Posts Tagged ‘cydney wilkes’

Tahni Holt and Linda Austin Invite You to Dine

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

How are Portland-based choreographers Tahni Holt and Linda Austin raising money to support the creation of new work in 2010? They’re doing a dinner series with two guest performers, artists, or writers in conversation with each other and guests at each monthly dinner.

Austin and Holt say the series was inspired by, “Our love for communal eating, a desire for more discourse that touches upon performance as an art among other arts, and a curiosity about other people’s processes: what and how and why they make what they make and do what they do.”

And if you come on May 22, you can eat and talk with me. I’m honored to be in such company.

Feb 27 Angelle Hebert (tEEth)+ Angela Fair

March 20 Linda Austin+ Kristan Kennedy

April 24 Tahni Holt+ Ethan Rose

May 22 Cydney Wilkes + Lisa Radon

June 26 David Eckard + Linda K. Johnson

July 24 Tiffany Lee Brown + Joshua Berger (Plazm)

Each dinner has room for 20 guests. You can email hello@tahniholt.com for reservations. Every dinner is at a different, secret, location that will be given upon reservations. $30-$100 (sliding scale) for one dinner / $100-$200 for four dinners.

From the press release:

Linda and Tahni are both active members in the performance community in Portland whose performing lives have intertwined in interesting ways in the past several years. As individuals they both have received numerous regional grants and awards. Most recently Linda’s work has been seen in New York, PICA’s TBA Festival, and at Performance Works Northwest. Over the past summer Tahni performed in Vienna, Austria and in Seattle, WA. In the summer of 2004 Linda and Tahni were two of ten selected to participate in Regional Dance Development Initiative (National Dance Project/NEFA) in Seattle. In 2005 they fundraised together in order to travel to Scotland for Deborah Hay’s Solo Commissioning Project. They performed back to back solo adaptations of Hay’s Room at PICA’s TBA( 2006), at Reed College Art week (2007) and in the Fusebox Festival (2007) in Austin, TX. They continue to find ways to support each other’s work and have a deep appreciation for the other’s creations.

The Runner

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

Deborah Hay
Deborah Hay

Travel to Findhorn, Scotland to commission a solo dance from legendary choreographer, performer, and dance thinker, Deborah Hay. For 11 days, Hay guides and coaches, but does not show, letting you find your own way. At the end of the residency sign a contract. It says that you will practice this solo every single day for at least three months before you perform it. Every day whether you feel like it or not, whether you’re sick or busy or….

Oh, and you can’t pay for the commission out of your own pocket, you have to raise the money from members of your community so that your whole dance community participates in the creation of your piece.

Portland’s most interesting dance duo, the riveting Cydney Wilkes and Ten Tiny Dances impresario Mike Barber have done just that. Together again, only not really, or we should say, not yet, Wilkes and Barber tonight present their solo adaptions of Deborah Hay’s “The Runner.” at Lent School Gymnasium (5105 SE 97th) at 8 PM.

It doesn’t end here. In July Wilkes and Barber go to Marfa, Texas where Hay makes a new duet for them based on their solo adaptations. They bring that duet home to Portland for performance in October 2008.

“Fence” Cydney Wilkes and Mike Barber
“Fence” Cydney Wilkes and Mike Barber.

Wilkes and Barber have performed at PICA’s TBA Festival, Seattle-based On The Board’s Northwest New Works, and Ten Tiny Dances, as well as doing Wilke’s “Penta,” a year-long performance on the banks of the Willamette River in the shadow of the Marquam Bridge, and most recently, the duo’s evening length “A Certain Facilitation of Impasse” at Disjecta.