 with original choreography by the recently departed Artistic Director Christopher Stowell. They’re now reprising the ballet in what makes a most fitting swan song for Stowell. And we have a pair of tickets to give away to the final performance.

This contest is now over. For show and ticket info for Swan Lake, running February 16–23 at the Keller Auditorium, click here.

Watch OPB's Art Beat episode about Stowell's original production and prima ballerinas Yuka Iino and Alison Roper.

Holiday Shows Not to Miss

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 10:58:00 -0800

THEATER

A Tuna Christmas

Thru Dec 23 The family-friendly holiday comedy, starring Jeffrey Jason Gilpin and Alan King as all 22 residents of the fictional third-smallest town in Texas, is back by popular demand. It’s like A Prairie Home Companion, if Garrison Keillor played all of Lake Wobegon’s townspeople and the idyllic Minnesota community were a cracked-up Texas backwoods. For showtimes, see calendar entry. $28.25–52. Dolores Winningstad Theatre, PCPA, 1111 SW Broadway. 503-248-4335. pcpa.com

REVIEWED The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of A Christmas Carol
Thru Dec 23 In this Bag & Baggage–produced play-within-a-play, the well-born, ill-bred women of Farndale Avenue’s Dramatic Society (played by men in drag) stage a performance of A Christmas Carol that’s as much of a train wreck as its title—to so-bad-it’s-good effect. Read our review. Wed–Sat at 7:30; Sun at 2. $15–28. Venetian Theatre, 253 E Main St, Hillsboro. 503-345-9590. bagnbaggage.org

The Santaland Diaries

REVIEWED The Santaland Diaries
Thru Dec 30 Though it’s been 20 years since Sedaris first read it on NPR’s Morning Edition (launching his career), the humor writer’s tale of working as Crumpet the Elf at Macy’s still holds up as an uproarious, antimaterialist Christmas classic. For this year’s production of Joe Mantello’s one-man adaptation, actor Darius Pierce steps into David’s/Crumpet’s elfin booties for the first time (for more about the show but not the actor, see our review of last year's production with Jim Lichtscheidl). Tue–Sun at 7:30; Sat–Sun at 2. $44–59. Ellyn Bye Studio at the Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave. 503-445-3700. pcs.org

REVIEWED Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol
Thru Dec 30 Artists Repertory Theatre reprises its 2011 holiday show (read last year's review), a mash-up of sorts of A Christmas Carol and the Sherlock Holmes stories. The play, written by Seattleite John Longenbaugh and directed by Jon Kretzu, visits ghosts past, present, and future upon a retired Holmes to spook the detective-extraordinaire back into the mystery-solving biz. Wed–Sun at 7:30; Sun at 2. For ticket prices, call 503-241-1278 or visit artistsrep.org. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St

Christmas on Broadway

Thru Dec 23 The conceit of this new holiday musical revue from Broadway Rose is actually rather believable, for once: a quartet of would-be actors is snowed in at a Broadway theater on Christmas Eve with only costumes, props, and set pieces. What to do but make the best of it by performing seasonal standards from Broadway shows? Portland Center Stage’s musical director, Rick Lewis, directs. For showtimes, see calendar entry. $25–40. New Stage Auditorium, 12850 SW Grant Ave, Tigard. 503-620-5262. broadwayrose.org

It’s a Wonderful Life
Thru Dec 23 Stumptown Stages adds some tinsel to the beloved 1946 film and Christmastime staple by adapting it as a musical for the first time in Bedford Falls history. The world-premiere score was co-composed by prominent Portland pianist and songwriter Michael Allen Harrison. Thu–Sat at 7:30; Sun at 2. $15–30. Brunish Theatre, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway. 503-248-4335. stumptownstages.com

A Very Joan Crawford Christmas
Thru Dec 23 Triangle Productions presents a funny, fearsome Yuletide evening with Joan Crawford. A pencil-eyebrowed, vodka-soaked Kam Sisco plays Mommie Dearest, while James Sharinghousen portrays her gentleman companion. For showtimes, see calendar entry. $15–35. The Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 NE Sandy Blvd. 503-239-5919. tripro.org

CLASSICAL MUSIC

NEW Classical Revolution PDX

Dec 26 at 9 For the British Commonwealth, Boxing Day—December 26—has been a tradition for hundreds of years, beginning as the designated time at which masters bestowed gifts upon their servants before evolving into a day of charity and goodwill. For Portlanders, Bachxing Day is a time to unwind after the stress of the holidays with booze and Bach. Classical Revolution PDX will be performing interpretations of their Bach favorites, and encouraging audience members to do so as well, remembering the three rules: "Any Bach. Any Instrumentation. Any Interpretation." Suggested donation of $5–20. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave. 503-248-1030. classicalrevolutionpdx.org

NEW Oregon Symphony

Christmas with Johnny Mathis

Dec 22 at 7:30 Christmas with Johnny Mathis Mathis was perhaps the last of the great pre-rock crooners to gain popularity before Fender electrified pop music forever—but “Chances Are” you already know him. For this special holiday concert, Mathis, with the symphony as his backing band, sings the seasonal standards. $35–200. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway. 503-228-1353. orsymphony.org

DANCE

The Nutcracker
Thru Dec 23 Oregon Ballet Theatre brings the visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads—yours, too!?—to life through its annual performance of Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet. Some 27,000 people turned out last season to see the flowers waltz, the fairy dance, and the Nutcracker/Prince defeat the Mouse King, making this one of Oregon’s most popular holiday events. For showtimes, see calendar entry. For ticket prices, call 503-222-5538 or visit opb.org. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St

FILM

The Big Lebowski

NEW The Big Lebowski
Dec 21–27 Take a night off from the holiday spirit for a, well, different sort of tradition: Clinton Street Theater’s yearly screening of the Coen brothers’ classic. Jeff Bridges plays “the Dude,” a slacker par excellence who, after being mistaken for the title character, is spooled into a web of intrigue featuring porno kingpins, feminist artists, and German nihilists. Patrons are encouraged to wear pajamas. 6:50 & 9:20. $6. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St. 503-238-5588. clintonsttheater.com

NEW Charles Dickens
Thru Dec 23 The Northwest Film Center screens three cinematic adaptations of Dickensian works, in celebration of both the great Victorian novelist’s 200th birthday and the season. (Even putting aside A Christmas Carol, there’s a certain Yuletide feel to all of Dickens’s wintry, moralistic tales, isn’t there?) In addition to Brian Desmond Hurst’s essential 1951 version of Christmas Carol, NWFC is showing David Lean’s Oscar-winning 1946 Great Expectations and an Alberto Cavalcanti–directed 1947 film noir rendition of Nicholas Nickleby. For showtimes, see calendar entries. $9. Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave

CONCERTS

Wanderlust Circus' White Album Christmas

NEW Wanderlust Circus’ White Album Christmas

Dec 21–23 The city’s top circus-arts troupe teams up with the Nowhere Band—made up of members of MarchFourth Marching Band, Trashcan Joe, and others—in a stomping holiday celebration for those fed up with the same ol’ holiday fare. For the fifth year running, they cover the decidedly un-Christmas White Album in its entirety with decidedly un–Sugar Plum Fairy circus spectacles, without surrendering any of the seasonal cheer. Fri–Sat at 9; Sun at 8. $25. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St. 503-719-6055. albertarosetheatre.com

SPECIAL EVENTS

The Grotto’s Christmas Festival of Lights
Thru Dec 30 The Grotto’s Catholic shrine and botanical garden are unusual and beautiful enough the rest of the year, but during the sanctuary’s holiday-season light display and choral festival, it is truly a sight to see. More than 500,000 lights deck the 62-acre, cliff-straddling grounds; performances by area choral groups—170 in total—take place nightly; and hot chocolate is as abundant as Christmas spirit. Daily 5–9:30; closed Christmas Day. $9. The Grotto, 8840 NE Skidmore St. 503-254-7371. thegrotto.org

FAMILY

The Peppermint Bear Show: Who Needs Sneeds?
Thru Dec 22 Rise and shine for a continental breakfast and to cheer on Peppermint Bear and Santa’s elves as they fight to save Christmas from the Grinchlike Sneed siblings. Lakewood Theatre Company is staging Peppermint Bear for the first time in the 35-odd years since it premiered (as The Cinnamon Bear Show) at the old Lipman’s department store. Sat at 9 and 11. $12. Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S State St, Lake Oswego. 503-635-3901. lakewood-center.org

For more about Portland arts, visit PoMo's Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter, or follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt. Blog content reflects the views of the individual author and not necessarily SagaCity Media, Inc.

Review: skinner|kirk Dance Ensemble

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:25:00 -0800

Photo by David Krebs

Juxtaposition. It’s hard to imagine a more straightforward, declarative name for a dance piece. According to the program notes, in the case of skinner|kirk Dance Ensemble’s world premiere presented by BodyVox, it’s meant to reference “the contrast of the human body against the stark lines of a mechanical sculpture.” And certainly it did that. The five expert dancers moved in and out of two giant barrel-like sculptures with transparent plexi-glass staves, gloriously designed by Eric Skinner and fabricated by sculptor Sumi Wu, that folded in the middle, rising and falling, spinning and refracting the light, evoking industrial disco fantasies. And the music juxtaposed recorded works by Stephen Scott and Amon Tobin with the small orchestra of instruments played live over the recordings by brothers Tim and Max Ribner. But strangely, the juxtaposition that most stood out to me, and that prevented the piece from being an almost perfect synergy of sound, set, and dance, was the choreography itself, which tended towards a modern style that was simply too traditionally beautiful for the other elements in the show.

The brothers Ribner, playing everything from piano to horn to accordian to drums, wove one of the most dynamic and integrated dance scores in recent memory as they ventured deep into the realm of trip hop and avant garde. Tim, who collaborates regularly with choreographer Josie Moseley for her dance classes, seemed to viscerally intuit the dancers’ movements, guiding and playing off them with seamless harmonic beauty. At times, he was more seductive to watch than the dance itself, diving into the guts of his open baby grand piano, pounding and sliding along the strings with a playful inventiveness I’ve only seen Herbie Hancock do.

But whereas the trippy, industrial nature of the music and sculpture desired angular, edgy contemporary dance, the choreography itself was almost completely, flowingly modern, and thereby somewhat bland in comparison. Which isn’t to say there weren’t wonderful moments, particularly the duet between Skinner and Brennan Boyer, a former Oregon Ballet Theatre soloist and the only non-BodyVox member in the ensemble, whose graceful form shined throughout the night. But the only moments in which the dance really jived with the set and sound was the solo work of Holly Shaw, who twirled with clenched fists and liquid movement that recalled the warehouses in which one might hear the electronica of Tobin.

More than juxtaposition, the choreography spoke to me of transgression of boundaries. Instead of simply dancing inside or out of the sculptures, the dancers defied our expectations, constantly stepping in and out of the barrels, penetrating the gaps between slats with arms and legs. It was an exciting decision, one that made better use of the structures than OBT’s heartbreaking underutilization of John Grade’s sculptures in the recent Body Beautiful performance. But it also resulted in a level of awkwardness, as the dancers visibly worked to avoid hitting the slats.

The second piece of the evening, Suspended in Mid-Air (and about to collapse), originally performed in 2002, seemed almost more deserving of the name Juxtaposition, being a collage of things linked to Russian Constructivism: ballet (the industrial machine of dance), propaganda poster poses, classical music, Nina Hagen, more Amon Tobin, white outfits with primary color blocks like they were designed by Piet Mondrian, etc. It was a better showcase of the dancers’ balletic training (Skinner, Kirk, Boyer, and Zachary Carroll each spent years with OBT), and as such they danced more tightly as a full ensemble. And like the first piece, it too had beautiful moments of exquisite dance, particularly its series of group lifts to choral music that exalted the individual bodies for the glory of all mankind. But with two exceptions—a sequence set to the industrial electronica of Tobin where the dancers tossed their limbs like rag dolls being jerked by violent children and an impressive acrobalance sequence where Kirk was visibly shaking as he supported Skinner in precarious positions—the piece never much descended into the “chaotic moments” that the program explains will deconstruct the Constructivist structure and signal the edge of collapse. Like Juxtaposition, I felt like the piece pulled its punches, excelling at the bright side of its equation, but not taking much risk in it’s exploration of the darker side of its contrast and collapse.

I realize it’s an odd thing to say a company’s work is too beautiful. But given the mission the artistic directors themselves set out, skinner|kirk, known for their acrobalancing and aerialist work, nailed their mid-air suspension—now they just need to work on their collapse.

Skinner|kirk Dance Ensembe performs at BodyVox through December 8. More info here.

For more about Portland arts, visit PoMo's Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter, or follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt.

Q&A: OBT's Christopher Stowell on Leaving the Ballet

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:51:00 -0800

Oregon Ballet Theatre announced yesterday that Artistic Director Christopher Stowell submitted his resignation to the OBT board and will leave the company at the end of the year. In his nine-year tenure, he’s drastically recreated and expanded the company, so much so that it’s hard to imagine it without him. For more about his announcement and the resignation, see our post from yesterday.

I spoke with Stowell on the phone this morning about his choice to resign, and what exactly it means that the OBT board wants to adopt a "new business model." The mostly unedited conversation is below.

Culturephile: In the nine years you’ve steered OBT, you’ve overseen incredible growth, adding over 50 new pieces, increasing the size of the company, taking it to perform at the Kennedy Center. What are you most proud of? What do you see as your legacy?
Christopher Stowell: The search committee and board that hired me gave me a particular assignment, which is actually why I took the job. I’m most proud of pursuing that assignment, which was to make a more classically oriented company that was more in line with ballet companies in other major cities and more connected to the national and international dance world—to really emphasize technique and form and physical ability. I don’t know if you ever accomplish that, but I guess my legacy is that we really pursued that and got really far.

More specifically, the company can handle a whole different level of choreography now and a wider variety of styles and can do things like put on huge productions of major classics and also attract choreographers like Christopher Wheeldon or Nicolo Fonte to come here and make works on us.

This is all happening so quickly. There was just a restructuring in which new vice president positions were created that would report to you in September, right?
August.

And now it’s just a couple of months later. What happened between then and now that's caused you to leave?
There was an awful lot of attrition from the board and a shift in leadership there. That automatically, not surprisingly, caused a change in the directions of conversations about the organization—a somewhat concentrated conversation coming from the board about wanting to change the business model and feeling like we are relying too much on, particularly, contributions in a community and a climate that is not reliable. And it would be better to reshape the organization and align its mission more with more conservative financial goals.

What does that mean? What would that organization look like?
That’s actually a question for the board. We began a conversation about that, and I realized it is a real shift and it will be a new chapter in the company’s history, and that’s not going to be successful without a new leader that has a different set of values, ideas, a fresh set of eyes.

I was not interested in that assignment of reconfiguring the organization. I was interested in the assignment I was given initially. We began the conversation, and I’ve given them some ideas about ways they can reshape things and contract a little, but it’s not my responsibility anymore. They’re going to need to take my proposal and see if that’s the direction they want to go, and they’re going to need to look for a new leader to align with the direction they have in mind.

Why wasn’t that assignment interesting to you?
It’s going to have to be smaller both in size and scope. It’s sort of like taking chunks out of something you’ve worked on. It’s an interesting project, potentially, but not for person who created the original model.

What caused the attrition on the board?
I’m not exactly sure actually. I had a hip replacement a couple weeks ago and this happened when I was in the hospital and recovering. I’ve never gotten a complete explanation on exactly why people had left the board.

Then that initiated this conversation over the last couple of weeks?
I should say we are experiencing financial challenges like a lot of organizations. The conversation of what we look like in the future or where we are financially was inevitable. But I didn’t know what direction that conversation was going to go exactly.

The Oregonian reported that a 2011 audit found the company saw increased revenue, lower debt, and more than a $134,000 surplus. But you say financial challenges. What changed?
We had a surplus at the end of last season, too. But it’s more complicated than on-the-books surplus. There’s needing to be able to spend enough money to bring in the revenue you’re counting on, there’s making sure you’re paying off debt. Rightfully, you need to be talking about it in a longer term, broader context than ‘did we end the year OK?’

Bob Hicks reported that The Body Beautiful concerts fell roughly $50,000 short of projections. True?
Yep. About $50,000 short of what we’d projected, and we had thought that our projection was relatively conservative. Things like that when you are already lean initiate immediate conversation about: what’s the answer here, or what’s the problem, or what are we going to do about not making our goals.

Your decision to leave seems so sudden? Take me through your decision process.
I guess it was sudden. But it was not a knee jerk reaction. It was just a realization of what I’ve already said: the organization has decided it needs to go in another direction and make some changes, and it’s best for them to have a new leader who’s part of this shift. I see this as the natural next step in my career, to do something more aligned with my particular interests and talents.

Why not stay on through the end of the season?
My contract says in both directions it’s a 30 days notice. I was following that. I don’t think anyone would kick me out any sooner, but what I realized is: if I know I’m going to be leaving, and I want to figure out what I want to do for the next step in my career, then I want to have time and energy to put towards that. Also, I’m available and happy to come in here and help out putting the rest of the season on. So in a way it’s the best of both worlds for everyone. The artistic staff here is perfectly capable of getting the rest of the season on. I can come in and help them, but I can also start putting feelers out and exploring what I want to do next.

Do you have an idea of what that will be?
First of all, I’m looking forward to not working full time for a while, just because I’m tired. I don’t want to cloud the joy of that with too much worry about: “what am I going to do next?” B, I think it’s always interesting when someone who’s been completely attached and associated with an organization lets the world know that they’re no longer there, I think there will be potential projects for me to do or people who would like to work with me, so I’m curious what happens in that arena. Then I have to decide if running another ballet company is absolutely what I want to do. Probably, but they don’t come up all the time. I need to think of my career as a spectrum. I have a lot of skills. I can use them individually, or I can use them collectively, and that would be running another ballet company.

Most of these things require leaving Portland. Do you have a sense whether you’ll stay or go?
Right now I have no plans on leaving. Scott [Palmer, Stowell’s partner and the head of Bag & Baggage Theater in Hillsboro] and I are very happy here. But there is not going to be much work for me here. I could work freelance and travel, and then if it turns out that I want to lead another organization, that would not be here. But that’s in the future and who knows how that’s going to unfold.

You say that you’re not the candidate to move OBT forward. Do you have a sense of who would be?
I don’t have a name. I think this is a great opportunity for somebody younger and less experienced than me, and who maybe has some more elemental connection to a younger generation in Portland, possibly. Here’s the things: there are a lot of dancers all over the world retiring from dancing. They can’t all get jobs afterward. It’s going to be an attractive opportunity for someone—someone who is really eager, probably a little naïve, I don’t—usefully enthusiastic, that sort of hunger. I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for someone, and they’re going to learn a lot about how to mold an organization and balance aspiration with parameters. It will be an interesting project for someone for sure.

Someone who’s naïve or usefully enthusiastic? Does that mean it’s not a doable job?
Not at all. No. Naïve isn’t the right word. It's the hunger for it—and possibly someone who has not run a dance company before but has a lot of the skillset and experience required for it would be good. But that’s only my opinion.

The mission you were given in 2003 to reconnect with the classical and emphasize technique, is that something the board is still interested in pursuing, or are they talking about a more contemporary direction?
They’re not that far into the conversation. I don’t think anyone would say they want to disband any of the work that’s been done. But I think they’re interested in thinking about what kind of company is right for Portland right now within certain financial parameters. What does that look like?

What’s your prognosis?
I don’t know. It’s a complicated conversation, but it can’t take too long. I don’t think they need to come up with all of those answers, but I think they need to begin the process for sure.

Diane [Syrcle, OBT's executive director] left earlier this year for the symphony, and then Trisha [Mead, the director of communications] left earlier this week. There’s been a lot of fast turnover and attrition at OBT these last few years. What do you attribute that to?
It’s probably not unlike other arts organization. It’s stressful. It’s a lot of work. It’s hard to see that workload and stress load diminishing. I think people make shifts particularly on the administration side of arts organizations when they feel like they have—I don’t know if hit a wall is the right term—but they’ve done this amount of work and they know it will go on at the exact pace and rate. And of course in the arts world, there’s not a big opportunity for promotion and increases in salary related to how hard you are working, and they feel like it’s easier to do that with another arts organization. Sometimes the building of a department is easier than the sustaining of it. Or a different project anyway with different satisfactions. [Ed. Note: This quesiton was not originally posted with the interview because I ran out of time to transcribe it for our 4 pm newsletter deadline. It was added later that evening.]

How do you feel about leaving? It’s the end of a significant era for you.
Part of me is incredibly sad, because I love working with all of these people, and I feel we’ve done really incredible and satisfying hard work together, which is very bonding. I also know absolutely that I made the right decision because it’s very hard to be so proud about the work and know that something about it is going to need to shift. I really think the person doing it needs to be excited about the project, and for me it would be a different project.

Christopher Stowell Resigns from the Ballet

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:11:00 -0800

Photo by Michael Schmitt

Oregon Ballet Theatre announced this morning that Artistic Director Christopher Stowell submitted his resignation to the OBT board and will leave the company at the end of the year. Stowell has drastically expanded OBT’s size and ambitions since arriving in 2003, including adding 50 ballets to its repertoire, nearly two dozen of which were world premieres. In the process, he’s built it into a nationally respected company, including being one of three western states companies to be invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 2008 as part of Ballet Across America. They’re set to return next year.

“OBT’s Board of Trustees has determined that the organization must adopt a new business model and, after much thought, I have come to the conclusion that I am not the best candidate to lead OBT into that future,” Stowell writes in an extended personal statement (see below). “I was hired by OBT’s Board in 2003 to implement and lead a specific vision for the organization. I am very proud of the work we have accomplished to that end. Now that OBT is entering a new chapter in its history, it is imperative to find the right leader.”

“A new business model” no doubt means one that’s more financial viable, or at least lean. The ambitious places Stowell’s leadership has taken the company don’t come cheap, and it’s no secret that OBT, like most arts organizations these days, has had financial troubles. It almost folded in 2009, only to be saved in part by a glorious one night benefit concert called Dance United. A 2011 audit, however, found that it was operating with a $134,000 surplus against a budget of $5.48 million, according to the Oregonian, which seems a good thing, although we don’t know how that’s changed.

The odd thing is how swiftly Stowell’s resignation comes after a restructuring at the ballet in September made him a de facto executive director, putting him at the head of the organization and directly reporting to the board. The restructuring also created two new positions, vice president of marketing and development and vice president of finance and administration, that were to report to Stowell. Former board member Joanne Van Ness Menashe was hired to the marketing and development position in September, while the other position remains unfilled.

Just this Monday, Trisha Mead, the ballet’s director of marketing and communications, announced that she was leaving the company to work for Arciform, and of course, executive director Diane Syrcle left in June to become the vice president of development for the Oregon Symphony. Seems the ballet is now mid leap, with no one sure where it will land.

Stay tuned for more.

From OBT, Christopher Stowell's Personal Statement:

After careful consideration and thoughtful reflection, I have submitted my resignation as Artistic Director of Oregon Ballet Theatre effective at the end of December. OBT’s Board of Trustees has determined that the organization must adopt a new business model and, after much thought, I have come to the conclusion that I am not the best candidate to lead OBT into that future.

I was hired by OBT’s Board in 2003 to implement and lead a specific vision for the organization. I am very proud of the work we have accomplished to that end. Now that OBT is entering a new chapter in its history, it is imperative to find the right leader.

To our dedicated audiences, I want to say thank you for your support of my work during my time at OBT. I believe that classical ballet, as an art form, has a great deal to offer this community and hope that you will continue to support OBT as an audience member and donor for many years to come.

To our funders and donors, I also extend my thanks for your many years of support. Your generosity has enabled OBT to create beauty for our audiences, given access to ballet to thousands of people and helped bring the joy of dance to thousands of children. For that, you have my deep gratitude.

I am very grateful to all the staff members who have dedicated so much of themselves to OBT over the last decade. It has been a great honor to work with everyone. I hope that what we have accomplished will contribute to the future success of the organization.

To OBT’s dancers I can only say thank you for everything you have done for OBT, for your colleagues, for your fans and for the art form. This organization, this community, this state and the whole of the ballet world owe you a debt of gratitude.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to work with everyone at Oregon Ballet Theatre. This is the most talented, dedicated and passionate group of artists I have ever known. As I move on to new challenges and new frontiers, my experiences at OBT will go with me and for that you have my thanks.