Skip to main contentUnder the guidance of three local artists--dancer Donna Oefinger, iron welder Marco Stanton and musician Michael Kennett--a one-time lumber storeroom off Southeast Grand Avenue has blossomed into an arts whirlpool called Center Space. Since July, the cross-cultural currents of Afro-Cuban and -Brazilian dance, visual art, electronic music and performance art have brought an ever-changing tide of people here to commingle and create. This Saturday, more than 65 members of its patchwork community will perform when Center Space holds its grand-opening celebration, Grace.
"The openness of the space is what draws people in," says Stanton, whose industrial-strength metal design studio is located across the street from Center Space. "It's like a canvas, where everybody can present their medium."
The concept of having an artistic plot of their own had been tossed around among the three thirtysomething friends for some time. The trio's dream finally crystallized last January when they drew up plans to create a combination dance space, art space and coffee shop. With no funding from outside sources, Center Space's three co-directors split the building's rent each month, relying on class dues, volunteer participation and the use of the studio as a rentable venue for cash flow.
Native Australian Stanton kicks off the Center Space Gallery's official opening Saturday with Portland artist Benjamin Alexander Clark's paintings and sculpture. Kennett, an audio artist who combines ethnic soundscapes with ambient electronica, acts as Center Space's booking agent as well as owner of the building's cafe, Jaguar House.
Oefinger, who has taught the punching accents of traditional Cuban and Brazilian dance in a slew of local studios since arriving in Portland four years ago, was motivated to create the venue in order to bring international teachers like her Brazilian dance mentor, Rosangela Silvestre, to town. Her plan worked. Currently, the space has three visiting teachers who will all perform Saturday: director Juan D'Dios of the Havana-based folkloric group Raices Profundas, master drummer Miguel Bernal (also from Raices Profundas), and master Brazilian drummer Boca Rum, a man whose name in his native Portuguese literally means "Lead Drum Who Does the Talking."
With a handful of supportive groups using the studio, Center Space has become a tight weave of communities forged from diverse interests. As each club flows through the studio's open layout, it inevitably leaves with an imprint of its neighbor's interests. "This place is a melting pot of different energies," says Stanton. "Without setting out to cater to one group, we have ended up being able to accommodate everyone."
With a bill that ranges from the mellow movement of qigong, modern action from OBT education director Linda K. Johnson, the athletic fury of capoeira, African and Afro-Cuban dance, and the percussive thrill of Portland's Afro-Brazilian Samba institution Lions of Batucada (who have begun to use Center Space as their rehearsal hall), Grace is a celebration of inclusiveness. It's a testament to the students, teachers, dancers, chorus and drummers who constructed Center Space from incorporeal theory to community-driven reality.
Center Space, 420 SE 6th Ave., 239-7657. 7 pm Saturday, Dec. 7. $12.
Center Space co- director Michael Kennett holds his own music events Friday and Saturday nights at Jaguar Coffee House.
Central Space classes include modern dance, qigong, tai chi, capoeira, Afro- Cuban and Afro- Brazilian dance, and West African drumming.
WWeek 2015