Live music and dance at the Oregon Country Fair cannot be separated. This year, some new performers and programs are joining with longtime performers — from hula to blues to flamenco — shining bright on the OCF stage.
Flamenco dancer Brenna McDonald grew up in Eugene attending Fair. She says that Fair was a magical experience where she was inspired by seeing artists, including one of her teachers who used to perform there. “It felt like I was transported to a different place,” she says. “I want to be like them,” she says of when she was little and watching performers on stage.
Now she is the co-director of Espacio Flamenco, a Portland-based flamenco group. Espacio Flamenco has been performing for years at Fair, and it is one of her favorite venues despite the mid-July heat that makes it the warmest performance of the year, she says.
Lillie Last is McDonald’s co-director. She did different forms of dance — from ballroom to modern — but flamenco was the form she’d always wanted to do until her early 20s, when she found someone teaching it. “This is the dance form that I would do the rest of my life,” she said to herself. “This is it, it’s my church.”
Flamenco has four main parts: the guitarist, singer, dancer and percussionist who claps and adds rhythm. The dance has no limits in ages, body types or styles. Audiences add to performances by clapping, cheering and even joining in dancing.
Last says Fair is a place where collaboration and artistic exchange happens, even through the audience. “It is different every time,” she says. “It really depends on how everyone is feeling and connecting.” Juerga is a dance session where anyone can come up and dance without knowing flamenco. “It’s a fiesta, a party,” she says.
“Music is movement, so we are playing together,” Christopher Worth from Worth & Strain says. Worth & Strain are singer-songwriters from Oregon, and blues and other roots influenced their style. For the upcoming Fair, they will be collaborating with Brenda Rusell and Meleah Ennis, who are dance teachers, to bring music and dance together.
The first half of the show will be a partner dancing workshop, followed by a dance party. Strain says that musicians and dancers will hear, see and communicate with each other. “There is the organic feeling of making something that will never be the same again,” he says.
Worth & Strain’s music is available on Spotify, and Strain encourages people to visit their latest album, Xavanadu, as they plan on playing songs like “Lie Worth Living” at Fair. “You can listen to the songs and know what songs you may be dancing with,” he says. Strain sees this collaboration as a rare opportunity for musicians, dancers and audience to create the moment.
In the midst of expected warm weather at Fair, a Hawaiian breeze will swing by with a performance by Hālau Hula o Nā Pua o Hawaiʻi Nei. It’s their first year performing at Fair. Akiko Colton, the kumu hula, the master teacher, says that she was invited to perform this year. At their studio on West 11th Avenue, “Hula is the language of the heart, therefore, the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people” is written on the wall.
Colton first encountered hula when she moved to Hawaii for college. She immediately fell in love with it and has been dancing since. After she moved to Eugene from Hawaii, she saw the importance and the power of community. “Islanders tend to gather like magnets,” she says, “smaller in size but have the community.”
Colton will be bringing about 20 competition dancers to Fair. She says that students and performers at the studio are a mix of Hawaiian people, people who lived in Hawaii or people who just love Hawaiian culture.
Last, the co-director of Espacio Flamenco, says of Fair: “Vibrant, welcoming space, felt celebrated, so many forms of arts are there.”
Espacio Flamenco is 3:30 pm Saturday, July 12, at Caravan Stage. Blues Grooves: Where Music & Dance Meet by Worth & Strain is 2:15 pm Saturday, July 12, and 1 pm Sunday, July 13, at the Dance Pavillion. Hālau Hula o Nā Pua o Hawaiʻi Nei will perform 3 pm Sunday, July 13, at the Dance Pavilion.