For Immediate Release: February 16, 2009

Contact: Chad Greenwood, 503-245-1600 ext. 205

White Bird Uncaged Brings Internationally Acclaimed Choreographer Anouk Van Dijk and Her Dancers To Portland For Two Week Residency

 Dutch Company Will Give 11 Performances March 12-20 at Oaks Park Dance Pavilion

Who: anoukvandijk dc, Artistic Director Anouk Van Dijk
Work: Stau; Special note - contains nudity
Presented by: White Bird Uncaged
When:   Thursday, March 12, 8 pm
            Friday-Saturday, March 13-14, 7:00 & 9:30 pm
            Sunday, March 15, 8:00 pm
            Wednesday, March 18, 8:00 pm
            Thursday-Friday, March 19-20, 7:00 & 9:30 pm
Where: Historic Dance Pavilion, Oaks Amusement Park, 7805 SE Oaks Park Way
Media Sponsor: Willamette Week
Tickets: Available at whitebird.org, or Ticketmaster, 1-800-982-2787
Uncaged Hotline: 503-245-1600 ext. 208

White Bird is proud to bring internationally acclaimed Dutch choreographer Anouk van Dijk (pronounced A-NOOK VAN DIKE) with her company anoukvandijk dc to Portland for a two-week residency as the third company in the White Bird Uncaged dance series. The company will give 11 performances of STAU  March 12-20 at the Historic Dance Pavilion on the ground of Oaks Amusement Park.  Unlike any work that White Bird has presented in its 11-year history, STAU dispenses with the need for a traditional stage and brings the audience into the performance itself. STAU  will be performed in the most intimate venue White Bird has ever used, for a maximum 140 audience members. When anoukvandijk dc appeared at the American Dance Festival in 2005, The Herald Sun (Durham, NC) stated that “the images from Dutch choreographer Anouk van Dijk remained long after the curtain lowered;” her unique Countertechnique movement “makes for an eye-widening, mind-bending experience.”

STAU  (German for “traffic jam”) is a fluid experience that is constantly shifting perspectives, changing relationships, and transforming space. The performance begins with the audience sitting in folding chairs in a confined square area, captivated by the exact gestures and intimate movement of Anouk’s four dancers.  Halfway through the 60-minute work, the audience rises, the chairs go away, and the entire venue becomes integral to the piece. Audience members move about the now darkened room, and the dancers use light and shadows to create dynamic, spectacular motion that projects into seemingly limitless space.  Each performance of STAU  is different. It a shared experience between the audience and the dancers, with no preconceived ideas about how it will evolve.  The intimate scale of the performance means that dance will likely happen right in front of you, beside you, or behind you at any moment. You can even take part, if you feel so moved.

Anouk Van Dijk created STAU in 2004, and her company has performed the work throughout Europe, Russia, China, Australia and many other countries. The work was first performed in the United States in 2006, with performances at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MOCA), Velocity Dance in Seattle, and the Danspace Project in New York.

Based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Anouk van Dijk is one of the most admired contemporary choreographers working in Europe today. She first danced with the Rotterdam Dance Group in the 1980’s, and then she became one of the original members of Amanda Miller’s notorious Pretty Ugly Dance Company, based in Freiburg, Germany (now based in Cologne).  Anouk’s work “Nothing Hurts” (with German theatre director Falk Richter) received international acclaim and was selected for the Berlin theater festival Theatertreffen, which helped launch her independent career. She founded her own company anoukvandijk dc in 1998, and two years later she was awarded the Lucas Hoving Prize at the Dutch Dance Days festival.

In addition to her work as a choreographer, Anouk van Dijk is recognized as an outstanding teacher, who has worked with companies like Nederlands Dans Theater (The Hague)  and Chunky Move (Melbourne, Australia, coming to White Bird Uncaged in mid-April). She has developed her own unique movement technique called Countertechnique, which focuses on how to use the counter-direction between body parts in relationships with the three dimensional space around the body. While in Portland, Anouk van Dijk will teach a class in Countertechnique at Conduit Dance, 918 SW Yamhill, Friday, March 13, 11:30am -1pm.

White Bird Uncaged will conclude with the North American premiere of Two-Faced Bastard  by Chunky Move (Australia), April 15-19, at the 10th Avenue Athletic Club Gymnasium/YWCA of Greater Portland.  
The White Bird Uncaged presentation of anoukvandijk dc’s STAU is supported in part by WESTAF (Western States Arts Federation) and the National Endowment for the Arts.  It is also supported by a grant from Consulates General of The Netherlands in New York and Los Angeles.

White Bird Uncaged 2008-09 is supported by the Meyer Memorial Trust, The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, The Collins Foundation, Regional Arts & Culture Council, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and Oregon Cultural Trust.