Arts & Books Art that aims to be part one thing and part another has a tendency to wind up nothing at all. That’s the worry when watching Circa, the Australian act often described as almost circus and almost dance.But that’s an imperfect portrait of this company. Circa is not part circus, part dance. It’s all circus, just in dance packaging.Take a circus show, throw away the kitsch, popcorn, animals and gaudy ...   More

Arts & Books It’s never a good sign when show organizers keep stressing a group is their second choice for a performance. White Bird founders Paul King and Walter Jaffe were gracious in their introduction Thursday night, but you could tell they were disappointed that their planned performers, the dancers of Abou Lagraa, ran into visa issues coming from Algeria.The replacement, Illstyle & Peace Productions, ...   More

Arts & Books While reading the biographies for the dancers in Botanica, one can’t help but imagine some of them spent years training in classical ballet only to be cut from the company. Maybe the phone call to their parents went something like, “You know what, Mom, forget it! I’m just going to spend my dance career riding giant Triceratops puppets.”There is indeed a giant Triceratops puppet in MOMIX’s ...   More

Arts & Books Mr. TOL E RAncE, a new piece of dance-theater from choreographer Camille A. Brown, clocks in at only 45 minutes. But with its frenzied pace, repetitive movements and sometimes cluttered staging, the work feels much longer. Receiving its West Coast debut as part of White Bird’s Uncaged series, Mr. TOL E RAncE means terribly well. Using stylistic tropes and clichés of minstrelsy, it aims to investigate ...   More

Arts & Books What looks like an oversized brass steering wheel is planted firmly at stage right, alongside what looks like a narrow loom. From it, dozens of wires extend diagonally toward the ceiling, then hang down at stage left, each holding a small bauble. This fascinating contraption the first thing you see when the curtain rises on Connected, a work by the Australian dance company Chunky Move. Berkeley-based ...   More

Arts & Books The majestic Alps, the iconic songs, the Vogueing Mother Superior clad in a pair of Adidas as she warbles "Climb Every Mountain"... New York choreographer Doug Elkins creates a joyful, jaw-dropping remix of The Sound of Music, setting everything from ballet to b-boy moves to the original Rodgers & Hammerstein film score in his truly exceptional work Fraulein Maria. White Bird presents his company, ...   More

Arts & Books Imagine a person is trapped inside a cloth sack and stretching the surface trying to get out from the inside. That's what the sculptures adorning the stage of Oslund's newest work Childhood Star look like. The show was commissioned by local dance presenter White Bird and premiered last night as part of Portland's Fertile Ground festival (read WW's big preview on the festival here). In constantly transitioning ...   More

News Tap may be the only kind of dance you don't have to see to enjoy—it's as much about sound as vision. Last night, Jason Samuels Smith and his tap company Anyone Can Get It made that clear when they opened their Portland debut in total darkness, with just the amplified sound of taps clicking and scuffing out an infectious rhythm on the stage. The best hoofers work like jazz musicians, breaking ...   More

Arts & Books Moving swiftly between primal and elegant, Gallim Dance's Blush is a stirring exploration of human touch and interaction. The young New York dance company made its West Coast debut Thursday evening to commence the new season of White Bird Uncaged, now back at home in PSU's Lincoln Hall. Choreographed by Gallim's artistic director Andrea Miller, much of Blush is powerfully abstract, with the push ...   More

News Here's the funny thing about Chunky Move's new dance-theater experiment Two Faced Bastard. I loved the show—packed with Australian choreographer Lucy Guerin's simultaneously gorgeous and grotesque movement, weird makeout scenes between a frisky couple and a kitchen table and a downright fascinating Ewok/beatbox/manic breakdown improv solo from company member Antony Hamilton. WW's publisher ...   More