News Hofesh Shechter Company (read WW's dance preview, here) began in the U.K. in 2008, and has only made four trips to the United States—Portland was actually only one of two American stop on this tour. The Schniz grew hot and muggy on Wednesday, Oct 21 as the majority of its 2,776 seats were filled for the British company's performance of two pieces, Uprising and In Your Rooms. Out of the ...   More

News Anyone who watched the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics is familiar with Shen Wei. Remember that group of paint-covered dancers gliding across an open scroll, eventually producing beautiful calligraphy? Yeah, that's him. Last night, we got to see a less grand, but no less meditatively magical, performance by the genius (yes, he won a "Genius" award) choreographer's company. In a manner ...   More

News Phil Busse, former Mercury editor, former mayoral candidate/mayoral campaign manager, sign plucker and panty model, is no longer the general manager of White Bird Dance, after only six months in the position. Byron Beck broke the news that Busse was let go near the end of last month on his spiffy new blog this afternoon. "Phil brought some really good new ideas for us. But after his six month ...   More

News First of all, the elephant in the room is pink and naked. That's because the hook, the gimmick that accounts for the lion's share of buzz surrounding Daniel Léveillé Danse is that the performers dance in the buff. As much as all of us would like to pretend we went into the West Coast premiere of Crépuscule des Oceans (Twilight of the Oceans) wondering how Léveillé ...   More

News Two-thirds of the way through White Bird's latest Uncaged show, around the time Minh Tran started sashaying around the perimeter of Forestry Center's Miller Hall wearing a ripped '80s style tee with the word "LESBO" spray-painted on the front of it, I had already given up all hope of understanding exactly what was going on. But at least I wasn't yawning anymore. The Portland dance presenters commissioned ...   More

News Brazilian street dance, minus the street, moved into an industrial corner of Portland this week. Bruno Beltrao Grupo de Rua, a nine-member, all-male ensemble from Rio, enjoyed a sold-out run through the White Bird Uncaged series, which brought the action to the Bison Building, a cavernous warehouse space in Northeast Portland. That bare-bones setting fit H3, the company's 55-minute deconstruction ...   More

News U-Theatre, one of Taiwan's national cultural treasures, spends most of its time at a outpost near the top of a hill outside of Taipei—surrounded by wind and rock. The group reportedly trains together for up to 16-hours a day—they meditate and eat together too—creating art together in the form of dance, song, theater, drumming and martial arts. They are an intense and spiritual ...   More