Review: Pearl Dive Live concept comes with risks and rewards
Jamuna Chiarini considers BodyVox’s pairing of filmed dance with live performance.
Jamuna Chiarini considers BodyVox’s pairing of filmed dance with live performance.
A busy month ranges from dancing felines to new American ballet, experimental works, Andrea Parson’s return, Mexican folklorico and more.
“I used to voice a tentative I’d like; now it is a firm I want.” This statement, told to me by Anne-Marie Plass during a conversation about the challenges of living with developmental or intellectual disabilities, registered deeply. The difference in wording
ArtsWatch Weekly: Amid twin crises, arts and social awareness mix and meld and come together.
In which we discuss the virtues of imperfection and risk-taking with the clarinetist, bar-owner, and Opera Theater Oregon executive director.
Boosted by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, “The Hatchery” will help launch new theater works that emphasize music and movement.
From dancerly Broadway musicals to Éowyn Emerald’s return to a Bantu circus, a mystical being from Buenos Aires, Linda Austin’s birthday bash and more, 2024 kicks off in grand style.
Review: In Kate Hamill’s toothsome update “Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” at Portland Center Stage, the tables are deliciously turned.
Shaking the Tree adds a bright new expansion, Le Salon Rouge takes a bow, cheerleader werewolves land on Earth, “Hairspray” hits town, and more.
The exhibition “RingrIngriNrinG” explores technology and the human condition. Definitive answers are not part of the exploration.
Also showing this week: Portland’s 10th EcoFilm Festival, Bollywood’s “RRR,” and the classic glories of Technicolor.
Talking with the new artistic director of the Irish theater Corrib about Dublin and contemporary playwrights and her twisting path to Portland.
Major milestones for White Bird, BodyVox, and TBA, plus a season packed with contemporary, modern, and classical dance performances from across the cultural spectrums.
Dance review: Allie Hankins’ “By My Own Hand, Part 1: Ghosting” begins before it begins – and that’s a good thing.
Make the most of the last month of summer with a diverse array of outdoor cultural celebrations.
PETE’s radically slimmed-down “Cherry Orchard” streamlines a classic. Plus Risk/Reward, last chance for “Mr. Madam,” and more.
Set against Big Sky country, the filmmaking duo’s intimate tale of family conflict is rooted in the past but unfolds resolutely in the present.
Michelle Fujii explores questions of identity through music, stories, and dance.
Podcast: Dmae Lo Roberts talks with innovative taiko artists Michelle Fujii and Toru Watanabe about Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and more.
In the spirit of International Dance Day, a busy month in Oregon ranges from Dance Theatre of Harlem to a circus moon shot, steampunk Shakespeare, flamenco, contemporary and more.
Re-imagining cultural philanthropy will require innovative thinking if we really want to provide access, achieve equity, and create a diverse ecology.
How to keep yourself and others safe in the theater (we’re in this thing together!). Plus an Agatha Christie, Profile’s “Gloria,” Milagro on Lorca.
Ridley Scott directs a Rashomon-like 14th century tale; marriage neo-Bergman style; a soccer team’s rescue.
Renegade Opera’s “Orfeo in Underland” chronicles a tragic and transcendent journey to the afterlife.
Third Angle moves out of the dark days with Sunday’s Fresh Air Fest on a Sauvie Island farm.
ArtsWatch Weekly: Beating the heat, ‘Frida’ at last, Creative Laureate x 2, hip-hop dynamo & more.
Stage & Studio: Dmae Roberts and Portland’s arts advocate talk about Covid relief, EDI initiatives, what’s next.
Marc Mohan’s sneak peek at the Portland International Film Fest; the “Citizen Kane” of awkward first-date movies.
With the lockdown screws tightening, Marc Mohan digs into the streaming services for some winning new films.
ArtsWatch Weekly: In a pandemic era first, Triangle opens a show indoors. Plus: Art in the Pearl, virtually.
Oregon festivals spread the music online and in other virus-resistant forms. Brett Campbell counts the ways.
Is it real, or is it covideo? Forced to shut down concerts, music groups turn to livestreaming.
Unit Souzou live-streams with “The Constant State of Otherness.” Plus: what isn’t happening in theater.
Matthew Neil Andrews on a trio of Portland orchestras keeping the American symphony alive.
A leading Oregon theater artist says extending equity to all groups is a way forward for everyone.
The Oregon percussionist, composer, and conductor for more than 40 years thinks about thorny issues ahead.
A Mozart Players concert explores music by living composers—and raises questions of preparation and appropriated meaning.
A conference introduces a national organization to Portland. Tackling of pressing issues in Oregon arts ensues.
The present author normally adheres to a strict “no promoting your own shows” policy, but since I spent a month telling you all about band camp in Bali, I feel it’s only fair to let you know that the results of that
When violist Kenji Bunch left his native Portland for music school in New York more than a quarter century ago, contemporary classical music wasn’t much on the city’s radar. Outside New York, “there wasn’t a lot going on anywhere, compared to today,”
By SARAH KREMEN-HICKS Writers do tend to go on a bit, don’t we? Maybe we ought to step back now and then, put the pens down, and let the pictures tell the story. In the following photo essays from 2018, ArtsWatch’s photographers
By DAVID MACLAINE In 1959 a student at the University of Oregon started singing jazz gigs with other music students, including future master Ralph Towner and Glenn Moore. A year later she moved to San Francisco, married a bandleader named Sonny King
It’s all about shoes this week. Dance shoes to be exact, and tons of them, too. Tap shoes, jazz shoes, pointe shoes, and stilettos. It’s a busy week in Oregon dance. But I’m particularly excited by a pair of sneakers inspired by
What’s happening this week in Portland dance? Two Halloween-themed productions: BloodyVox: Deadline October by BodyVox, and A Spine Tingling Soiree by Wild Rumpus Jazz Co. Both are fun, campy takes on a campy holiday. Look for dance-infused circus performances, too. Australia’s Circa,
If you’re anything like me, you’re probably feeling exhausted from the insanity overload that is America right now. But don’t worry: Oregon dance can revive you. This week’s concerts offer grit, tenacity, and comic relief; creative problem-solving ideas, and suggestions on how
This is a really big week for NW Dance Project. The company, directed by Sarah Slipper, celebrates its 15th season; premieres Slipper’s new work, Room 4; remounts the dark, quirky Carmen by resident choreographer Ihsan Rustem; says goodbye to four longtime company
By DAVID MACLAINE The system finally caught up with us, right when we were getting comfortable. “Sorry, no seats in that section,” the helpful fellow at Portland’s Newmark Theatre box office told me. The moment we had finally gotten over our anxiety
CoHo Lab turns the old and familiar into the fresh and new; revues revive the rockin’ ’50s, Hollywood ’30s and Bollywood ’90s; plus other late-summer fun
Third Angle New Music’s final 2017-18 season concert was titled “A Fond Farewell.” The title came from an Elliott Smith song, appropriate for a concert devoted to re-imaginings of the late Portland singer/songwriter/guitarist’s music. But it was appropriate for another reason: the
A year ago, when Sayda Trujillo approached Jessica Wallenfels about directing a solo performance she was developing, she had a particular contribution in mind. “She did come to me with a very specific ask: ‘I want this to be physically demanding and
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