City Dance
ultra cannot make any higher recommendation than this: The most important Portland cultural event of the year happens Sunday, September 14 at 1 PM and 4 PM. City Dance takes place at four public spaces/fountains in Portland that are among our public treasures, if little known by many of us.
It delivers likely the only truly site-specific work you will see this year, work that could happen nowhere else, where the choreographers craft work that interacts with space (and water) in ways that are dramatic, compelling, quirky, magnificent; where musicians (and audio technology) deploy in these spaces to use the sonic properties of proximity and distance (and water) to great effect.
It delivers likely the only chance you will have this year to hear work by important avant-garde composers Morton Subotnik, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley performed en plein air led by Ron Blessinger the fine musicians of Third Angle.
It shines the spotlight both on the groundbreaking work of landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, and his wife, choreographer Anna Halprin, whose aesthetic and spirit infuse the works by four Portland-based contemporary choreographers: Tere Mathern, Cydney Wilkes, Linda Austin, and Linda K. Johnson.
It introduces a crop of exciting fresh contemporary dance blood like Jennifer Camou, Lucy Yim, and Kaj-anne Pepper, integrating them with Portland’s finest like Keely McIntyre, Carla Mann, Jenn Gierada, and ultra faves Rikki Rothenberg, Emily Stone, and Julie Katch.
This is the crown jewel of PICA’s TBA Festival. As much as we appreciate the yearly importation of great work from around the country (and the world), how beautiful it is that this best of all possible dance events is challenging, illuminating, and so very local.
POSTED: September 14th, 2008 | AUTHOR: lisa | FILED UNDER: dance | TAGS: art, city dance, contemporary dance, dance, pica, tba | No Comments »