Author: Rachael Carnes

You Should Be Dancing

New pavilion invites Fair-goers to take off their shoes and shake it up

Culture
New pavilion invites Fair-goers to take off their shoes and shake it up

As you’re cruising around the loops at the Oregon Country Fair, be sure to stop by the new Dance Pavilion, featuring movement performances and workshops for all.   “The dance space is for the exploration of dance and the movement arts,” says volunteer site coordinator Shawn Kahl.  The Dance Pavilion stage and an adjacent outdoor studio, the “WorkIt Shop,” have concurrent but separate programming throughout the weekend. Both areas welcome and encourage participation.   Continue reading →

Consider a trip to Portland this year to see Whitebird Dance

Dance
Israel’s Inbal Pinto comes to Portland’s Whitebird Dance this season

First, an appeal: If you love dance like I do and long to see performances with national and international reach, please use this lull in local performance to consider a trip to Portland this year to see Whitebird Dance.  I’ve recently made the easy commute to see the pioneering Twyla Tharp (review at the EW blog: goo.gl/NqYsd7), Kidd Pivot, Cirque Alfonse (which blew my mind) and La Compagnie Hervé Koubi, whose seminal work, What the Day Owes the Night, left me speechless (read more on Koubi here: goo.gl/v2Wzpf) Continue reading →

The Bard Meets Jazz

The 18th annual PICFEST welcomes Shakespeare and the Yellowjackets

Music
Yellowjackets

The Pacific International Choral Festivals (PICFEST) celebrates its 18th season this summer with the premier of Shakespeare & All That Jazz, Sunday, June 26, featuring jazz greats the Yellowjackets, and a 300-voice Youth Festival Chorus, all under the direction of guest conductor and composer Bob Chilcott.    PICFEST draws choirs from all over the country to Eugene, for an opportunity to learn, collaborate and perform.  After nearly two decades, Artistic Director Peter Robb, says PICFEST is “a template we know really well.”  Continue reading →

GARNERDANCE at OCT, June 17, Eugene

Theater

GARNERDANCES premiered Strings! An Evening of Dance, at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, June 17.             The evening’s length work featured dancers Shannon Mockli, Laura Katzmann, Mariah Melson, Suzanne Haag, Antonio Anacan, and Cory Betts, with choreography, costumes and lighting design by Brad Garner. Continue reading →

Eugene’s own hula school, Na Pua O Hawai’i Nei (The Flowers of Hawai’i), presents its annual ho’ike exhibition

Dance

Eugene’s own hula school, Na Pua O Hawai’i Nei (The Flowers of Hawai’i), presents its annual ho’ike exhibition June 25 at Cascade Middle School auditorium, 1525 Echo Hollow Road. All classes will perform, from preschoolers through kupuna (elders).  It’s all too easy to dismiss this art form. How many tipsy mainland tourists have watched an overpriced hotel hula show and thought, “What’s the big deal? I could do that.”  Continue reading →

Taking the Leap

UO professor Brad Garner premieres Strings! with his new dance company at Oregon Contemporary Theatre

Dance
Brad Garner

For professional dancer and choreographer Brad Garner, inspiration comes directly from community. “I’m inspired by community and the relationships among members of a community,” says Garner, whose dance company GARNERDANCES premieres Strings! An Evening of Dance at Oregon Contemporary Theatre June 17-18.  “I’ve always been intrigued by human behavior — that interaction between people, and how people change in different contexts and group dynamics,” Garner says.  Continue reading →

Look Up

Or look down — Neil deGrasse Tyson wants you to be scientifically literate

Culture

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson inspires millions, not with hype and bravado, but with intergalactic levels of cool.  Through Tyson’s work as an astrophysicist, author, museum director, television and radio host, even the most novice among us can imagine the birth of stars; we can envision dwarf planets and ponder the very structures that define our home, the Milky Way.  Simply put, he makes science accessible and fun.  Continue reading →

When it comes to making art, people in the performing arts get a raw deal

Dance
Dancer Jun Tanabe of #instaballet

When it comes to making art, people in the performing arts get a raw deal.  A poet just needs a pen, right? A studio artist just needs a little space and some supplies. (Unless you work in a medium like cars or buses or something. Please don’t flood my inbox with letters of complaint; I’m just trying to make a point.)  Anyway, for dancers, rehearsal time is pretty dear: Rents can be prohibitively high for sprung-wood floors, safe for bare feet and careening bodies. And securing a performance venue? Oy.  Continue reading →