Dmaew Roberts talks with premiere choreographer/dancer Linda Austin of Performance Works Northwest about her upcoming show A head of time. We’ll also hear from Portland Taiko about their upcoming concert.
Linda Austin’s A head of time brings together an accomplished ensemble of eight dancers for a performance and installation (before the show) to sift together an unpredictable array of methodical, agile, detailed, and playfully awkward dance movement. The set is comprised of 300 stacked blankets; video imagery; original and stolen text, and has a sound score by Seth Nehil.
More about Linda Austin:
Linda Austin, co-founder & director of Performance Works NorthWest in Portland, OR, has been making dance and performance since 1983. Her poetic, unconventionally witty, and rigorously conceived works arise from an ongoing fascination with the puzzle of the body’s awkward, lyrical and often accidental beauty. The resultant works have been performed in New York, Mexico City, Seattle and Portland, at venues such as the Danspace Project, PS 122, Movement Research at Judson Church, the Kitchen, On the Boards and PICA’s TBA Festival.
She’s received fellowships and grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and the Oregon Arts Commission, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and Movement Research, as well as through residencies at Djerassi and Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. Her writing has appeared in The Movement Research Performance Journal, Tierra Adentro(Mexico), the literary journal FO A RM and a 2003 collection from MIT Press, Women, Art & Technology. Recent projects include the 2010 Paired Spectacular, an homage to dance pioneers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay; the 2009 Bandage a Knife, a collaboration with Seth Nehil inspired by a Japanese cult noir film; and a 2008 site-specific dance at Portland’s Lovejoy Fountain as part of The City Dance of Anna & Lawrence Halprin, performed in the 2008 TBA Festival. An in-progress version of A head of time and a 6-week installation of this project was featured at The Art Gym in April 2011 as part of an exhibit devoted to the choreographic process titled Dance: before, after, during.
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Performance Works NorthWest || Linda Austin Dance presents
A head of time
a new ensemble work by Choreographer Linda Austin, collaborating with sound artist Seth Nehil, and dancers Philippe Bronchtein, Jin Camou, Catherine Egan, Keyon Gaskin, Esther LaPointe, Danielle Ross & Lucy Yim, with Lighting by Jeff Forbes. Performances are Friday and Saturday March 23 & 24 at 8pm, Sunday March 25 at 2pm and 7pm. Doors open 30 min. before curtain for a walk-through of installation. All shows are located at Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., Portland.
TICKETS: $12 before March 15 General admission $15-$20 sliding scale. For more info call: 503-777-1907 or visit online.
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In the latter part of show, we’ll check in with Michelle Fujii, artistic director of Portland Taikoabout their new concert Three: 3 Conversations With Taiko.
Fujii explores the taiko art form’s ability to speak to us individually and collectively. THREE weaves distinct forms of classical Japanese art Nihon Buyo, Koto and Shakuhachi into contemporary conversations with the drum.
This collaboration celebrates Michelle’s exploration of taiko as an active force that continues to evolve and inspire curiosity.
Nihon Buyo is the art form of traditional Japanese dance, vibrant today with a history of nearly four centuries. The Koto (13 string plucked zither) and Shakuhachi (flute held vertically like a recorder) are instruments seemingly unchanged over the ages that continue to reveal new possibilities.
Tickets on sale through the PCPA Box Office & all Ticketmaster outlets. $20.25- $11.25 Students and Seniors save 10% off regular adult prices. Members save 10%, order direct from Portland Taiko, and pay no handling charges! Tickets available through the PCPA Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations for non-members.
Join more conversations!
Pre-performance discussion Sunday March 25 @ 1 pm
Moderated by: Larry Kominz, Professor of Japanese at PSU and member of the Japan Society of New York’s performing arts advisory committee.
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