Arts: Page 264

A Very Fresh Machine

An undeniably powerful engine of sound

Music
Dave Rawlings Machine

If it wasn’t self-described, machinery would seem too rough or inorganic a metaphor for the harmony, improvisation and trust that comprises the Dave Rawlings Machine, but the synergy among members —especially between Rawlings and Gillian Welch — makes for an undeniably powerful engine of sound.  The music of the Machine pays ancestral respect to the folk tradition, with its emotive lyricism and symbiotic musicality. Often having not rehearsed and finding themselves either on stage or in studio, members of the Machine lean on trust and intuition, following another’s lead.  Continue reading →

Hitting the Mark at the Hult Center

Eugene landmark offers dance, music, theater and a little comedy

Performing Arts
Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood hit the Hult Nov. 13

There’s no excuse for staying home — well, OK, that’s allowed, but should you want to venture out, there are plenty of world-class options this season at Eugene’s Hult Center for the arts lover in all of us.  Ballet Fantastique’s all-original dance theater and live music delivers a retro-glam jazz holiday in American Christmas Carol Dec. 11-13.  The Eugene Concert Choir offers a choral adventure, combining tradition and skill, with A Dickens of a Christmas on Dec. 6. Continue reading →

On the Boards

Talking shop with Oregon Contemporary Theatre’s artistic director Craig Willis

Performing Arts
Craig Willis

Oregon Contemporary Theatre artistic director Craig Willis has a keen curatorial vision, one that’s helping to shape the landscape of what’s possible for the arts in Eugene.  “My predecessor had done a good job of trying to provide interesting, challenging work,” Willis says, referring to OCT in its Lord Leebrick days, before he took the helm in 2003. Continue reading →

Ballet Fantastique’s Cirque de La Lune 10.11

Dance

Ballet Fantastique presented its season opener, Cirque de la Lune, in the Hult’s Soreng theater October 9-11. The closing show performed to a full, mostly rapt house.             Tracing the experience of an innocent young gal, who joins a travelling depression-era circus, Cirque de la Lune played with color and light, weaving its narrative with stellar live accompaniment by Mood Area 52, Betty and the Boy and Troupe Carnivale. Continue reading →

First-Annual Screendance Expo

Dance

The first-annual Northwest Screen Dance Exposition leapt onto the screen at the Bijou Cinemas Tuesday night (10/6), with a collection of short works that highlighted the burgeoning relationship between dance and film.             Organized by producers John Watson and Dorene Carroll, the effort was sponsored by the UO and LCC Dance Programs, and served as a benefit for Danceability International. Continue reading →

She’s Gone

Film

For the most part, the genre of horror has been a much-maligned cinematic ghetto populated almost exclusively by male directors, and God bless ’em all: They’ve titillated and tantalized and torn us apart to the best of their abilities over the years, some with more sophistication and some with less, mining every sexualized psychosis and reptilian yelp under the blood moon. Continue reading →