Dance: Page 8

Dancing for Preservation

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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 →

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 →

The Eugene Ballet Company (EBC) has received a $200,000 grant from the Richard P. Haugland Foundation

Dance
Lane Community College student Tristan Giannini performs a repertory piece by Merce Cunningham.

Hear ye, hear ye: EW’s annual dance issue is slated for September and we want your dance listings including date, time, location, cost and genre. Please send dance listings to alex@eugeneweekly.com with “Dance Listings” in the email subject line by Aug. 15. The Eugene Ballet Company (EBC) has received a $200,000 grant from the Richard P. Haugland Foundation, as well as $40,000 from the Hult Endowment, to create a new work: Move over Elsa, here comes The Snow Queen — premiering April 2017.  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 →

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 →

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 →

Welcome to the Playhouse

Portland’s athletic BodyVox dance company brings retrospective Urban Meadow to the Hult

Dance
Urban Meadow

Eugene Ballet Company presents a rare treat for Eugene audiences Saturday when Portland-based BodyVox returns to the Hult Center with Urban Meadow, a retrospective of work from its 18 dynamic seasons.  “We wanted to make a show that was repertory,” says BodyVox co-artistic director Jamey Hampton, sitting in the airy lobby of the BodyVox studio and performance space in northwest Portland.   Continue reading →