Dance: Page 16

Mr. Dance International

Alito Alessi has been shaping the dance world for more than a quarter century

Dance

There is perhaps no one better known in the local dance community than international dance visionary Alito Alessi. The Eugene-based dancer, teacher and artistic director for DanceAbility International created the Joint Forces Dance Company and DanceAbility — a globally renowned method that explores artistic expression between people with and without disabilities through movement — with his dance partner Karen Nelson in 1987. And, naturally for a dancer, he just can’t stay in one place. This spring, he was chosen as an “arts envoy” by the U.S. Continue reading →

I.C.U. Crew

Forget intensive care — this male hip-hop group will keep hearts beating

Dance

Lounging on the overstuffed chairs and couches of All That! Dance Company’s studio, Jordan Ross and twin brothers Coleman and Kaelen Byrum look like any clean-cut, athletic 18-year-olds. Only Ross’s I.C.U. Dance Crew T-shirt gives any indication that the guys might not be into just the usual track and football.  Yet get them and the other two crew members, 18-year-olds Logan McGann and Aidan Ziegler-Hansen, on stage and there’s no mistaking that these guys are an award-winning hip-hop dance group.  Continue reading →

Dance Listings

Dance

All That! Dance Company Ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, ballroom www.allthatdancecompany.com  Argentine Tango Practica Argentine tango 541-681-9681 / jackethanger@gmail.com Ballet Fantastique Ballet www.balletfantastique.org Ballet North West Academy Ballet 541-343-3914 / www.bnwa.net Celebration Belly Dance and Yoga Bollywood, Zumba, samba, capoeria, African, 40+ www.celebrationbellydanceandyoga.com Continue reading →

Harmony From Chaos

Harmonic Laboratory brings a dazzling avant garde show to the Hult

Dance

Everything is dark except for the truck-sized monolith. Two female figures emerge from the shadows, their bodies athletically twisting and spinning and stomping to the electronic beat, which sounds like someone drumming on crystal stalagmites. Crisp, geometric patterns project upon the monolith, creating a digital trompe l’oeil effect, the electronic shapes dissolving into and out of the forms of the dancers, whose projected images appear to be writhing within the structure as their counterparts writhe freely outside. Continue reading →

Dance Diplomacy

U.S. State Department selects DanceAbility teachers to share their method abroad

Dance

“I was part of the contemporary dance scene at the point when everyone was pushing for equality, respect of all people and the idea that all people could dance,” says Alito Alessi, artistic director of DanceAbility International. “But no one was doing anything about it, including myself. So I said, ‘Well, what would it look like to do what we say we all believe in?’” Continue reading →

A Twist On Wonderland

The Work Dance Company creates a world of hip-hop wonder at the Hult Center

Dance

Forget rabbits with pocket watches. Forget tea parties. Forget Alice in Wonderland. Work Dance Company director and choreographer Nathan Boozer wants to take you down another rabbit hole into his Wonderland, an upcoming Feb. 15 show at the Hult Center that takes a look through the hip-hop looking glass at lands filled with music, butterflies, candy, zombies and Lady Gaga. Continue reading →

All You Need is Love

ArchiveDance

Audiences still reeling from the Eugene Ballet Company’s Dark Side of the Moon ballet will be thrilled to know that the company is set to perform another riveting homage to some of music’s finest. All You Need is Love, the new originally choreographed ballet from artistic director Tony Pimble, is a collaboration of The Eugene Ballet Company and acclaimed Portland music group The Nowhere Band — it’s ballet meets The Beatles.  Continue reading →