Four feet by four feet. Pace off the box. Mark it with your body. Now dance.
At 8 PM this Friday, March 17th, at the Wonder Ballroom (128 NE Russell) some of Portland’s more interesting dancemakers will do just that for the tenth (official) edition of Ten Tiny Dances. For Ten Tiny, ten choreographers are given fifteen minutes each to inscribe a dance on and in the vertical space above a 4′ x 4′ stage. Which is not to say that the dancers haven’t hidden under the stage, flown off the stage, upended the stage, stacked the stage high, and crowded the stage en masse.
Series producer Mike Barber began Ten Tiny Dances as a single evening at Crush, a fundraiser. But both audiences and dancers loved the tiny dance, and the evening became a series that has been going strong for several years now.
If the stage and the time allotted function as the blank page, here the page is the size of a pocket notepad. The challenge is what you can do in that space and time. Like the black hole that by turning in on itself pulls other matter in toward itself, the dances on the tiny stage have often been compelling, gravitational.
Featured choreographers this go-’round include: Tracy Broyles, Margretta Hansen, Gabriel Masson, Anne Furfey, Josie Moseley, Mary Oslund, Cydney Wilkes, Linda Austin, Mike Barber and Minh Tran.
Even if you don’t go to dance regularly, here’s your quick intro to the talents of some of our more interesting contemporary choreographers and dancers. Get tiny-er. $15
updated Monday March 13 2006 22:20
Tags: art, dance, event, mike barber, portland, ten tiny dances