Dance: Page 11

Crack Your Nuts with Holiday Dance

A season of sugarplum fairies, Narnia adventures, dancing Dickens and more

Dance

It’s the holiday season, and all across town, stages start to sparkle with gyrating gumdrops, spinning snowflakes and leaping lions. So grab a hot cocoa in the lobby and settle in for a nice break from your to-do list as you take in some of this shimmery season of dance. This is the biggest time of year for dance recitals for local studios, and these hard-working young dancers are gearing up to strut their stuff. Continue reading →

Eugene Ballet Company’s “The Sleeping Beauty”: Oct 24, 2015

Dance

Eugene Ballet Company opened its season with a dazzling production of choreographer Petipa and composer Tchaikovsky’s “The Sleeping Beauty.”  What a treat to ease into a classical ballet – fairies! Good ones, one really bad one, garland dancers, dancing cats, dancing bluebirds (Question for Petipa: Why no scene where Puss in Boots chases the Bluebird? – but I digress) – the overall effect was pure magic, and the classic roots of the dancing showed off the sharp technique of the EBC dancers. Continue reading →

Eugene Ballet Company presents The Sleeping Beauty

Dance
Jennifer Martin and Yoshie Oshima in The Sleeping Beauty

Eugene Ballet Company presents the timeless tale of The Sleeping Beauty, considered one of the greatest ballets of all time. The story of Princess Aurora is one made famous both by the Brothers Grimm’s “Little Briar Rose” and, of course, Disney’s animated feature film. However, the story of true love’s kiss first came to be told through dance. Eugene Ballet Co. Continue reading →

Irish Invasion

Riverdance returns to Eugene for its 20th anniversary tour

Dance

Since bursting onto the scene in 1995, Riverdance has employed more than 2,000 dancers and performed more than 11,000 shows before 25 million people in 467 venues across 46 countries. But who’s counting?  In advance of the show’s return to the Hult Oct. 28-29, we caught up with senior executive producer, Irishman Julian Erskine, who’s been with Riverdance since the beginning.   Continue reading →

Portland’s Whitebird Dance Presents Twyla Tharp, Oct 14, 2015

Dance

How can one possibly review a great artist like Twyla Tharp? Her work spans fifty years – this is the 50th anniversary of her dance company – which deserves its own accolades in the arts-funding parched USA. 50 years of collaborations, discipline, technique, of musical explorations, theatrical endeavors, of making her mark, of being herself, of being a woman in a male-dominated field, and a strong, focused and no-nonsense woman at that. She’s a role model for creativity and the shrewd confidence needed to sustain growth over time and space. 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 →