Dance in Portland, Oregon, is alive and well, and ArtsWatch’s reporting on it proves just that! In 2025, ArtsWatch writers published 48 articles about dance, and DanceWatch listed 156 dance-related performances and events — almost the exact numbers as 2024. 

But before I get to cruising down memory lane, let’s talk January. 

Dark Side – A Piece for Assorted Lunatics 
Choreographed and performed by Brandy Guthery and her company, B. Movement Project
January 16-17
Alberta Rose Theater, 3000 N.W. Alberta St., Portland

Portland’s all-star rock band Love Gigantic performs Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, accompanied by aerial artist Brandy Guthery, co-director and founder of AWOL Dance Collective and current director of B. Movement Project. The band features an impressive lineup of Portland musicians from The Decemberists, Eels, MarchFourth, and more, creating a live, immersive fusion of rock music and aerial performance.

Sol Invictus
Compagnie Hervé Koubi presented by White Bird
7:30 p.m. January 21
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S..W Broadway, Portland

Compagnie Hervé Koubi from France returns to Portland with Sol Invictus, presented by White Bird at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Founded and directed by Hervé Koubi, the company performs this high-energy, large-ensemble work combining contemporary dance with acrobatics, capoeira, breaking, parkour, and martial arts. Named after the “invincible” sun deity, Sol Invictus explores themes of light, solidarity, and unity through highly athletic choreography, golden costuming and flooring, haze effects, and bold lighting. Set to a score that includes original music alongside excerpts from Beethoven and Steve Reich, the work balances explosive physicality with moments of dreamlike stillness and marks Koubi’s first major work to include women in the company.

CineVox Dance Film Festival 
Presented by BodyVox
January 30–February 1
BodyVox Dance Center, 1201 N.W. 17th Ave., Portland

Hosted annually by BodyVox Dance, the CineVox Dance Film Festival runs for three nights. The festival features innovative new dance films from around the world, offering audiences an intimate cinematic experience that highlights the creativity, diversity, and global reach of contemporary dance on screen.

Oregon 2026 Lunar New Year Celebration
Presented by the Chinese Friendship Association of Portland
7:30 p.m. January 31
Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St., Portland

This Lunar New Year Celebration fills Keller Auditorium with an evening-long showcase of Asian cultural performance. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for the celebration’s art exhibition, and the performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Highlights include international guest stars Zhao Chunli and Li Jia of The Myth Duo performing their award-winning acrobatic work Strength & Beauty; the dance drama Dream of the Red Chamber, a poetic reinterpretation of the Chinese literary classic; the whimsical ethnic dance Koi Spirits, inspired by Ponyo; and the instrumental classic Horse Racing, celebrating the Year of the Horse. The program also features award-winning vocal performances, martial arts, rhythmic gymnastics, and appearances by national and regional champions, bringing together more than 400 artists in a single expansive celebration.

So, what did happened in Oregon dance in 2025?

2025 was a year of both continuity and change for Oregon dance.

Linda Austin’s studio, Performance Works Northwest, celebrated its 25th anniversary, marking a quarter-century of nurturing creativity, improvisation, and collaboration in Portland’s dance scene. ArtsWatch writer Amy Leona Havin interviewed Austin for a story you can read here: Dance Maker Discussion: Linda Austin on making work, getting inspired, and 25 years of PWNW. Havin also reviewed Austin’s new work, In Preparation for Disappearances to Come, a piece about the inevitability of death and the ephemerality of performance, made in collaboration with dancers Allie Hankins and Danielle Ross and musicians Chris Cochrane and Kevin Bud Jones.

White Bird remains a vital hub, bringing dance companies from around the world to Portland, offering culturally diverse perspectives, and keeping us connected to our own dance history through performances by pioneering American dance companies such as the Martha Graham Dance Company, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. Martha Ullman West captured the company’s showcase of classic works alongside newly commissioned works in her review Thoughts on Martha Graham in Modern Times.

Also an American dance icon, Complexions Contemporary Ballet’s three-night run at Portland’s Keller Auditorium was reviewed by Hannah Krafcik, who noted that the company “brought a welcome energy of joy” and that “(t)he company reminds us that growth, change, and humor can bring new life to old forms—to ballet, music, and beyond.”

I reviewed Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo and ChangMu Dance Company, both delivering performances that mixed technical brilliance with emotional resonance in wonderfully unusual ways, offering new and exciting worlds to explore intellectually and visually.

Canada’s Rubberband performance fused hip-hop, contemporary, and classical elements in a performance at The Reser in Beaverton, creating “the ultimate example of a company that defies the definition of a particular mold,” as Amy Leona Havin wrote.

Renowned for its precise, synchronized dancing and Afro-Brazilian movement, Brazil’s Grupo Corpo thrilled with dizzying precision and Afro-Brazilian energy. Beth Sorensen reviewed.

Linda K. Johnson continued her work of mapping Portland’s dance history through The Mycelium Dreams Project, an archival conversation series that foregrounds artists and dance-adjacent professionals as narrators of their own stories, as captured in Dmae Lo Roberts’s podcast interview with Johnson.

In June, Johnson hosted Barry Johnson, longtime arts writer, editor, and founder of Oregon ArtsWatch, as part of the PASTfuture series at Performance Works NW. Their conversation and my interview coverage celebrated Barry’s five decades of observing and writing about dance in the Northwest, and revealed how his early experiences watching Merce Cunningham shaped his career. In the interview, Barry reflected on being drawn to modern dance’s questions — “What is dance? Who gets to do it?” — and on his desire to write reviews that captured the embodied, lived experience of seeing dance.

Tiffany Mills, a new addition to Portland and now director of dance at Lewis & Clark College, brought her company to campus for an invigorating performance and workshops, reviewed by Hannah Krafcik.

NW Dance Project’s production of Sarah Slipper’s Hedda vividly captured Ibsen’s tense drama with skillful choreography, design, and ensemble work.

Toni Pimble retired from Eugene Ballet after 46 years, passing the baton to Jennifer Martin and Suzanne Haag. Jean Zondervan captured the tribute performance in The Toni’s: Eugene Ballet presents a Toni Pimble retrospective, and Martha Ullman West looked at Pimble’s career in Toni Pimble: Passing the ballet torch.

Diaspora Dance Theater debuted GRIOT at Reed College, exploring the living tradition of griots from Senegal to Brazil. Blending music, movement, and storytelling, the work traces a vibrant lineage of cultural memory. Bobby Bermea wrote about Diaspora and Griot in his story GRIOT: Celebrating the Keepers and Creators from Senegal to Brazil and Beyond.

Presented as part of PICA’s Time-Based Art Festival, Keyon Gaskin’s “tbd: to be diasporic, un determined, feels like “a co-creation of a world in the making; a portal to (Black) possibility,” as Lucy Cotter wrote in TBA Festival: keyon gaskin’s dark mirrors.

At the end of a weeklong residency in Portland, the legendary dance minimalist Deborah Hay talked onstage about her artistic process and thinking at a cellular level. Hannah Krafcik wrote about it in Deborah Hay at BodyVox: A postmodern icon reveals her inner dance.

And of course, the holiday season brought joy: Oregon Ballet Theatre’s 22nd run of Balanchine’s Nutcracker delighted audiences, featuring one of Brian Simcoe’s final roles in his storied OBT career, as (Martha Ullman West wrote.

New performance spaces and companies also emerged in 2025, signaling continued growth and diversification in Oregon’s dance landscape. In Southeast Portland, the long-neglected Foster Theater‘s reopening transformed the century-old Day Theater into a vibrant new venue for dance, theater, and community events. With its large sprung dance floor and upgraded sound and lighting, the Foster Theater opened with performances by push/FOLD and Classical Ballet Academy students.

Meanwhile, folklórico dance gained new professional expression with the debut of Ballet Folklorico Las Rosas de Oregon, presented by Ballet Folklorico Academia Gabriela in June. The new work, called El Fuego Nuevo: Deseos del Corazon, took us on a journey through the pre-Hispanic dances of Baja California, Sinaloa, and Veracruz.

In 2025 we also said goodbye to incredible dance artists whose work and presence left a lasting impact on our city and community:

Anet Margot Ris-Kelman (1953–2025)

“Anet was dazzling – colorful, daring, and endlessly curious. A lifelong dancer, performer, and somatic teacher, she invited others to explore the body as both instrument and oracle. From her Midwestern roots to the stages of New York and Los Angeles, Anet’s life was a continual act of becoming. She spent the past three decades in Portland, weaving her artistry into the city’s creative fabric. As Directress of Tiny Theater PDX, she made her home a haven for the curious and courageous — a place to move, make mischief, and seek meaning. Her work rippled through countless communities, including the Portland Blues & Jazz Dance Society, Kelmanworks, Action Theater, Butoh, Zendo, and Sweet Medicine. She taught with humor and precision — always asking why, always seeking wonder in the smallest details. Anet leaves behind a vast and loving community: her sweetheart, Dex; her brother, Christopher; her sister-in-law, Marni; and her niece, Shallin. She leaves a legacy of embodied wisdom, wild imagination, and artistic courage.” This is quoted from an obituary I found on her Facebook page that was used at her memorial. You can learn more about her from her own website here and the obituary page here.

Anita Menon (1973–2025)

Anita Menon was a world-class Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, and Nattuvanar. She immigrated to the United States from India in 1994 and founded the Anjali School of Dance in Portland to bring Bharatanatyam to the next generation. Menon’s creative curiosity, artistic explorations, and warmth imbued every aspect of her life. She choreographed original solo pieces including Red Riding Hood, Pegasus, and The Wizard of Oz, as well as productions of strong South Asian women such as Jhansi Ki Rani, Meerabai, and Chitrangadha.

She created large-scale musical theater productions including Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2012) and Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Ganges (2014), and collaborated with Northwest Children’s Theatre on The Jungle Book, Chitra the Girl Prince, and Tenali The Royal Trickster.

Menon was the first Asian American to receive the Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Performing Arts Fellowship (2014) and was awarded the Oregon Folklife Network Folk & Traditional Arts Apprenticeship (2016). She served on the boards of Northwest Children’s Theater, RACC, and Theater for Young Audiences (TYA/USA). Anita Menon passed away on June 3, 2025, leaving a lasting legacy of artistic excellence, cross-cultural collaboration, and mentorship.

Subashini Ganesan-Forbes and Sarah Jane Hardy wrote a beautiful, in-depth tribute to Menon, which you can read here: Remembering dancer, choreographer, and teacher Anita Menon.

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If you’d like to read more stories on Oregon dance, click here. To check out all of the performances that were listed in DanceWatch in 2025, you can explore them by month: January, February, March, April Part 1, April Part 2, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December. Happy New Year, and enjoy!

More 2025 in Review stories

• FilmWatch Weekly: The Best Films of 2025. Marc Mohan shares his picks for the year’s best movies.
• Visual Arts 2025: A look at the year that was. From the Portland Art Museum’s $116 million reinvigoration to a bevy of innovative exhibitions, it’s been a good art year in Oregon despite the Trump Administration’s war on arts and culture.
• Books 2025: A year of Triumphs and tensions. It was generally a good year for books and readers in Oregon, with local writers winning honors and drawing crowds.
• Theater 2025: Frogs on the street, thrills and chills onstage. A year on the boards: Even costumed characters protesting in front of an ICE facility couldn’t upstage the stellar performances from Oregon’s theater community this year.
• Arts & politics 2025: Trump assaults top the year’s cultural news. The Trump Administration’s war on culture, DEI, and federal arts agencies has slashed money for arts groups across the nation, including Oregon, and is likely to continue.
• Oregon arts 2025: Comings and goings. Major shifts in leadership at All Classical Radio, Portland Art Museum, the state’s arts & cultural agencies, Eugene Ballet and many other groups made 2025 a year of realignment.
• Music 2025: The light shines in darkness. In a long, sometimes stressful, and often beautifully sounding year, the most important thing we do is talk to each other.
• In memorium: Arts figures we lost in 2025. From novelist Todd Grimson to actor Denis Arndt, painter Isaka Shamsud-Din, gallerist Donna Guardino, jazz vocalist Nancy King, singer/songwriter Jack McMahon and more, remembering Oregon artists who died in 2025.
• A last look at 2025 (and a peek into ’26). It’s been a year of highs and lows, from the Oregon Symphony jamming with the Dandy Warhols and the Portland Art Museum reinvigorating itself to the closing of the Five Oaks Museum and the federal administration’s fiscal war on arts. Time for 2026 to step up and take over!