April DanceWatch: Dance springs eternal
Jamuna Chiarini
March 31, 2023
The month brings a wealth of new and diverse productions, as well as celebrations of the art of dance itself.
The month brings a wealth of new and diverse productions, as well as celebrations of the art of dance itself.
With a fine production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” at Lakewood Theatre, director Antonio Sonera says he’s calling it a career. Plus: Last chance for a few good shows.
As a pair of public tributes approach, longtime friend and collaborator Susan Banyas remembers the remarkable Portland musician, who died in November after performing in London.
Easter season concerts, youth choirs, and a celebration of life.
In an Oregon Historical Society lecture, author and historian Mai Ngai traces the legacy of racially motivated mistreatment of Chinese workers in the U.S. and British colonies.
Everyone’s favorite tabletop role-playing game returns to the big screen for the first time in over a decade. It may be entertaining enough for the average moviegoer, but can it please the die-hard fans?
FNM’s recent “Legacies” concert featured music by Young Composers Project grad Ian Guthrie alongside Negrón, Ko, Kernis, Balch, and Beethoven.
The 35-year-old building, along with the nearby Visual Arts Center, has helped transform the Nye Beach neighborhood from “poverty gulch” into an arts community.
The world’s oldest performing drag queen, who has died at 92, spent decades helping Portland smile, open up a little, and just grow up.
Shaking the Tree adds a bright new expansion, Le Salon Rouge takes a bow, cheerleader werewolves land on Earth, “Hairspray” hits town, and more.
Review: The company presents new dances from Yin Yue, Caroline Finn, and NW Dance Project Artistic Director Sarah Slipper.
The story of Mukhtar Mai completes its Portland run with performances March 24 and 26.
After losing her home in the Beachie Creek Fire, the Willamette Valley poet says she “felt compelled both to articulate it and to make something of value from it.”
This week’s cinematic offerings include a Portland-made short film, the true story of an ambitious Ricardian, and a mumblecore horror flick.
Oregon’s youth choirs raise their voices in this year’s Music In Our Schools Month theme, “Music is all of us.”
In a new anthology from Portland’s MediaRites, young authors come to grips with living in a challenging and rapidly changing world.
The Dalles Art Center is racing to raise enough money to keep its doors open. (So far, so good.) And in nearby Hood River, another arts center is out to reinvent itself.
Got something to say? In the not too distant past, Portland was a town where you could put it in writing, and take it to the street.
Kamala Sankaram and Susan Yankowitz’s chamber opera at Portland Opera is based on the true story of Pakistani human rights activist Mukhtar Mai.
Portland Opera’s artistic leader talks with Dmae Lo Roberts in this podcast about assembling a 21st century Pakistani tale of justice and courage with an all-South Asian cast.
PassinArt dives into the musicality of the great American playwright. Also: Black & blue, Borges & Neruda, Bill Wadhams’ musical memoir, Red Door’s “Evolve.”
A grand Southern California camellia garden is built on stock bought dirt cheap from Japanese American farmers during World War II. The whole story is rarely told.
The Shivas and !mindparade shimmy into Doug Fir Lounge; 45th Parallel illuminates the Universe; Machado Mijiga’s new “Uncharted,” “Loss” and Third Angle; MF Zakir.
OSO and vocal partners performed “Carmina Burana” on a snow-truncated concert; later, pianist Montero’s “Babel” bridged the music of Wagner and Mendelssohn. Bassist Carter performed with PYP, alongside a commissioned work by Jeff Scott and the Third Symphony of mid-century English composer Ruth Gipps.
Spider-Man, Black Panther, X-Men, The Hulk, Eternity, The Thing and friends are hanging at Portland’s science museum through April 9. Bobby Bermea has a thing or two to say about that.
The Portland-raised tycoon’s eye for art and acquisition helped build a highly personal collection in Southern California.
Two Portland creative endeavors, Telltale and the nobodies project, build artistic networks fostering inclusion and sharing.
The first artist profiled in ArtsWatch’s new Gender Deconstruction series reminds us that things are never as they seem.
Beware, dancemaker Katherine Longstreth argues. Big Data wants to mine your creativity for profit, with no credit or compensation to you.
Add some theme and variation to your Oscar viewing this year with a new crossword puzzle that’s sure to test your knowledge of winning songs and movie scores.
New leadership is coming to the Columbia Gorge museum. Plus: Send in the Clowns Without Borders; an –Ism book launch; Central Library takes a break; last call at the Portland Art Museum; cultural caucus grows.
A year after the Oscar-winning actor’s death at his Portland home, Stage & Studio brings back Dave Paull’s in-depth radio interview with Hurt from 2011.
Laura Burke’s solo exhibition “Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow” is a feast of color and charm. Jason N. Le reviews.
The devil gets his due in Conor McPherson’s gripping play “The Seafarer.” Plus: openings, closings, Center Stage’s new season.
Hannah Krafcik kicks off a new series of essays for ArtsWatch about gender nonconforming and trans experience.
Seattle Opera premieres a newly-commissioned opera based on the novel by Afghan-American novelist Khaled Hosseini.
A full week of film showings includes documentaries “The First Step,” “Atomic Bamboozle,” and “Paris Calligrammes”; the baseball comedy “Calvin Marshall”; plus “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Heat.”
This year’s festival offers in-person screenings March 10-12 in addition to virtual showings March 13-19.
As the city struggles to regain its footing, K.B. Dixon’s series of urban portraits reminds us of what Portland felt like in the not-too-distant past.
The Portland artist and activist is the winner of this year’s Bonnie Bronson Visual Arts Fellowship. Also: a master painter and calligrapher at the Portland Chinatown Museum.
The world premiere of composer/choreographer Samuel Hobbs’ latest work brings together their signature expression of athletic movement with evocative music and dramatic performance.
A dual exhibition at Multnomah Arts Center employs intricate beadwork and Aztec symbolism to connect with contemporary life.
The intimate portrait choreographed by Princess Grace Statue Award recipient Kyle Abraham touches on love, friendship, family, unity, and the Black experience.
March brings ambitious projects: Writers imagining themselves in Ernest Hemingway’s shoes, a modern riff on “Finnegans Wake,” and a browse of the typical Soviet Jewish bookshelf.
In which we discuss Baroque music, marching bands, protest songs, and other acts of resistance.
Born of the pandemic and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the group of eight singer/songwriters begins a four-city tour March 18 in Lincoln City.
A busy theater week also features a Hand2Mouth devised show, Milagro’s “Ardiente Paciencia,” and a few more performances of “My Fair Lady.”
Neither snow nor Covid could cool this year’s jazz festival.
Mia Hansen-Løve’s latest film screens alongside the eighth installment in the Rockyverse. Plus: Billy Wilder classics and films for Women’s History Month.
After a beautiful last performance in the title role of “La Sylphide,” Xuan Cheng takes her final bow as Oregon Ballet Theatre’s principal ballerina.
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