Arts: Page 224

Life on Mars

Jerry Joseph has been called the Anthony Bourdain of music

ArtsMusic

Jerry Joseph has been called the Anthony Bourdain of music. “I finally realized I was never going to be a big fucking rock star,” Joseph says. “Nobody’s ever going to invite me to Saigon to come play a concert.”  So the veteran Portland songwriter and longtime fixture on Eugene stages decided to take matters into his own hands and travel the world with his music.  “I called people I knew, people that lived in Cambodia and Thailand," Joseph explains. "And I brought a camera guy with me.”  Continue reading →

From Guinea with Love

The Yansanes put African dance in its cultural context through the West African Cultural Arts Institute

Arts
The Yansanes

Before moving to Eugene, Alseny Yansane danced for Ballets Africains, the most prestigious dance troupe in the West African nation of Guinea.  But there’d be no mistaking his moves for anything from Swan Lake.  Low squats, flips, rapid sideways motions, windmill arm movements — these are some of the most common hallmarks of the dozens of dances that can be found across Guinea and which Yansane and his wife Andrea Yansane teach at the West African Cultural Arts Institute (WACAI) here in Eugene.  Continue reading →

Stop Motion

A look at the state of dance in Eugene

ArtsDance

Choreographer David Parsons’ signature piece, Caught (1982), features more than 100 leaps in six minutes by a solo dancer who is repeatedly trapped in mid-motion by the strobe lights he controls, creating an illusion of flight. Seen live, the work is unforgettable; I saw it once here, in Eugene, at the Hult Center, danced by Parsons himself. Caught seems an apt metaphor for dance: vital, powerful yet ephemeral, almost fragile. Dance requires a nutritive base to thrive, constant support and a collaborative spirit. Any dance venture is a leap of faith. Continue reading →

Dancing for Preservation

ArtsDance

Mysterious forces drew Bonnie Simoa to Bali, Indonesia to study the legong dance, which she has now been practicing for two decades.  Simoa founded a dance company in Davis, California, and as the company was beginning its seventh season, she says she needed something more from her dance life. “I wanted to go some place where dance and spirituality and life were more integrated,” she says. By chance, Simoa came across Bali and then disbanded her company, put her things in storage, left her dog in the care of her sister and relocated to Indonesia for six months.  Continue reading →

Community Through Motion

Flail and writhe like nobody’s watching at coalessence ecstatic dance

ArtsDance

Across the wood floorboards at WOW Hall, there’s a frenzy of writhing limbs, bare feet and butts. In fact, someone farted square in my face while stretching. The crowd is intimate, exchanging kisses on the cheek, sharing bear hugs, grinning widely. Clearly, this is a special gathering.  This is Coalessence Dance, a bi-weekly “ecstatic” dance gathering centered on building community through motion. Continue reading →

Local Dance Studios

Listing of local dance studios

Dance

All that! Dance Company Ballet, contemporary jazz, tap, hip hop, ballroom allthatdancecompany.com 541-688-1523   Ballet Fantastique Ballet balletfantastique.org 541-342-4611   Ballet North West Academy Ballet, tap, modern, jazz and Broadway dance bnwa.net 541-343-3914   Celebration Belly Dance and Yoga Bollywood, zumba, samba, capoeira, African, 40-plus Continue reading →

Do the Twist

The Shedd’s production of Broadway musical Oliver! has us asking for more

Music
Dina Gilbert

Before Elton John, Duncan Sheik and Green Day created original stage scores, before all those jukebox musicals featuring songs by Abba, Four Seasons, Carole King and more, even before Rent, Grease, Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, there was Lionel Bart — a pop songwriter who never learned to read or write music and yet composed some of Britain’s biggest pop hits of the 1950s for Cliff Richard and other stars. Continue reading →

The fall dance season kicks off when MEDGE

Dance
Nick Davis and Nika Jin of track town swing club

The fall dance season kicks off when MEDGE (Middle Eastern Dance Guild of Eugene) presents The Hafla Players. “The all-ages show features a new performance group — the Hafla Players, 10 MEDGE musicians and dancers under the direction of John Zeké,” MEDGE’s Denise Gilbertson says. Catch the action, and a pizza, 8:30 pm, Sept. 16, at Cozmic downtown, 199 W. 8th Avenue. See medge.org. Continue reading →

Sweaty and Dazed

Electronica sensation Pretty Lights

Music
Pretty Lights

When I listen to EDM, I’m brought back to freshman year when I was introduced to drugs, dub-step and sardine-packed shows. That’s when I first heard the badass-ery of Pretty Lights, an electronica sensation created by Derek Vincent Smith. Smith started Pretty Lights in 2004. He takes samples — mostly bits of songs from ’70s soul or ’90s hip hop — and laces them up with his own sound effects. Add in some rad light displays and MDMA and, voilà, you’ve got the Pretty Lights experience. Continue reading →