News Two men stand on a dark stage. They greet each other calmly, sharing a series of slow, intimate embraces—but the kindness doesn't last. Before long their encounter has turned into a wrestling match, the pair twisting and writhing for the upper hand. The drumbeats in the background grow to dictate their movement–as if each undulation is commanded by the music. Just as one gains control, ...   More

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 I doubt any of the audience members at Exquisite Corpse this past weekend had any clue what we were walking into as they made their way into the transformed Reed College gym. We were presented with a choice of seating in the round, but to make it to our seats, we first needed to negotiate our way through the performance space, littered with odd objects—a red dress here, a portrait of a monkey ...   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 By means of audience response, BodyVox's current show, Chronos/Kairos was certainly successful. The guests laughed when they were supposed to laugh, gasped when they were supposed to gasp and gave the dancers a standing ovation at the curtain. While it certainly felt warm and fuzzy to sit with such receptive company, the enthusiasm for what turned out to be a lackluster performance got a little ...   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

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