The Spin

Who’s who and what’s what in dance this month

Dance by Rachael CarnesPosted on
Bonnie Simoa and Erin Elder perform at the Bali Arts Festival June 2014. Photo by John Watson.
Bonnie Simoa and Erin Elder perform at the Bali Arts Festival June 2014. Photo by John Watson.

If the chill in the air has you pining for warmer climes, then check out dancer-choreographer Bonnie Simoa and photographer-videographer John Watson’s mixed-media presentation Balinese Dance: Beyond Touristic Culture, based on their recent visit to Bali with the Lane Community College Dancers. Presenters will share the fruits of their recent Bali study abroad program, where they studied with master dancers and performed to live gamelan (a form of traditional ensemble music) at the prestigious Bali Arts Festival, at the LCC Longhouse, 4:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 6; free.

Also departing to warmer locales, this month’s Aloha Friday will feature a night of hula with Eugene’s own hula school, Halau Hula O Na Pua O Hawai’i Nei. The event will show current works and an open mic contest “in which dancers will present tongue-in-cheek hula interpretations of modern situations.” Check it out 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Nov. 21, at Cozmic.

And mark your calendars for the next Dance in Dialogue showing, a salon-style performance where artists share a few minutes of new work and then open themselves up for a friendly chat with the audience. In November, the same artists who performed at the September DiD will head to UO’s Dougherty Dance Theater for another round. The creative sparks behind DiD — Shannon Mockli, Carolina Caballero and Margo Van Ummersen — are calling the leap to a more serious venue a “two-step progression” for new work. Come see how the 100-plus people in attendance at the last DiD may have influenced the art when Robin Stiehm, Shannon Mockli, Sarah Nemecek, Sara Zolbrod, Taylor Theis and Jana Meszaros strut their stuff at 8 pm, Nov. 21 and 22, at the Dougherty Dance Theater on the UO campus; $5 student, $10 general.

Robin Stiehm, artistic director of Ashland-based Dancing People Company, will hold auditions while in Eugene for positions to begin January 2015. Auditions are 1 to 4 pm, Nov. 22, at the UO’s Gerlinger Annex on the UO campus; find more information at dancingpeople.com.

And just in time for the impending holiday mayhem, Neil Goldberg’s aerial extravaganza Cirque Dreams: Holidaze brings its whimsical explosion of zany costumes, tumbling, dance and daring high-flying artistry to the Hult Center 7:30 pm, Nov. 22; $30-$73 tickets available at hultcenter.org.