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Dance

Hannah Krafcik’s ‘Between Frames’ culminates in a spiraling consideration of frame and time

Review: In a performance and photo exhibit, the dancemaker and visual artist deftly winds up their arts residency at Stelo Arts, talking with the audience afterward about the ideas driving their work.

DanceWatch: Looking back and ahead

Jamuna Chiarini spotlights leading dance events coming up in January and looks back on highlights, changes, and significant events in the Oregon dance world in 2025.

Books to get your mind and feet dancing

Cheer up: As the year and "Nutcracker" season near an end, Martha Ullman West comes to the rescue with a list of five gift books to help dance lovers through the holidays.

Dance Preview: Eugene Ballet’s “The Nutcracker”

From December 19 to 24, Eugene Ballet audiences will once again travel with Clara into the Land of the Sweets in "The Nutcracker," this year featuring a special sensory-friendly performance.

Astoria Arts and Movement Center secures $90,000 in grants to restore ballroom in historic Odd Fellows building

The ballroom in the 1923 building suffered water damage when the roof was lost during a series of storms in 2007.

Nutcrackers & Dew Drops? But of course!

Review: Martha Ullman West takes in Oregon Ballet Theatre's 22nd run of Balanchine's holiday spectacular, and one of Brian Simcoe's final roles in his stellar OBT career.

December DanceWatch: Nutcrackers, NOT-Cracker, Pearl Dive, ZooZoo and more

As holiday season shifts into high gear, Snow Queens and Sugar Plum Fairies trip the light fantastic with dancer/choreographers, costumed critters, and more.

At White Bird, a dance of memory and loss

Barcelona's Lali Ayguadé Company performs "Runa," a duet delving into the rubble of the past and a relationship that has undergone melancholic shifts.

Review: NW Dance Project dancers impress in Carmen+, the classic tale with a twist

The world premiere of Caroline Finn's "Don't Forget to Panic" and the return of Ihsan Rustem's "Carmen" with original stars Andrea Parson and Franco Nieto create a pleasurably riveting evening.

November DanceWatch: From Dracula to Dia de los Muertos to Cirque Nutcracker, let the holidays (and more) begin

The month's dance calendar also includes Balinese dance, a "Sleeping Beauty" with lights, Barcelona's RUNA, push/FOLD's "Catalysts," "Enchanted Toyshop" and more.

Preview: Eugene Ballet’s ‘Dracula’

Suzanne Haag’s full-length world-premiere reimagines Dracula with a film noir theme, multi-media scenery, and gravity-defying choreography.

Review: Complexions’ dances of life

In a three-night run at Portland's Keller Auditorium, the contemporary ballet troupe reflected growth, change, humor, and a welcome energy of joy.

Deborah Hay at BodyVox: A postmodern icon reveals her inner dance

At the end of a weeklong residency in Portland, the legendary dance minimalist talks onstage about her artistic process and thinking at a cellular level.

October DanceWatch: Celebrating democracy in dance

From OBT's "Dracula" and White Bird's Complexions and Limon troupes to a seasonal "BloodyVox," dance from Korea, India and the Philippines, and small-scale contemporary works, October dance opens its doors to all.

TBA Festival: keyon gaskin’s dark mirrors

"tba: to be diasporic un determined," in PICA's annual Time-Based Art Festival, feels like "a co-creation of a world in the making; a portal to (Black) possibility."

Dance Review: Carlyn Hudson’s ‘A Presentation’ is a dazzling complexity

The dancer and choreographer, whose work blends the precision of ballet with contemporary impulses and a dash of comedy, continues through Sept. 14 at Boyvox.

‘GRIOT’: Celebrating the keepers and creators from Senegal to Brazil and beyond

Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theater's newest work, debuting Sept. 12-21 at Reed College, dives into the soul of the tradition-keeping griot from past to present and future.

Linda Austin’s Performance Works Northwest celebrates 25 years with Foreman Fest Redux

Playing with the words of theater experimentalist Richard Foreman, Austin and a host of fellow performers celebrate a quarter-century of cutting-edge dance in Portland.

September DanceWatch: PICA’s TBA Festival and a harvest of fresh and classic works

From the Time-Based Art Festival to Griot, flamenco, classic dance of India, the legendary Deborah Hay, the Portland Dance Film Fest, Grand Kyiv Ballet's "Swan Lake" and much more, the fall dance season gets off with a bang.

Dance Review: JmeJames Antonick’s XO-interstitium blends connection & oblivion

Dark whimsy, electronica, flashing lights, slow stoicism and a certain softness mark the debut of the troupe Trash Babe Productions at Performance Works Northwest.

‘It’s just home’: Marianas Festival will share Pacific Island culture and heritage with thousands this weekend

The three-day festival includes workshops in Vancouver, Wash., as well as dance, music, and food across the river in Fairview’s Blue Lake Regional Park.

Siletz’s Nesika Illahee Pow-Wow is a chance to reconnect, remember, celebrate, and open tribal community to all

The annual event, held last week, is both an act of commemoration and resilience. "For me these steps aren’t just a dance, it’s reconnecting with Mother Earth, with water and air,” says one dancer.

August DanceWatch: Linda Austin’s 25 Hours!, Art in the Dark, Indian dance fest

High summer brings a swelter of dance performances, including a Vancouver arts festival, Summer Soup, NW Dance Project, and more.

Katherine Murphy Lewis’s ‘From the Ground UP’ plans for the future

Lewis's nonprofit is a home for developing adventurous new performance ranging from dance to physical theater, femme storytelling, clowning, and more.

At Florence children’s theater group C.R.O.W., family is a big part of the fun

Children’s Repertory of Oregon Workshops — C.R.O.W. — offers low-cost classes in dance, musical theater, and performance — not to mention The Tutu Dads.

July DanceWatch: An overflow of dances as tempting as a glass or two of fine wine

From Ten Tiny Dances to dancing in the trees, July's lineup bubbles with well-seasoned complexity and frisky flavors.

Dance Maker Discussion: Tahni Holt’s long-term collaboration with community and open systems

The Portland and global dance artist creates "a landscape in which there is room for glimpses of everyone’s stories."

Remembering dancer, choreographer and teacher Anita Menon

The much-loved advocate of the Bharatanatyam dance of her native India, who established Portland's Anjali School of Dance and also worked on Western theater projects, is praised for her openness and collaborative approach to art.

NW Dance Project’s playful, slyly defiant ‘Piaf’ and ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’

In the face of a federal war on the arts and queer expression, the Portland company closes its season with a pair of shows that range from robust parody to pandemonium to Pride.

Toni Pimble: Passing the ballet torch

After 46 years as artistic director of Eugene Ballet, Pimble is handing leadership to longtime company members Jennifer Martin and Suzanne Haag. For Pimble and Eugene, it's been a rich and rewarding near-half-century – and more to come.