Earlier in the day -before The Göteborg Ballet’s All-Nordic Program- my academic director told me I looked like a Russian sailor. Making great use of office flattery, he added, “It’s a good spring look.”… Read More →

LOVE FIRE immediately declares how it intends to relate to its audience: brashly. There’s a man, a woman, a greatest hits collection of classical waltz music and a title I can’t read without… Read More →

You’d have to be in a really bad mood not to have a good time at Dark Matters, Crystal Pite’s widely-toured work for her Kidd Pivot company. It’s entertaining, spectacular and deftly constructed.… Read More →

15-20% of the audience walked out of a dance performance I was at recently. We were in a theatre with no back exit and a stage that ran level with the front row… Read More →

cloudy sunday just before seven is quiet. epically quiet Post-festival depression? During the festival, I’m consumed and don’t have time to properly be. I sleep too little, drink too much, nub excessive smokes… Read More →

Word on the mean streets is that visual arts presenters are batting eyes at dance and considering making seriously forward advances. Those working in contemporary dance are likely already aware of this dynamic,… Read More →

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO Here’s a couple audience tools I picked up at ImPulzTanz last month. I found them very helpful while watching Shantala Shivalingappa’s performance of Namasya. – What does… Read More →

Up on a ferry –in the sun– crossing the Puget Sound, but that’s not where ”elated” and ”exhilarated” come from. Those are words that I myself used in a bar, while drinking champagne, discussing the strongest performances from Seattle’s NW New Works… Read More →

You know what scares me? The prospect of performing as a hobby – as just another thing you do because you’re you. Nature Theatre of Oklahoma had a fascinating dirty-confession moment in their Romeo and Juliet (TBA:10)… Read More →

This link is an insightful opener to this post, and it cannot be embedded gracefully. Each year, White Bird commissions a brand new work from a Portland choreographer.  It’s a pretty rad service… Read More →

This weekend may be your last chance to see an Ethan Rose project in Portland. That’s an exaggeration, but Ethan will leave for the Art Institute of Chicago really soon. Congrats! and booo!… Read More →

Before I’ve even settled into my folding chair on the beautiful wood floor of tEEth’s one-year-old dance studio, The mOuth, I’ve indulged a hunch that the title of the piece I’m about to… Read More →

Blanket is aptly named; it felt really nice inside. Hugging helped. Nice to have the work’s aesthetic live inside me in a harmonious sensation – no small feat! I was set up by… Read More →

double backing second guessing hemming and hawing WITH CRAZY GUSTO!! Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s Romeo and Juliet operates through a slew of connections that reveal more about the recaller than the recalled. Shakespeare’s… Read More →

A few days ago, I saw this video of a Jay-Z concert with crazy amazing effects, and it’s been in the back of my mind throughout the festival; where are those overwhelming intensities?… Read More →

When I heard Cathy Edwards got slack for “exhausting” us last year and read the Portland Mercury’s repeated, unintelligible flogging of Meg Stuart’s Maybe Forever (TBA:09), I was afraid that there might be… Read More →

WORTH A TOUCH OF CRITICISM Mike Daisy’s portrayal of Apple’s history in ideas and innovations is wicked good. This makes up about half of his monologue, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve… Read More →