August DanceWatch: Kickin’ it outside & in

Greater Portland's August dance schedule is busy -- and a lot of it's happening in the great outdoors in parks and squares and other public spaces.

July 31, 2024

Jamuna Chiarini

Dance, DanceWatch

August dance in the Portland metro era is alive and kicking — and because it’s August, a lot of it’s happening in the great outdoors. A whole festival of dance, the SAY WHEN Festival, and a couple of other excellent bets are announcing themselves with authority indoors, but this is also the month to be looking for some great options in parks and squares and other public outdoor spaces.

The August lineup:

August Outdoor Performances

The India Cultural Association of Portland presents India Festival 2024 from 11 am to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at Beaverton City Park, 12500 S.W. Fourth St, Beaverton.

August is filled with exciting outdoor festivals celebrating dance, art, and culture, beginning with the Vancouver Arts & Music Festival Aug. 2-4 in downtown Vancouver (415 W. Sixth Street, Vancouver, Wash.). I know this isn’t Oregon, per se. Still, they are a close neighbor, and Oregon dance companies Sarada Kala Nilayam/Sweta Ravisankar, Shaun Keylock/Conduit Dance, and push/Fold Dance, among others, will be performing. Check the schedule for times and locations.

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The 2024 Chinese Festival, organized by the Oregon Chinese Coalition, will be held at Pioneer Courthouse Square (701 S.W. Sixth Ave.) in downtown Portland, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Aug. 3. The festival will feature delicious food, visual arts and crafts, and a full-day showcase of dance performances representing the Chinese American dance diaspora.

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The Pan African Festival, organized by the Pan African Cultural Foundation (PACF), will also occur from noon to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 24 at Pioneer Square, (701 S.W. Sixth Ave, Portland). The festival will be a lively one-day celebration of performing arts, entertainment, and community spirit, featuring performances, activities, health screenings, career awareness, dance, drumming, comedy, street arts, family entertainment, and all things celebrating Pan-African culture.

Sponsor

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The India Cultural Association of Portland presents India Festival 2024, an annual celebration honoring India’s independence from British rule, recognized as a holiday in 65 countries worldwide. The festival will take place 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at the newly chosen venue of Beaverton City Park (12500 S.W. Fourth St., Beaverton), across the street from the Beaverton City Library. The picnic-style event will have a splash fountain for kids, live music, dance, food, and entertainment throughout the day.

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Photo courtesy of Heidi Duckler Dance Northwest, which will perform Aug. 23-24 at Portland Mercado. — Photo courtesy of Heidi Duckler Dance Northwest.

It’s not a festival, but outdoors nonetheless: Heidi Duckler Dance Northwest will perform Ordena! at Portland Mercado, 7238 S.E. Foster Road, Portland, Aug. 23-24. As an audience member, you may order from a menu of dancing dishes at the performance food cart. Diners can order specials such as the “Romantic Platter” or “House Salad with Tango Dressing” delivered to your table and performed live by Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest artists. Stop by and order up! with Heidi Duckler Dance Northwest. The performance food cart will be open for “lunch” from noon to 2 p.m. and “dinner” 5-7 p.m.

Ten percent of proceeds from ¡Ordena! will go toward construction costs for rebuilding the interior spaces at the Mercado that were damaged by fire.

August Indoor Performances

Photo of Jess Pretty, who'll perform at the SAY WHEN Festival of dance, by Rachel Keane. — Photo of Jess Pretty by Rachel Keane.

Physical Education is back! The SAY WHEN Festival, hosted by the P.E. crew Keyon Gaskin, Allie Hankins, Takahiro Yamamoto, and Lu Yim, will take place at Performance Works NW, 4625 S.E. 67th Ave. Portland, over three days Aug. 1-3.

The festival schedule is as follows:

Sponsor

Thursday, Aug. 1, 7:30 p.m.: Screening of Lu Yim’s film “Pieces of Earth We Eat,” followed by “Cosmos Dark,” a performance art exploration of absurdity by musician Vaughn Kimmons of Brown Calculus.
Saturday, Aug. 2, 7:30 p.m.: Performance by Jess Pretty from Minneapolis, featuring call-and-response.
Sunday, Aug. 3, 1:30 p.m.: Final performance “Thyme Thyme Thyme: Yarrow for the Stoned and the Stoner” by Midori Hirose.

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Promotional photo for Open Space Dance and its program Summer Soup, with its sister company in Boise, LED. — Photo courtesy of Open Space Dance.

Combining crazy ingredients and makin’ that Summer Soup is Open Space Dance and its sister company LED from Boise, Idaho. Directed by Lauren Edson, Dance Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch, LED will bring Edson’s newest creation, “an Arm and a Leg,” featuring both LED and Open Space dancers with live music by Andrew Stensaas. Open Space’s artistic director and Princess Grace Award winner Franco Nieto will share excerpts from his newest creations from 2023-24. Summer Soup will also feature Portland street artist NØIR on Aug. 16-24 at Open Space Creative Container, within Oregon Contemporary at 8731 N. Interstate Ave., Portland. Seating in the round; ADA accessible.

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Dancers of Sarada Kala Nilayam, directed by Portland Bharatanatayam dancer Sweta Ravisankar, performing in “Chakras – The Wheel of Energy.” Photo courtesy of Sweta Ravisankar.

SKN Dance Fest ’24 will take place at 2 and 6 p.m. Aug. 17 at New Expressive Works, 810 S.E. Belmont Street in Portland. The event, presented by Sarada Kala Nilayam/Sweta Ravisankar, will showcase a new Bharatanatyam piece choreographed by Sweta Ravisankar titled “Guru Vandana.” This piece explores the concept of the Guru as a literal dispeller of darkness. It will be performed by 12 dancers and accompanied by a live orchestra of Indian musicians.

The work delves into a teacher’s profound influence on learning and personal growth. The performance will also highlight the chosen Kalpana artist, a program created by Ravisankar to encourage young artists of any genre to collaborate. Applications for Kalpana open in February. The event will also feature a Jathi recitation, intricate rhythmic constructs learned by students during a workshop with S. Ravisankar, Sweta Ravisankar’s father, who is a mridangam exponent. Outside New Expressive Works, there will be a vibrant array of vendor booths to explore before and after the performance. Tickets here.

Jamuna Chiarini

Jamuna Chiarini is a dance artist, producer, curator, and writer, who produces DanceWatch Weekly for Oregon ArtsWatch. Originally from Berkeley, Calif., she studied dance at The School of The Hartford Ballet and Florida State University. She has also trained in Bharatanatyam and is currently studying Odissi. She has performed professionally throughout the United States as a dancer, singer, and actor for dance companies, operas, and in musical theatre productions. Choreography credits include ballets for operas and Kalamandir Dance Company. She received a Regional Arts & Culture Council project grant to create a 30-minute trio called “The Kitchen Sink,” which was performed in November 2017, and was invited to be part of Shawl-Anderson’s Dance Up Close/East Bay in Berkeley, Calif. Jamuna was a scholarship recipient to the Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute, “Undoing Racism,” and was a two-year member of CORPUS, a mentoring program directed by Linda K. Johnson. As a producer, she is the co-founder of Co/Mission in Portland, Ore., with Suzanne Chi, a performance project that shifts the paradigm of who initiates the creation process of new choreography by bringing the artistic vision into the hands of the dance performer. She is also the founder of The Outlet Dance Project in Hamilton, N.J.