White Bird Blogs

Paul and I were extremely fortunate to attend the memorial celebration for Jonathan Wolken, Co-Founder of Pilobolus Dance Theater, on Thursday, July 15, at The Joyce Theater in New York City. As we reported on our website, Jonathan passed away on June 13. He had been  suffering from myelofibrosis, a disorder of the bone marrow, and although he had been ill for a long time, his illness was not publicized. As the various speakers at the memorial made clear, he had actually been improving but suddenly took a turn for the worse and died very suddenly. Jonathan's death shocked the Pilobolus company as well as all his friends and family.

The memorial was hugely moving, comprising heartfelt eulogies by long-time friends and company members, slides and a video of Jonathan at work, and performances of two of Jonathan's most memorable works.

Some highlights of this celebration:

Zagreb seems like a strange place to go to for a week. It’s the capital of Croatia, in the middle of the country. If anyone knows Croatia, it’s because of Dubrovnik and Split, gorgeous towns on the Mediterranean.

However, I did spend close to a week in Zagreb, May 28-June 6, for two good reasons. The first is an annual dance festival, now in its 27th year that attracts both international and Croatian dance artists. The artistic director is Mirna Zagar, whom we know well because she also runs the Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver.  It is considered the most important dance festival in the region.  The second reason was for a performing arts conference (International Society for the Performing Arts or ISPA).  I thought why not come early and see some dance. I was impressed.

It's hard to believe that our season is close to its end. Wasn't it just the other day that Mikhail Baryshnikov and Ana Laguna introduced us to the powerful physicality of Mats Ek's choreography? Or Aspen Santa Fe Ballet launched the 12th season of the White Bird Dance Series with an exciting quadruple bill by Cayetano Soto, Forsythe, Twarp and Elo?

11 companies have indeed come to White Bird during this season, that included our final four Uncaged events before heading back to PSU next fall.

Our 12th and final company is one that making its mark around the country and Europe as well--Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet.  Artistic Director Benoit Swan-Pouffer (formerly a celebrated Alvin Ailey dancer) is attracting the most forward-thinking choreographers today from all over to create new work specifically for Cedar Lake. His dancers are young and fully committed to tackling different kinds of movement.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” —Alan Watts

Grab Your Mallet
by Austin Buchholtz

Watching U-Theatre perform their mixture of dancing, drumming, martial arts, acting, chanting in "Meeting with Bodhisattva" is like removing the face of a clock to lose oneself in its ticks, chimes, and gongs—only to realize the coils and springs are human. The single-minded mastery of their crafts renders drum beats and gestures transparent to transcendence, as in the following moments.

When done right, dance is visceral.

The stage began bare and dark with a video of a running dog projected, back lit onto one of the three white walls that made up the set. From when the music started until the end of the performance the dancers were in motion. Somewhere in the middle of the piece, the walls were lifted and projected onto with strange video, then when the stage became dark again and the music ended the dog running was once again projected onto now elevated walls.
Much of the dancing in this piece was based in action reaction; Dancers would make movement around each other and then with each other, limbs leaping away from each other's touch as if their skin was sensitive. All the movement was incredibly organic and logical to the eye, having to do with weight moving in reaction to a touch or an initial movement. It made me think of kinetic sculptures that are made to run on their own if given enough of an initial push. The dancers appeared to move in this same way.
The music for Random Dance was sometimes quiet and sometimes hard and intense with fast beats and big rolling tones. The dancers often mimicked the pace of the music, dancing slowly with partners in mellow moments of sound and frantically throwing their bodies around when the music climaxed. It was interesting because I'm not used to seeing dancing with technique used in response to techno/house music like this.

I thought Grupo de Rua gave a very powerful performance. Their combination of street dance, hip-hop and capoeira was like nothing I'd seen before, and as an audience member I grappled with what category I should place the movement into. The use of silence, as well as noise, music, and the sounds of spinning sneakers made the performance feel less like a dance we were prepared to watch and more like an event we stumbled upon. The inventive choreography was at its height when the dancers were running backwards as fast as possible, hardly looking where they were going, as well as when they walked slowly backwards, heads bent far back, staring at the ceiling. The performance was powerful, high-energy, exciting to watch and entirely new.

We are very much looking forward to bringing Taiwan's U-Theatre to Portland on April 8-10 at the Newmark Theatre. This is a very special opportunity to experience a highly unusual cross-polination of Taiwanese culture and performance. I wanted to give some background about my trip to Taiwan in May 2006 and how I discovered U-Theatre and immediately felt that this company would be an exciting addition to White Bird's dance season.

I was invited by the National Performing Theatre of Taiwan to learn about the dance scene in Taiwan. When I arrived in May 2006, I, with a small group from around the world,  had the amazing opportunity to travel to the outskirts of Taipei, then took a mile long hike up one of beautiful mountains, to U-Theatre's outpost, where they create and rehearse their work. We met with the artistic director Ruoyu Liu and the drumming master Chih Chun Huang, who are a couple. They and their performers are very much like a closely-knit  family in that they meditate and dine together, and are spiritually connected. This unity is strongly visible in their the fluidity and Zen-like focus of their performances. 

Although the White Bird season is winding down, with only three shows left, what shows! We're approaching our busiest week of the year with two companies back to back, Complexions on April 7 at the Schnitzer, and U-Theatre from Taiwan, April 8-10, at the Newmark. How are we ever going to keep the logistics straight? We load in to the Schnitzer and to the Newmark on the same day, Tuesday, April 7--and we have a Complexions student matinee on Wed, April 7, from 11-12, while we are continuing doing tech on U-Theatre across the street.

We want to give you some background on both companies, as different as can be, but both extremely physical, and in a way both touching on the spiritual. This blog focuses on Complexions.

“Everything you can imagine is real.” —Pablo Picasso

Curlycues & Ink Blots
by Austin Buchholtz

The welcome dinner for Wayne McGregor Random Dance is held at Huber's, Portland oldest restaurant, hosted by longtime White Board members Richard Didzun and Bette Sinclair and everyone is in a jovial mood. Wayne McGregor could not tour with his company, since he is high demand these days, and I sit with a few of the dancers.